Meandro 2018

The 2018 Meandro do Vale Meão is a blend of 45% Touriga Nacional, 30% Touriga Franca, 20% Tinta Roriz and dollops of Tinta Barroca and Alicante Bouschet for the rest, all aged for 14 months in used French oak. It comes in at 14.1% alcohol. This is often a can't-miss bargain in Douro, and that seems true again this year. Textured with velvet, concentrated and able to coat the palate, it does everything well. It is not a star in terms of structure—the tannins are ripe and you can drink it now—but everything else works great. It should still hold well for the rest of the decade, more or less. It did thin a bit with extended aeration, but nothing went seriously awry. As approachable as this is, allowing this to have at least six more months in the bottle would allow it to develop more. At the price point, there can't be much to complain about.