Casa Santos Lima Touriz 2004 Tasting Notes

The $13 Touriz is a rich, lusty, dry Vinho Regional (the Portuguese equivalent to France's Vin de Pays). Full-bodied and thick in the mouth, the wine gives unstinting fruit, pronounced acidity, meaty tannins. The fruit is an earthy cherry, plum and cassis, but there are also dried fruit notes of prune and apricot couched in leather and tar. The spices mix sweet vanilla, nutmeg, and clove with pungent black pepper. A full company of floral tones do their own dance on the nose.

The occasion aside, it was perhaps wishing too much for so much wine to provide maximally without cellaring a few years or at least doing a three hour decant. The fruit did open up and begin to meld with the acidity after a little bit, softening from that initial punch into an enthusiastic snuggle, if not quite a caress. The considerable finish is worth waiting for since the fruit has stamina and the accompanying tannins have a sense of purpose. In the final analysis, this was a bumpy ride at times, but an enjoyable one.