Herdade do Rocim 

Herdade do Rocim Clay Aged Tinto 2016

14.5%. Foot Trodden Alicante Bouchet, Petit Verdot, Trincadeira and Tannat grapes fermented in open top lagars grown in vineyards between Cuba and Vidigueira. Aged in small clay 140-liter clay pots for 16 months. Shows spicy high-toned red fruit and coconut (but no oak!?! so part of fruit characters) aromas with a big whiff of spirits. Firm tannins from a blend of relatively firm-tannined grapes. Back-palate concentration and good residual length in linear style of wine. Very young and tight and underdeveloped. Needs a lot of time. Twist here is clay ageing, not fermentation influence. Two hours later, loses coconut, gaining more of Petit Verdot and Trincadeira’s florals. Tons of tartly outlined dark fruits, firm, fine, skin tannins all lining up for further development. Complex, interesting, multilayered wine with clay creating an earthy/mineral framework. Quite a long finish. Tasted 7.2018. 93