Under $18, with 14% alcohol, and scoring 16 points on the Dionysian Scale of a possible 20, the 2018 Hidrangeas from the Douro Region in Portugal is still young, filled with plum and floral notes, soft tannins and is mouth filling. I think it needs five more years, and will hold after that for ten more.

It’s a blend of grapes from 60 year-old vineyards. This wine was selected as the best of the day at an outdoor yard Portuguese tasting I hosted last September.

Served with a basic meatloaf, the wine proved to be a food wine by increasing the flavors of the evening dish.

After drinking much of my cellar collection during the past nine months, almost 200 bottles of older mature wines, this wine was a baby; purple-black and so young that no additional complexities had developed as yet. They will. In Vino Veritas.