2014 Quinta do Pinto, Estate Collection Red

 A frequent debate around the SommSelect tasting table focuses on where the best values in old-world wine are being made today. Is it Greece? Eastern Europe? The perennial contender Bordeaux? Then I saw a bottle of 2014 Quinta do Pinto hit the table–a ten year old blend that was spicy, deeply complex, robust, and yet perfectly balanced. Oh, and the price was less than $30. The debate, at least for now, is over: the clear winner is Portugal. How the Pinto family manages to get so much profundity into a bottle, age it themselves for years, and then charge so little is a perplexing, yet delicious, puzzle to solve. But don’t sweat the solution, just make sure you grab as much as you can before it’s gone! A manor from the 1600s surrounded by rolling, vine-covered hills—that’s a quintessential Portuguese estate, and in the Alenquer DOC, Quinta do Pinto is one of the standouts. This small appellation is located in the broader Lisboa wine zone, an area that is frequently undervalued and overlo