Casa Santos Lima LAB Red 2013 12/13/2015

Today we tried a nice red from Portugal. Casa Santos Lima LAB Red 2013 They make a dry red and a sweet red,this is the dry. A little history about Casa Santos Lima, the vineyard goes back to the late nineteenth century. They were a major producer and exporter of wine. It has been under the control of the grand daughter and great grandson of the founder. They took control in 1990 and replanted the vineyards and modernized the entire production structure. The wine itself is from the Quintas da Boavista vinyard just outside of Lisbon. The sunny slopes and clay and limestone soil along with being near the ocean makes for perfect grape growing. The mix of grapes in the production include, Castelão 35%, Tinta Roriz 25%, Syrah 25% and Touriga Nacoinal 15%. Linda and I tasted this wine just before watching the Redskins/Bears game. It went perfect watching the game. When first checking the appearance it was a clear ruby red color. The aroma was that of clove,dark cherry/plum. When tasted we sensed spicy (clove/pepper), and black cherry. It has a dry start and remains dry through the finish. The finish stays with you for a while. We found it to be very pleasant drink. The price is right at $8.99 and have seen it for less online. We would not be afraid to bring this wine to a party. In our opinion this would be great alone or with spicy foods, BBQ pork or beef, and cheese & crackers. We gave it a 15 on the American Wine Society wine scale. Buy some by all means. We also had some 2013 Blackstone Merlot from California which was also a nice wine for $10.99 . It had a black berry peppery taste ,not as dry but nice. We couldn't give it a fair review as the LAB had us feeling pretty good. Hope you enjoyed this