Adega de Penalva Dão Touriga Nacional

Perfumed, dark-fruited and elegant. Blueberry and blackcurrant sit alongside violet and bergamot, with liquorice, dark chocolate and a little woody spice coming through underneath. It’s generous and full-bodied, but there’s plenty of freshness and firm tannin keeping everything lifted rather than heavy. Definitely a dinner-table red, but with enough perfume to stop it feeling overly serious.

Adega de Penalva is one of the historic co-operatives of the Dão, founded in the 1960s and now bringing together more than 1,000 growers around Penalva do Castelo. Touriga Nacional is very much the star grape here, and the winery treats this bottling as one of its more serious expressions, leaning into Dão’s granite soils, perfume and natural freshness rather than sheer power.