Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo Reserva 2008 (£25 The Real Wine Company)
Kicks off with a creamy, smoky bacon oak edge, then the plummy savoury berry and blackcurrant fruit kicks in, with earthy spice overtones to add interest. Also has a note of violets, but I just wished they’d picked it a little earlier – it veers towards the jammy. S-

Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo Grande Reserva 2008 (£30 contact Oakley Wine Agencies)
Extra oak ageing has calmed down the brashness of the Reserva, adding more reserved mellowness and tempering that note of jamminess. Also there’s more of the savage savoury Douro herbiness. Even so, still would have preferred an earlier picking… S

Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo Touriga Nacional 2008 (£30 contact Oakley Wine Agencies)
This smells just like a port quinta at vintage time, with heady, oily fragrant blackberry aromas tinged with violet. There’s also more of that creamy oak character than the Reserva had, intense dark fruit flavours plus a hint of liquorice. My reservation is that it seems to want to be port rather than table wine – impressive but not sure how much of it I’d want to drink. S