“The 2009 Vintage Port Quinta da Ervamoira is a blend of 55% Touriga Nacional, 30% Touriga Franca and 15% Tinta Barroca, coming in with 94 grams of sugar, a little on the higher side relative to how the wines in this vertical show. Tasting even a bit sweeter than statistics suggest, this is the richest of the vertical, but of course, it is also the youngest. It seems reasonably firm too, but tasted with about two hours more of air in a glass, it was completely approachable. This is very tasty, a good candidate for the best of the vertical, but I'd still vote for the 2007 at the moment. There were 9,375 bottles produced.”

“This is an estate-grown Port from two properties—Bom Retiro, on the left bank of the Douro across from Pinhão, and Ervamoira, near Foz Coa in the Douro Superior. Both sites contributed touriga nacional, which benefited from the rains in mid-September; that and touriga francesa from Ervamoira are the main components in the blend, while other varieties, including barroca, bring complexity. It’s a muscular vintage from Ramos Pinto, almost completely shut down behind its tannins until the flavor bursts out in the finish, tingling with power. The dry, hot season shows in those tannins, but there’s also deep red-cherry power to the fruit, waiting to fill out the structure with time.”

“With its highly perfumed character, this wine is intense with ripe tannins and delicious acidity. It almost needs to hold back on its ebullient aromas and fruitiness to balance out. The tannic structure could help, with a dry aftertaste that hints at the fruit to come.”

“The 2015 Vintage Port, the last from João Nicolau de Almeida’s reign as Managing Director at Ramos Pinto, is mostly Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca. It comes in at 94 grams per liter of residual sugar. This declared Vintage Porto was in bottle for a bit more than a month when seen. It seemed to have some room to grow and improve, to say the least. It looks like a fine 2015, showing plenty of power as it tightens and gets harder in the glass, plus very flavorful fruit. It has enough concentration, although no one will ever call this the most concentrated vintage. It is, however, focused and precise, bright and fresh, with that fine structure. This declaration was the right decision by Ramos Pinto (although early reports from winemaker Ana Rosas are that they do not have enough quantity to declare the 2016, anyway). Even so, this looks pretty fine. We’ll see what the future holds, of course, and there should be a long one here. This should age gracefully. It may also be approachable young, but if you really want it to be all it can be, cellar it for much longer than indicated, say, another ten years at least, maybe more. At that point, it just might be entitled to an uptick. There were 8,300 bottles produced, plus some large-format bottles.”

“Well-built, with dark fig, boysenberry and blackberry confiture notes studded liberally with ganache, roasted apple wood and Black Forest cake flavors.”