Grou | Carmine 2006

PV Tasting Notes

The best red wines from Portugal tend to be blends, this is a blend of Aragonez (Tempranillo in Spain), Touriga Nacional commonly used to make Port and Alicanti Bouschet, aged in New French Oak barrels for seven months. This shows a bright ruby purple colour, displaying lifted aromatics of strawberries, purple fruit and purple flowers. It’s a lot less dense than it’s bigger more expensive sibling the Grou Grey, but that is not a bad thing, here we have all the fruit, but somehow it’s lighter on its feet, this is more succulent, the fruit levels are good, the tannins velvety and fine grained, just busting with flavour, a more friendly and approachable wine making this hard to resist, a very fine effort for the money.

We would suggest matching this with herb stuffed veal wrapped in Prosciutto, venison braised in cherries, saltimbocca alla romana, most Italian sausages, or pork sausages with lots of herbs, and of course pizza.

References to quality wine production in Cabeção are lost in history. However, without doubt, it is a place of tradition in Alentejo wine production - creating wines of boldness and body from the varied microclimates and sandy textured soils.
Luís Miguel and José Manuel Nunes Barata represent the 6th generation of winemakers in their family. In 2001, they begin working on a new project that would combine the skills of Winemaking and Arquitecture.
The Nunes Barata brothers built a multi-task team:
For the Viticulture, they rely on Rogério de Castro and his assistant Amândio Cruz. The oenology is Anselmo Mendes’s responsibility with resident oenologist Diogo Lopes. Luis Pessanha Moreira is the leading arquitect. The objective is to produce grapes and wines of outstanding quality, turning Cabeção into a Winemaking region of excellence with the focus on terroir.
The family has a vast cellar with vintages from 1917 to 1981, including red wines, white wines, dessert wines and spirits, all of which is estate produced and bottled at Vale de Joana. The varieties used to create wines of defined profile each year include Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional, Aragonês and Trincadeira. With state-of-the-art winemaking technology, the wines have a limited production for both GROU Red and GROU Grey.Other varieties, such as Alfrocheiro, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Tinto Cão, are also used to complement these wines and to produce other wines.
Although first production was in 2004, it is already possible to define Cabeção wines as full-bodied, with plenty of fruit flavours, balsamic aromas, balanced acidity and a firm tannic structure to ensure longevity.