Douro 2008

[Michael Ferrier]

I attended the ‘2008 The New Douro’ arranged by Wine&Partners of Vienna at the Tate Modern in London last week. Although I've drunk port for the past 40 odd years, I have tried hardly any Douro table wines. This tasting was a great opportunity to correct that. Wines that stood out for me were (all wines 2008 and red unless stated otherwise):
Symington (Altano, Altano Bio)
Prats & Symington (Chryseia, Post Scriptum & Prazo de Roriz)
Churchill Estates (Branco Douro 2009 & Rosé 2009, Douro, Touriga Nacional Douro & Grande Reserva Douro 2007)
Lavradores de Feitoria ( Tres Bagos (white) 2009 & Tres Bagos Sauvignon blanc 2009, Lavradores de Feitoria , Tres Bagos & Quinta da Costa),
Quinta do Crasto (Crasto Douro White 2009, Crasto Douro)
Quinta do Vale Meao (Douro & Meandro)
Quinta Vale D. Maria/Van Zellers & Co (Douro )
Poeira,(Po de Poeira white 2009, Po de Poeira & Poeira)
Quinta do Vallado (Douro White 2009 & Reserva Douro White 2009, Douro, Touriga Nacional Douro, Reserva Field Blend & Adelaide Douro )
Pintas/Wine & Soul (Guru Douro white 2009, Pintas Character Douro, Pintas Douro)
Quinta de Macedos.(Quinta de Macedos & Pinga)
Ramos Pinto-Duas Quintas (Reserva White 2009, Collection)
Quinta da Gaviosa,(Abandonado )
There were in addition ten or so ports, but by then my taste, after 70 wines was beginning to go, but Vesuvio 2008, Niepoort Vintage Port Pisca 2007, Niepoort Colheita 2001 stood out.
Niepoort, Quinta de la Rosa, & Sogrape Vinhos were also showing wines, but these did not impress me, principally because I don’t like to be too aware of oak in wine. For this reason, I did not enjoy a number of the Reservas from the producers whose other wines I enjoyed. Many of these Reserva were undoubtedly better wines but not to my taste.

I don’t know whether this event is an annual one or not. I hope it is.