Two lovely Douro reds at the Dirty Dozen tasting

douro portugal

Two lovely Douro reds at the Dirty Dozen tasting

Thoroughly enjoyed the Dirty Dozen tasting today. It’s the start of term for us wine writers this week. We’re back in the tasting and travelling season. Tomorrow is the Bunch tasting, which will also be really good, and then on Friday I am off to the Douro for the weekend.

It’s so hard (and seems a bit unfair) to pick out individual wines from a great tasting, which involved 12 importers who state that the are committed to integrity and authenticity (and the evidence is that they are), and who believe in wines that speak of their terroir. ‘We import wines for people that care, made by people that care.’ Amen!

But I am going to pick out two Douro wines. First, Quinta do Vale Meao’s Meandro 2010. What a super wine! Meandro often lives in the shadow of its older sibling, Quinta do Vale Meao, but it’s a great wine in its own right, and is very affordable for the quality on offer. 2010 was a slightly tricky vintage, but this wine has lovely pure, ripe, well defined fruit and some nice structure.

And then there’s the Niepoort Bioma 2010, the first vintage of this wine, which is about as close Dirk gets to a single-vineyard wine. It’s all from his Napoles quinta, and it’s just so fresh, pure and inviting, with a fair whack of structure hiding under the ripe fruit. Fresh and pure, and with the potential to age beautifully. It sits about the same level as Redoma in terms of price (may be a little cheaper?), and it’s lovely.

2 Comments on Two lovely Douro reds at the Dirty Dozen tastingTagged ,
wine journalist and flavour obsessive

2 thoughts on “Two lovely Douro reds at the Dirty Dozen tasting

  1. Hi Jamie,

    The Bioma ’10 should be cheaper – I hope for you guys in the UK – than the Redoma Tinto:in Portugal the Bioma sells for €14.50 and the Redoma ’09 for €25.00 with the same retailer!

  2. That is correct Paul. Bioma is less expensive than Redoma Tinto. I think unfortunately the conversation Jamie and I were having about it at the Dirty Dozen was drowned out by a room which was incredibly busy!

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