2009 was a hot vintage year for Portuguese wine regions with some fierce inland temperatures in the valleys and away from the coast. A vintage for sites at altitude and those closer to the sea. The best examples will be rich , ripe and powerful and , if tannins have been managed, impressive indeed.

A split declaration for Port wines is mirrored by qualitative differences in the table wines, the best silky and richly seductive, the less good lacking in structure and acidic backbone. Some excellent wines from the Douro and Alentejo.