The 2004 Touriga Nacional is unfiltered and aged for eighteen months in new French oak. Young, grapy, and very dark purple, this wine is sweet, with notes of licorice around the edges, plus plums, herbs and oaky nuances. The texture is round and soft. It is elegant in mid-palate weight, with ripe tannins, giving it a suave, debonair feel. Add the fine flavors it projects, and it becomes a very charming, rather sexy wine, a pleasure to sip and drink. I did not find many single varietal Touriga Nacionals that I truly liked in my survey, but this was one of them. I liked it more as it aired out and acquired some welcome (and needed) character to go with its young fruit, although this still never struck me as particularly complex or profound. Drinking well the next day, still seeming young and primary, its hefty price tag is up to you. There were 750 cases produced. Drink 2008-2017. This old, historic estate, owned by the Roquette family, is on everyone’s short list for the designation “best dry wine producer in Portugal,” and with good reason. This is one of the estates that turbo-charged the dry red revolution in modern Portugal. As befits a standard bearer, they go from strength to strength and their wines are in high demand. Even their off-vintage wines are good, while their upper level “good vintage” wines are some of the most sought after in Portugal, and some of the most distinguished the country has to offer. The Roquettes’ exciting new joint venture with Jean-Michel Cazes (of Chateau Lynch Bages) is another feather in their caps. It is separately listed under “Roquette e Cazes.” The lineup from Quinta do Crasto was probably the most impressive that I tasted, from top to bottom, when I was in Portugal. (The wines reviewed here, as with almost everything in this report, were retasted from bottle under controlled conditions in the USA.) If there is a downside, it is the obvious one – the wines are pretty pricey, a function of prestige and, sometimes, scarcity. Importer: Broadbent Selections, San Francisco, CA; tel. (415) 931-1725

The fine, ripe, structured character of Touriga Nacional is well evident here. It may be big in alcohol, but the wine wears that easily, going more for fresh tannins and acidity, for black currant and dark plum flavors and smooth, vanilla flavors from the French wood aging.——R.V.(9/1/2007)—— 91