Wine Review - 2005 Sogrape Callabriga Dao: Fantastic Smelling Wine That Sorta Comes Through on the Flavour

We unfortunately had a wine that we purchased for $20 that had a full-on moldy cork. So, we decided to take it back to the store and it was gladly returned. We took the opportunity to upsell ourselves on a wine we had seen advertised in the Wine Spectator. The Sogrape Callabriga Dao is almost $29 locally.

Once we opened and decanted it we noticed that it is either unfiltered or it has thrown a lot of debris in the seven years since it was made. The sight in the glass is extremely cloudy and there was a lot of debris in the glass. So we are leaning towards unfiltered.

We were absolutely enthralled by the nose on this wine.  It is amazing...full of dark fruit and oak (not vanilla....oak).  It smells so attractive and fragrant it makes you want to drink it. Wow...

First off, let's just say that the flavour on this wine is really great.  It is, however, not as great as the smell.  There is a slight disconnect on the palate compared to the nose.  We really like the taste which still ripe fruit, oak, and leather.  It is dry the way Aussie Shiraz is dry (starts with some sugar) and quite full bodied.  The oak is really at the forefront which is not uncommon with Portuguese Wines but there is just a slight fall down on the balance.  The powerful tannins seem to just fade away at the end which shortens the taste.  This is another situation where if the taste matched the nose this wine would be an MVP.  As it stands it is just an all-star.

	Tasting Notes:	Score:
Sight (0-5)	Cloudy deep, dark red.  Looks unfiltered.	4.0
Smell (0-5)	Dark, ripe fruit with tons of oak.  Elegant and delicious.	4.75
Taste (0-10)	Big, deep red with tons of oak again.  Good balance overall but falls off at the end.	8.5
	Total:	17.25 / 20  (86.25%)

This is a really nice wine that absolutely needed decanting to show its true colours. If you have $30 to spend on a wine this is not a bad way to spend it.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon