{"id":4152,"date":"2012-01-19T15:30:54","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T15:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=4152"},"modified":"2012-01-21T22:02:10","modified_gmt":"2012-01-21T22:02:10","slug":"highlights-from-the-new-douro-tasting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/portugal\/highlights-from-the-new-douro-tasting","title":{"rendered":"Highlights from the New Douro tasting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Douro<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday\u2019s New Douro tasting was one of the best yet. While the emphasis was on the 2009 vintage, producer\u2019s also brought the odd older wine, which was appreciated. 2009 is a ripe, warm year, but despite the heat and lack of rain that characterized this vintage, the wines have a lovely purity and openness to them, with good structure underneath. They\u2019re quite delicious. 2008 seems quite a different year, with more obvious structure and acidity, as well as good freshness.<\/p>\n

The Douro has had a run of really good vintages since 2003, with perhaps 2006 being the only slightly disappointing year. All the others are different in personality, but very good. It\u2019s a region whose table wines are now truly coming of age.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my pick of some of the most interesting wines, although I don\u2019t want by any means to suggest that wines that haven\u2019t made this list weren\u2019t also great.<\/p>\n

Lavradores de Feitoria Meruge 2003 Douro (magnum)
\n<\/strong> This has aged beautifully. It\u2019s made in a lighter style, similarly to Dirk Niepoort\u2019s Charme, with some stems. Fine expressive nose with some olive and mint notes as well as a bit of tarriness overlaying the ripe cherryish fruit. The palate is fine and super-elegant with brilliantly fine, spicy tannins and warm black cherry fruits. Superb. 95\/100<\/p>\n

Poiera 2009 Douro
\n<\/strong> Lovely sweet, fine supple fruit here. Ripe and seductive, but underneath the pure cherry and berry fruit there\u2019s some structure and minerality. Lovely and expressive with direct fruit dominant at the moment, but more to come in the future. 95\/100<\/p>\n

Niepoort Redoma Tinto 1991 Douro
\n<\/strong> The first Redoma, and it\u2019s ageing beautifully after going through an ugly duckling phase a while back. Sweet, spicy, seductive nose with lovely fruit and some earthy notes. The palate is thrilling with earthy undertones and vivid spiciness as well as lovely cherry fruit. It\u2019s still tannic and has a good future ahead of it. 96\/100<\/p>\n

Niepoort Batuta 2005 Douro
\n<\/strong> A big, structured Batuta that\u2019s just beginning to show some development. Dense, firm, taut and structured with lovely precise berry, cherry and plum fruit. Lovely firm yet not rustic structure is still dominant. A serious wine you can cellar and forget about for at least another decade. Brilliant. 96\/100<\/p>\n

Niepoort Robustus 2007 Douro
\n<\/strong>So fine and expressive, yet with restrained power and richness. Sweet dense cherry, plum and blackberry fruit has a seductive quality, yet it\u2019s also showing restraint. Great purity and firm structure, coupled with good acidity. This has an immense potential for development. 97\/100<\/p>\n

Quinta do Crasto Superior 2009 Douro
\n<\/strong> Now this has to be one of the bargain wines of the Douro, sourced from Crasto\u2019s new vineyards in the Douro superior. Second release. Lovely purity to the ripe, fresh cherry and plum fruit. Sleek and supple with a nice spicy edge. 92\/100<\/p>\n

Quinta do Crasto Touriga Nacional 2009 Douro
\n<\/strong> Touriga likes warm vintages, says Crasto\u2019s Miguel Roquette. The warmth of 2009 has produced a fantastic Touriga here, with a beautifully aromatic nose of black chery, blackberry, olive and violet. The palate is sweet but structured with lovely vivid fruit. Delicious. 94\/100<\/p>\n

Alves de Sousa Vale de Raposa Sous\u00e3o 2009 Douro
\n<\/strong> The first vintage of this wine. Tiago Alves de Sousa says that he\u2019d always considered Sous\u00e3o as just a blending component, but this was so good he had to bottle it separately. It\u2019s deep coloured, rich and intense with lush, rounded black fruits and a smooth texture. Amazing depth here, with grippy tannins on the finish. It works. 94\/100<\/p>\n

Quinta do Vale Me\u00e3o Touriga Nacional from granite 2009
\n<\/strong> As yet unnamed, this is a truly sensational Touriga Nacional from granite soils at Vale Me\u00e3o. Schist is the norm for the Douro, but a bit of granite here has resulted in a ripe yet exceptionally fresh Touriga with thrilling aromatics of violets, plums and black cherries. The palate is fresh and exotically fruited with olive hints and some savoury tarriness alongside the fresh black cherry fruit. Just brilliant. 96\/100<\/p>\n

Wine & Soul Pintas 2009 Douro
\n<\/strong> One of the best vintages yet of this wine. Dense and structured yet so fresh and pure, with vivid black cherry fruit and nice firm yet fine tannins. Ripe and smooth but well defined, and not at all heavy. 95\/100<\/p>\n

Wine & Soul Quinta da Manoella Vieilles Vignes 2009 Douro
\n<\/strong> An exciting new wine. This is from Jorge Borge\u2019s family property. He previously shared this and another Quinta (Fojo) with his sister. Now he\u2019s taken control of this, and left Margarida to look after Fojo. This is the first wine from this 18 ha (of vines, 60 ha overall) quinta, and will be followed by a regular Manoella in March. He will carry on selling some of the grapes to Taylors. It\u2019s a really silky, elegant wine with lovely pure berry and cherry fruits, backed up by firm stucture. It\u2019s really fine, and I love it. 95\/100<\/p>\n

Casa Ferreirinha Ant\u00f3nia Adelaide Ferriera 2008 Douro
\n<\/strong> This new wine is a qualitative equal to Barca Velha, but made in a different style. It may be more modern, but it\u2019s still a tannic bruiser, with powerful, tight, structured black fruits. The tannins are currently grippy and quite dominant, but this is set up for long ageing, and I reckon it will take a decade to begin to tame it. 94\/100<\/p>\n

Ramos Pinto Duas Quintas Reserva 1994
\n<\/strong> One of the unsung stars of Douro table wines, Ramos Pinto\u2019s Reserva is consistently really good in an open, elegant style. This 1994 is ageing very nicely, with supple, seductive sweet elegant fruit and fine spicy tannins. 94\/100<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday\u2019s New Douro tasting was one of the best yet. While the emphasis was on the 2009 vintage, producer\u2019s also brought the odd older wine, which was appreciated. 2009 is…<\/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],"tags":[362,350],"class_list":["post-4152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-douro","category-portugal","tag-douro","tag-portugal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4152","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=4152"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4189,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4152\/revisions\/4189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}