A 2004 Douro beauty

[Roy Hersh]

Saturday night, another of the 2 dozen 2004 Quinta de la Rosa Reserva (tinto) bottles I bought last winter. Only one has been flawed and all the rest have showed like this one. As soon as I opened this to decant it, I knew it would be another excellent bottle. They still are really dark garnet and this one has no signs of bricking on the rim and the fill level showed no signs of ullage. Aromatically, it possessed everything you could ever want from a mature Douro wine that was at peak. No question that even though this is now 20 years of age, it has 5-10+ years to still be very enjoyable. I'll get to a tasting note. I've opened a bunch for friends. From this Forum: Andy, Stewart, Lisa/Vic, Eric Ifune and likely others I am forgetting about. Incredible how well these can age and drink at such a remarkable quality level all these years later. Considering they come from the grapes that Ports are made of, it should surprise nobody here.

[Andy Velebil]

It is a wonderful 2004 wine. And I say that as many 2004’s have not lived up to early expectations. Not the case for this one. A lovely wine!