A Touriga Vai Nua 2019

The 2019 Touriga vai Nua Signature Series is unoaked and comes in at 13.5% alcohol. After the fruit-bomb Alfrocheiro, this was a breath of fresh air. It's not as seriously structured, but it is fragrant, tasty, pure and delicious. It has enough structure to seem serious, and it is very fresh, the fruit lifted on the palate. The mid-palate is well on the elegant side—nothing jammy here. It's a bit lean and rather nervy. It finishes with some blueberries but always in a dry fashion, never very fruity. This might be a great summer red, and you can drink it a few degrees cooler than normal. It probably does not have the upside potential of that Alfrocheiro, but it is a safer bet too. Of course, the styles are radically different. It is worth leaning up on this for the moment for its glorious freshness, although it may not stay at peak for all of its useful life. There were 15,000 bottles produced.