Reserva Especial, Casa Ferreirinha 2017

Quinta da Leda is the principal vineyard from which three of Portugal’s finest red wines are born. Barca-Velha is, without question, the most famous red wine in the Douro, but it weighs in around the £500-mark, so not an everyday summer glugger! BV wines are destined to be the longest-lived reds of all, but when a wine tastes fractionally more forward,it is badged as ‘Reserva Especial’, and the 2017 will be released in the autumn with a price tag of around £250. With massive tension and extremely seductive fruit, this is one of the greatest Reserva Especial I have tasted, and if it were served blind, I would perhaps have said it was regal enough for BV status!