Pato & Wouters Nossa Calcario Baga Tinto 2019

The 2019 Nossa Calcário red is a Baga from old vines. It was aged for 18 months in second-use French oak and comes in at 12.7% alcohol. This is hardly a big, blockbuster-style wine with super-ripe fruit and lots of concentration. That’s not really the grape or the region, and Pato tends to make a rather rened version. This sure does show you, though, what the dierence is between this and something like the Post-Quercus or the D.N.M.C. reds also reviewed in this report. Here, there is more stung, for starters. It is not only fresh, silky, elegant and lively, but here there is also some tension on the nish. It coats the palate respectably, too, while the mid-palate nicely counters the acidity and ripe tannins.
There’s more tannic pop on the nish, though—a real backbone that will serve this in good stead as it ages. Baga does age well and this should, too, but it is made in a more approachable, less rustic style. If you want to drink this now you could, but that would be a bad mistake, as it is still a little disjointed. With a few years, it should become more harmonious and more interesting. There is no rush. It should hold at least for 20
years from the vintage date, probably more. It’s a silky beauty.

Nossa Calcario Baga Tinto 2018 – From three small biodynamically cultivated chalky clay plots averaging 80-years-old. Bright as a button, buoyant yet grounded, with subtle, pine needle-edged crunchy red cherry, plus white and black pepper. A pronounced smoky, mineral undertow and incipient mushroom to the finish. Fine-framed, the incisive acidity and slender, refined, backbone of tannin in service of the fruit. Aged in used 500-600-litre French oak.
95 Points Sarah Ahmed Decanter Magazine