{"id":3040,"date":"2011-07-03T19:07:25","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T19:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=3040"},"modified":"2011-07-03T19:07:25","modified_gmt":"2011-07-03T19:07:25","slug":"a-real-time-tasting-note-on-churchill-estates-2007-douro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/portugal\/a-real-time-tasting-note-on-churchill-estates-2007-douro","title":{"rendered":"A real time tasting note on Churchill Estates 2007 Douro"},"content":{"rendered":"

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OK, a real-time, as it is drunk, straight to blog tasting note, typed as I sit here in the garden on a lovely warm Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

I’ve just finished dinner – it was a BBQ for my younger son and I as the others are out. The evening is still and warm, with a relaxed Sunday evening feeling to it. FFS (Puppy) has quietened down. I think she realises, somehow, that tomorrow is spaying day; she’s not allowed anything else to eat this evening.<\/p>\n

After the grandeurs of a 1967 Hermitage last night, I need something a bit more modest this evening. But still something with real quality. So I’ve headed to Portugal, and one of several bottles of the Churchill Estates 2007 Douro<\/strong> that I bought from Majestic last year. Now this is one of the best-value Douro wines, at around \u00a310. It offers real Douro character, with total drinkability, and the capacity to develop in bottle for a few years.<\/p>\n

It’s a lovely fusion of ripe, almost new-world-style fruit, with a deliciously old-world savouriness. I’m getting ripe black cherry fruit, a twist of blackcurrant, and an olive\/meaty savouriness. There’s even some pepper character. It has a floral lift, but also the bass notes of spicy dark fruits, making for a compelling, well defined wine that covers a wide flavour spectrum.<\/p>\n

There’s some density here on the mid-palate. There’s a textural richness. It has far more dimensions than you might expect in a Douro wine at this price. I reckon it will peak in three years time, but it’s delicious now. It’s so good to be able to find a wine at this price point that really delivers, because Douro wines can get quite expensive.<\/p>\n

In the UK this is available from Majestic Wine and Tanners. Majestic have the 2008, but Tanners still have some of this 2007 and the 2008 also. I recommend picking up a six-pack and drinking over the course of the next few years. And it’s a great wine for outdoor drinking on an evening like this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, a real-time, as it is drunk, straight to blog tasting note, typed as I sit here in the garden on a lovely warm Sunday evening. I’ve just finished dinner…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,7],"tags":[362,350],"class_list":["post-3040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-douro","category-portugal","tag-douro","tag-portugal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3047,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3040\/revisions\/3047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}