The 2009 Reserva is tinged far too much with sweet oak at this point in its life, making this a blueberry and vanilla concoction with the fruit hard to find. The tannins do pop out, but the fruit is harder to find. This has usually been an excellent value point in Douro, but at least as it shows today, it needs to absorb its oak a lot more and regain its balance. Perhaps it is just in an awkward state. Drink now-2018. Importer: Grape Moments, a Division of Sintra Imports, New Bedford, MA; tel. (508) 997-0100.

The 2008 RESERVA is a Douro Superior blend of Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Francisca and Touriga Franca, aged for 18 months in a mixture of used American and French oak. What do you get by trading up here from the regular Tinto? Not much, frankly, other than some obvious oaky notes, the sweet vanilla nuances that obscure the fruit. It does have a sweet ‘n’ sexy feel to it that will delight many, plus the same nice structure and focus. It doesn’t have much more concentration, though, and it is well marked by the oak, noting, in fairness, that the oak did integrate somewhat with air. It is very nice in many respects, but particularly in the shorter term many will be as happy or more so with the less expensive, regular Tinto, depending largely on how you feel about the oaky overlay. I suspect this will separate itself, though, with little cellaring. Drink now-2020. As previously indicated, note that I’ve dropped the parenthetical clarification I previously used for CARM’S producer name (explaining that CARM means Casa Agricola Roboredo Madeira). The “Roboredo Madeira” is clear enough on most of the labels now anyway.Importer: Grape Moments, a Division of Sintra Imports, New Bedford, MA; tel. (508) 997-0100.