Dow Vale do Bomfim Douro

Wine: Dow Vale do Bomfim Douro.

Grape: Tinta Barroca (55 percent), Tinta Roriz (22 percent), Old Mixed Vines (17 percent), Touriga Nacional (3 percent), and Touriga Franca (3 percent)

Region: Douro Valley, Northern Portugal

Vintage: 2008

Price: $ 9.99 per bottle.

In the Glass: This Vale do Bomfim is as black as night with a completely opaque core going out into a dense purplish red rim definition and very high viscosity.

On the Nose: The wine is a veritable onslaught of crushed black cherries, marionberries, sloe fruit, loganberries and jammy blueberries, all dunked in a robe of Concord grape juice and interlaced with black licorice twizzlers, powdered star anise, graphite and wood. There are even hints of tar and crushed granite, but it is a very fruit-driven nose.

On the Palate: There is a seriously concentrated and delicious experience awaiting with a mouthful of really juicy black fruit concentrate that is as immersive as any under $20 wine that I can remember. It is wonderfully balanced and well-structured with a backbone of crushed black cherry and wild blueberry, then tannins kick in. It's a big wine with a great finish.

Odds and Ends: Dow is a centuries-old Port house founded in 1798 by a Portuguese man who had married a British woman and then returned to his native land. It has been under the stewardship of the venerable Symmington family for generations and enjoys a reputation as one of the finest Port houses. Headquartered at the Quinta do Bomfim, which is also the name of this dry red wine now becoming popular in the market. Usually, all these grapes would have been used to make the base for Port wine, but it is now common that these houses make red table wines as well, and we are fortunate that they do, because they are superbly priced and this is a steal. While a sturdy full-bodied red wine, this is the sort of wine that you'll be looking for to pair with the grilled steaks right off the barbecue in the backyard. Open it a couple of hours open before serving and drink it now through 2015.

Gil Lempert Schwarz's wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749 or e-mail him at gilwinevegas.com.