The other type of Vintage Port

The beautiful Douro Valley.

I love Port. I just love everything about it. The story, the landscape, the quintas – or wine farms – and the lodges all taken together have a romance perhaps unique in the world of wine. If you have never been to Port country – the Douro Valley in north Portugal – then you have a treat in store. It is simply one of the most beautiful wine regions in the world.

Recently I tutored a very well received Port tasting and I was astonished that most of us – we were all Brits – expected all Port to be deep, dark, full-bodied and opaque. Which of course Vintage Ports, Ruby Ports and Late Bottled Vintage Ports are. However, the first four Ports in my tasting were quite different. We tried Cálem White & Dry – read about it here, the delicious Sandeman 20 Year Old Tawny – read about it here and then some Colheita Ports before we reached the darker and richer stuff – 2009 Quinta do Infantado Late Bottled Vintage – read about it here, 1997 Quinta do Retiro Vintage Port from Weise & Krohn and the magnificent 2011 Sandeman Vintage Port if you are interested.

The Sandeman 20 Year Old Tawny was superb and everyone loved it, but it was the Colheitas that really astonished everyone. A Colheita you see is a Tawny Port from a single harvest. The big difference between a Vintage – apart from the quality of the year – is that a Vintage Port does almost all its ageing in the bottle. This means that the oxygen cannot get to it, so it retains its richness and fruit for much longer and so ages very slowly. A Colheita though is aged in oak barrels, usually of 600 litres and not new, for at least 8 years, so the oxygen can get to the wine and gently oxidise it, so it goes transparent and orange, or tawny in colour. This means that the flavours and complexity of a Colheita develop mainly because of the ageing. You can make a Colheita in pretty much any harvest, whereas a Vintage Port can only be produced in the occasional exceptional vintage – hence the name of the style.

Map of the Douro – click for a larger view – non watermarked PDF versions are available by agreement.

A faded Cálem sign in the vineyards near Pinhão.

2000 Cálem Colheita Porto
Cálem Porto
Vila Nova de Gaia
Porto
Portugal

Cálem were founded in 1859  and historically most of their business was with Brazil and Portugal and although they make all styles I don’t think it would be unfair to say that they are something of a White Port and Tawny, including Colheita, specialist. Nowadays Cálem is owned by the Sogevinus Group, as are Barros, Kopke and Burmester. The vineyard this wine hails from is the Quinta da Arnozelo near Vila Nova de Foz Côa in the upper reaches of the Douro – the Douro Superior.

This was the only Colheita that came from a generally declared Vintage Port year and that extra concentration showed, added to which it was the youngest Colheita that I showed. The blend was 25% Touriga Nacional, 25% Tinta Roriz, 25% Touriga Franca, 25% Tinta Barroca.

The colour was quite deep, more brown than orange and the nose was pretty full on with nuts, coffee and dried fruit notes. There was still some tannin here on the palate and it was pretty mouth-filling with a silky mouthfeel, rich cooked and dried fruit, spices, nuts, espresso and a long finish. It seemed sweeter than the younger wines somehow because the fruit was still quite vibrant – 91/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £35.00 per bottle from Vintage Wine & Port.

The Douro Valley near Pinhão.

1996 Barros Colheita
Barros Porto
Vila Nova de Gaia
Porto
Portugal

I have always had a soft spot for Barros ever since I sold their wines in another life,  so I was really pleased to see how good this was. Originally a small private house founded by Manuel de Almeida in 1913. It eventually took over lots of other smaller Port houses, including Kopke, until it too became part of the Sogevinus Group in 2006.

The blend was again 25% Touriga Nacional, 25% Tinta Roriz, 25% Touriga Franca, 25% Tinta Barroca.

The colour was a deep russet, while the nose was smokey, with coffee, spice, dried fruit and buttery caramel notes and a touch of dried and caramelised orange. The palate was just so joyous that we all stopped talking and looked at each other. There was nutty caramel, dried orange, dried fig, strong coffee and even nougat. The texture was so silky it was almost creamy and the finish went on and on – 93/100 points.

It’s funny because 1996 was considered to be a dire Port vintage and yet this wine really shone, which just goes to show that the vintage guides are wrong, or all that time in wood can work wonders!

Available in the UK for around £35.00 per bottle – click here for stockists.
For US stockist information – click here.

The lovely tiled railway station in Pinhão.

1996 Kopke Colheita
Kopke Porto
Vila Nova de Gaia
Porto
Portugal

Kopke – pronounce Cop-key – was founded in 1638 by Germans Cristiano and Nicolaus Kopke and is thus the very oldest Port house of all – the next oldest is Warre’s and that was founded in 1670, some 32 years later. 378 years later Kopke are the leading producer of Colheitas, producing more than 25% of the style. The fruit, much of it from 100 year old vines, all comes from their Quinta São Luiz which is near Pinhão in the heart of the Douro.

The colour is more red this time, like a robin’s red breast. The nose has confided peel, caramelised orange, dried fruit, toasted nuts and a dash of spice. The palate again is smooth and silky with a slight creamy quality, loads of dried fruit and some salted caramel too. This is delicious, really hedonistic and delicious – 93/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £30.00 per bottle from Marks & Spencer.
For US stockist information – click here.

Porto from Vila Nova de Gaia.

1984 Kopke Colheita
Kopke Porto
Vila Nova de Gaia
Porto
Portugal

This showed its age a little I am afraid. It was lovely and it was a treat, but it seemed a little fragile and brittle.  It was very aromatic and had some coffee and nut and orange and dried fruit notes, while the palate was very smooth and light with dried fruit and spice – 90/100 points.

Available in the UK for around £50.00 per bottle – click here for stockists.
For US stockist information – click here.

A Colheita is a lovely style of Port and is perfect with all manner of things at Christmas, mince pies, panforte, Christmas cake, you name it. So I really do recommend that you get some in for the festive season. I certainly will.

Quinta da Leda – a great Douro wine and my Wine of the Week

The beautiful Quinta da Leda – photo courtesy of the estate.

Many of you will know that I really admire the wines of Portugal‘s Douro Valley. It is a world class wine region that is of course most famous for being the home of Port, but over the last two decades or so has really made its mark in unfortified table wines too. The quality can be very high, at many different price points and there are some seriously good producers whose wines are well worth seeking out.

One of which is Casa Ferreirinha, which grew out of the A. A. Ferreira Port house which was famously run by Dona Antónia Ferreira – often known as Ferreirinha – during the nineteenth century. She was a close friend of Joseph James Forrester, Baron Forrester, who before his untimely death in 1861, had apparently campaigned for the Douro Valley to start making unfortified wine rather than sweet and fortified Ports.

Perhaps that relationship planted a seed that was finally acted upon nearly a century later in 1952, when Casa Ferreirinha produced the first vintage of their occasionally released and legendary Barca Velha. That was the first non fortified red from the Douro for a few centuries and the first one to be commercially released and it was a hit, achieving cult status to equal Spain’s great Vega Sicilia. They don’t make it every year, in fact only 18 vintages have been released so far in total. When they don’t make Barca Velha, the finest barrels they produce make the almost equally illustrious Casa Ferreirinha Reserva Especial. Both of these wines are aged for a long time in oak before release.

The beautiful Quinta da Leda – photo courtesy of the estate.

In 1979 Casa Ferreirinha bought the promising, but unplanted  Quinta da Leda estate in Almendra just a few kilometres from the Spanish frontier. To see whether it lived up to their expectations they planted 25 hectares of Tinta Roriz – aka Tempranillo -, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Cão vines. This is one of the great joys of Portugal, and especially the Douro, great wines that can rub shoulders with the most famous and most expensive from anywhere, all made from indigenous grape varieties.

Wine map of the Douro, Quinta da Leda is just to the west of Barca d’Alva on the south bank of the Douro near Spain. Click on the map for a larger view.

Within a decade they could see that their hopes for the plot had been exceeded and from the 1980s the vineyard had become the main source for Barca Velha and Reserva Especial, as well as producing Single Quinta Port. In the end the site was just so good that they decided to make a single vineyard wine from it, but only in the in the better years. The big difference with Barca Velha, apart from being a single vineyard wine, is that Quinta da Leda is aged for a more normal 12 months or so in oak, which makes it a fresher style and it can be enjoyed younger too. Sadly I cannot comment as I have not yet tried any Barca Velha, despite owning a brace of bottles of the 1982 vintage. The project has been a great success and a dedicated winery was built in time for the 2001 vintage, making these true domaine bottled wines.

Recently I was fortunate enough to attend a tasting of Quinta da Leda wines that ranged from that very first 1997 vintage to the as yet unreleased, but precociously delicious, 2014.

The beautiful Quinta da Leda – photo courtesy of the estate.

I loved them all and would happily drink any of them with a slow roast shoulder of lamb, but it was remarkable how I kept really loving the wines that came from great Port vintages – the 2007 and the 2011, stood out especially for me, but so too did the 2001, which is an underrated Port vintage, mainly being a source of Single Quinta Ports. However, without a doubt my favourite was the 2011 and so I have made it my Wine of the Week.

2011 Quinta da Leda
Casa Ferreirinha
Sogrape Vinhos
DOC / PDO Douro
Portugal

A single vineyard blend of 45% Touriga Franca, 40% Touriga Nacional and 15% Tinta Roriz. The grapes were destined and fermented in stainless steel tanks before being aged for 18 months in 225 litre French oak barrels, 50% of which were new.

The wine is currently an attractive opaque purple, deep, but bright and alive.

The nose offers intense, spicy sugar plums and blueberry, as well as cedar and earthy, spicy, savoury notes. There is a touch of cigar smoke as well as some mocha and herbs.

The palate is pretty full-bodied, but has a lovely texture, with concentrated, lush sweet black fruit together with some refreshing acidity and minerality. The tannins are taut but not overwhelming and there is a dusting of black pepper, while that smoke, spice and mocha vie with the lovely sweetness of the fruit on the long finish. All in all it is very concentrated, very exciting, beautifully balanced and utterly delicious with a touch of something pretty about it that helps to balance the power and the 14.5% alcohol – 94/100 points.

Available in the UK from £35 per bottle from Slurp, Lay & Wheeler, Farr Vintners, Corking Wines, The Wine Library, Hedonism, Harrods and AG Wines.
For US stockists, click here.

I actually really liked the wine as it is now, I loved the slightly tight feel of the tannins and the mocha-like oak, but it will develop beautifully too and become more complex over time. So you see, it isn’t only the 2015 Clarets that you should put in your cellar this year.

Wine of the Week 5 – fine organic red from the Douro

The beautiful terraced vineyards of the Douro Valley.

My wine of the week this time is a wine that I have mentioned before in a piece about Portugal’s Douro region. I drank a bottle the other day and was once again struck by how good it was. It was so classy, so delicious and such great value for money that I simply could not resist making it my wine of the week.

It is made by the Symington family who own many superb estates in the beautiful Douro Valley as well as Port houses such as Graham, Dow, Cockburns and Warre. For the last 15 years or so they have branched out from being purely a Port producer to becoming one of Portugal’s best winemakers too and this wine is a superb calling card for them. If you have never tasted a really good Portuguese wine, or just want something good at a great price, then give it a go, it could well be your wine of the week too:

The Douro in Porto.

2011 Altano Quinta do Ataide Organic
D.O. Douro, Portugal
This blend of organically grown Tinta Barroca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca grapes was sourced from the Symington family’s Assares vineyard which was certified organic in 2006. The wine was cold fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged in second fill French oak for 10 months.
This offers great concentration and depth and wonderfully vibrant fruit together with a touch of spice and a slatey minerality, it gives lots of pleasure and is sinfully drinkable. This is stunning quality for its price and should be more popular – 90/100 points because of the great value.

Available in the UK from Waitrose & Fareham Wine Cellar @ £9.99 per bottle, more UK stockist information is available from Fells, the distributor.
Available in the US from Curtis Liquors, more US stockist information is available from Vineyard Brands, the distributor.