For The Love Of Port

2011 Oscar's Douro White. Our shipment arrived and Kari wanted to try it. Very nice!

Had the opportunity to make up the lack of consumption of Portuguese wines the last couple of weeks. Had:

- Poeira 2002 (beautiful, shows no signs of weakening)
- Lavradores de Feitoria Grande Escolha 2001 (still going strong and will keep for quite some time)
- JM de Fonseca Hexagon (VR Terras de Sado) 2000 (only bottled in magnums, quite a hype at the time... and not living up to it. Oaky, sweet fruit, rather simple)
- Lavradores de Feitoria Meruge 2004 (soft, silky and seductive, very enjoyable, but I wouldn't keep it much longer)

Poeira 2005, beautiful nose, fresh floral, fruits, oak fully integrated, though on the palate some dried plums/brown sugar flavours are spoiling this very well balance and elegant Douro wine.
Van Zellers 2010 : I've tasted this wine over several vintages and this time, I'm totally convinced. If you want to introduce a friend to what Douro should taste, this is it and great QPR.

I was at an amazing wine dinner tonight with 20 ppl from Seattle. This was their annual BEST WINES event. Barolo back to 1964, Bdx greats to 1970 ... cult CA Cabs that I could never afford and much more crazy stuff. I decided I wanted this group to learn what a remarkable Portuguese wine was all about. I decanted a 2004 Crasto Vinha da Ponte for 6 hours and it was in most people's top 3 of the night and first for a few of the guests. People kept asking me where they could buy some. I must say that the long decant made a great difference and for now, this was showing amazingly well. When asking a few people that I trust for points, they were in the 96+ point range. It remains my personal favorite Douro wine of all.

Opened a 2005 Niepoort Redoma Branco for a wine dinner tonight. As I was asked to bring a Niepoort white. Feels weird not to bring a port.

I opened the Herdade dos Machados Reserva 2007 Alentejo DOC. My opinion: it has well deserved the multiple awards in 2012 such as silver medal at the Mundus Vini 2012 or being part of the "50 greatest Portuguese wines by Dough Frost". This wine has character

1999 Quinta da Gaivosa
1999 Quinta do Fojo

How was the Fojo?

Frederick Blais wrote:How was the Fojo?

I had a 2000 Fojo a couple of weeks ago; it's in a perfect place right now.

This week, Elys went to a heavy Portuguese neighborhood in Lowell, MA to a liquor store that has some real Portuguese wine values. The store itself looks pretty rough, "is the cashier carrying a gun?"

2000 Cabeca de Toiro Reserva (Ribatejo)- single varietal Castelao wine. $8.99

2001 Montes Claro Reserva (Alentejo) $13.99

2003 Terras Tomas Ribeiro Reserva Magnum (Dao) $10.99

It's crazy to think that one can buy 10+ year old wines that are drinking wonderfully for those kind of prices!

2008 Quinta do Crasto Old Vine Reserva Douro

Frederick Blais wrote:How was the Fojo?

Very good! lots of fruit with tamed tannins. It was drunk side by side with the Qta Gaivosa which was much more evolved, it tasted much younger than its years

Foral de Evora, 2004 colheita (tinto). Very nice.

Prats and Symington Douro Chryseia, 2003

Overall, a very nice bottle. Pop-n-Pour, enjoyed over a period of about 3 hours. At first this bottle had an odd funk to it - an almost leathery or meaty quality to the aroma. Over time, this blew off and we were met with the dark fruit flavors that we were expecting based on tasting notes we've seen. We gave a glass to our chef/sommellier-in-training friend to see if he could identify it. His closest guess was Tempranillo from Ribiera del Duero in Spain - not too far off, considering that this is from the same river vally, just a bit futher downstream, and Tinta Roriz, one of the components of this wine is another name for Tempranillo.

Roy - in your review of this wine you mentioned that you thought it tried too hard to be a good world class wine rather than being the best Douro wine it could be. That begs the question - which Douro red do you think best exemplifies what you wished this wine had been?

This bottle was purchased from Wine Exchange in Costa Mesa, CA last October when we were down there for Andy's 20-year tawny tasting.

2007 Quinta do Crasto Vinha Maria Teresa Douro

Fuzelo vinho verde. Very effervescent and acidic. The back end tasted like lemon rind. Too in-your-face for my for definition of a vinho verde. I like mine a bit more mellow.
$6.98 USD.

Cartuxa Tinto 2009 (Alentejo)
Callabriga Dão 2010

The Cartuxa was v nice.

Callabriga Douro 2009

Tasted v nice along w steak. Seems right at about $15. Well balanced, made for v enjoyable drinking.

2008 Altano that I have been using to make sangria. (vinho tinto, mango nectar, orange Sumol soda and Cointreau)

Foral de Evora, 2007 colheita (tinto). I drank a bottle of the 2004 a couple weeks ago which I really enjoyed. Not the same. The 2004 was smooth, this has a really up front acidity and high tannic finish. On the second day (right now), I'm drinking it to taste and not waste. Tomorrow, I may throw it on the salad.

Maybe something affected the wine. The cork split in half when I was opening it. I will see this weekend with the other bottle I bought.

2007 Curva Reserva White
2007 Niepoort Redoma Red
2001 Quinto do Crasto Touriga Nacional