{"id":2195,"date":"2011-02-08T01:07:06","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T01:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=2195"},"modified":"2011-02-08T01:07:06","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T01:07:06","slug":"a-frenchman-in-portugal-francois-lurtons-douro-wines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wine-reviews\/a-frenchman-in-portugal-francois-lurtons-douro-wines","title":{"rendered":"A Frenchman in Portugal: Francois Lurton&#8217;s Douro wines"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/P1110219.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2198\" title=\"P1110219\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/P1110219.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"355\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/P1110219.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/P1110219-300x213.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/P1110219-150x106.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/P1110219-400x284.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Francois Lurton (website\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.francoislurton.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>) makes wine in France, Chile, Argentina, Spain and now Portugal. He bought his first Douro property in 2006 (Quinta Beira), and has subsequently added a second (Quinta Malho).<\/p>\n<p>I tried the 2008 releases, which include the two Quinta wines and two more commercial brands. I&#8217;ll be honest: I was a little disappointed with the two Quinta wines. These are not in the same league as some of the top Douro table wines now being released. It&#8217;s not that they are bad wines; just that they aren&#8217;t great &#8211; and these are not cheap, either (\u00a325-\u00a340).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fran\u00e7ois Lurton Quinta Beira Douro 2008 Douro, Portugal<br \/>\n<\/strong> A 10 hectare vineyard close to Pinh\u00e3o, north facing. 15% alcohol. Gravelly, slightly tarry nose with fresh plum and blackberry fruit. Midweight palate with fresh, tarry, spicy red and black fruits and a bit of savoury grip, with some tannic structure. High alcohol yet lacks real concentration of flavour. 88\/100<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fran\u00e7ois Lurton Quinta do Malh\u00f4 2008 Douro, Portugal<br \/>\n<\/strong> From a south-facing vineyard in the Torto Valley. 15% alcohol. Ripe yet fresh berry and cherry fruits nose is taut and focused with some new oak spiciness. The palate is more red fruits than black \u2013 this certainly isn\u2019t jammy or overripe \u2013 but it shows high alcohol, despite this, as well as some new oak. One to cellar for a few years? 89\/100<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fran\u00e7ois Lurton Barco Negro 2008 Douro<br \/>\n<\/strong> 13% alcohol. Light and fruity with supple cherry fruit and a herby, earthy edge. Juicy and simple with some nice savouriness. A light style. 83\/100<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fran\u00e7ois Lurton Barco Negro Reserva 2008 Douro<br \/>\n<\/strong> 13.5% alcohol. Supple, juicy cherry and\u00a0 berry fruit with some roast coffee and spicy oak notes. Midweight and quite savoury with some Douro typicity. 85\/100<\/p>\n<p>Find these wines with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wine-searcher.com\/index.lml?referring_site=WAN\" target=\"_blank\">wine-searcher.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Francois Lurton (website\u00a0here) makes wine in France, Chile, Argentina, Spain and now Portugal. He bought his first Douro property in 2006 (Quinta Beira), and has subsequently added a second (Quinta&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,7,3],"tags":[362,350],"class_list":["post-2195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-douro","category-portugal","category-wine-reviews","tag-douro","tag-portugal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2195"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2199,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2195\/revisions\/2199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}