2009 FTLOP Gala - your favorite Douro wine of the weekend?

[Roy Hersh]

We had 30 very fine bottles of Douro wines lined up. Unfortunately 2 of them were corked. The others were pretty enjoyable and some absolutely breath taking. What were some of your favorites, as I know many stood out from the crowd.

[David Spriggs]

2004 Niepoort Batuta. What a great wine! Needs a lot of time, but I loved it's potential. In style it's more old school... and better for it.

2005 Niepoort Redoma Branco Reserva - really showing well now. For those that are looking for this I believe that Brown Derby still has some.

2004 C.V. - Has huge upside potential, but do not open if you have any.

[Pedro Guimaraes]

WOW!!!!
Wish i could have been present....it looks like you guys had great time and amazing wines

Hope to see TN on some (actually all) of the wines that were served...

[Andy Velebil]

Yes, it was quite hard to pick one as there were several that I really enjoyed. The Batuta was drinking great right now and good example of an "old school" style Douro. But I still loved the 2004 Quinta do Crasto Vinha da Ponte the best and it showed the best aging potential of all the wines.

For the whites the 2005 NIepoort Redoma Reserva Branco stole the show. What a great white wine, still the best I've had from the Douro.

[Glenn E.]

I didn't take notes on any of the wines because I normally don't drink wine at all, but I do remember one of them standing out. Sadly I do not remember exactly which one... but I remember clues!

We had a 2000 and a 2004 of the same wine. One of them - I think it was the 2004 - was much fruitier than the other, and that was the one that stood out to me.

Were those the Chryseias?

I have to add that every one of the "acclaimed" bottles that was passed around was fabulous. Even though I don't drink wine, I do recognize good ones and the lineup we had was simply stunning.

[Andy Velebil]

Were those the Chryseias?

Yeap, that was the one.

[Eric Menchen]

I don't know if it was our #1 favorite as we weren't taking detailed notes on the Douros, but we really liked the 1991 Barca Velha.

[Roy Hersh]

Eric,

A couple of years ago the 1991 was in its prime. Now fully mature, it takes a Burgundy lover to appreciate some of the elegance and distinct character in the 1991. I am really glad you enjoyed this wine as I know that next to the 1995 Barca Velha which had such brighter fruit, this would not be as appealing to most ... especially after such great old VPs. But I agree it really showed nicely for a grand old lady.

[Eric Ifune]

For me, it was the NIepoort Redoma Reserva Branco.
I also liked both the Barca Velhas. Very individualistic.

[Richard Beeken]

Alas, I thought that the 91 Barca Valha was indeed a grand old lady but also a tired old lady - I had, I think, an 82 or 85 a short while ago which showed much more like a mature but still vibrant Burg.
The 04 Niepoort Batuta and 04 Quinta do Crasto Vinha da Ponte were the standouts for me with the 03 Casa de Casal de Loivos close behind

[Paul David]

Hi everyone -what a great weekend indeed. A little late here, & stumbled on this thread while surfing.
So here goes; I am with Eric: the 91 Barca was my favorite amongst the older wines. Stuck in the middle of a tasting of powerful wines (mostly fortified) this took some concentration to appreciate the fine nuances and secondary aromatics this exhibited. This was delicate and elegant my brief notes say the consistency and mouth feel of a Claret with a mineral laden broad finish reminiscent of a nice Tuscan.

As a side comment the Niepoort Batuta 2004 seemed very Modern -very ripe fruit with tons of unresolved (as of yet) oak. I find it interesting to have been pegged by some others here as "old school" .....Humm

There were a lot of young wines that I found very intriguing and thank you all for bringing those:

The 2004 CV: impressive big rich and extracted nice balance of fruit with good structure and nice mineral components. While I liked it a lot, at the tariff which was indicated to me (around $70) I found it to be pricey. There are some good selections from Spain in a similar style that to me offer better QPR (try Clio for example).

2004 Chryseia P+S You have to get past the oak which is still in abundance here but there is some lovely red fruit, all in good balance and fine multi-layered structure. With a little more bottle time, I suspect this will be excellent.

2006 Crasto Riserva OV another promising wine with excellent structure & nuances. Liquid raspberries dominate the red fruit and again a lot of new wood that needs to be absorbed.

Honorable mention -I am with Andy on this one The Redoma 2005 white was excellent -if you are into white burgundy, you will probably find this to your liking -once the wood settles down a bit.

It looks like our Portuguese wine makers are in love with wood :wall: maybe they are trying a little too hard to appeal to the new world drinker -too bad as there is obviously good fruit to be had here.Overall I walked away with the impression that great progress is being made. Cheers PMD

[Roy Hersh]

Paul,

I am glad you joined us for the event and equally pleased to see you back to post on your visit and enjoyment sharing the experience. I would be even more thrilled if when you have a moment, you'd post even your own brief impressions above, as distinct tasting notes. Even score 'em if you'd like to go out on a limb.

You know, I am torn right in the middle of your impression of the 1991 Barca Velha, -- with the intricacy of a pristine old Barolo or Barbaresco and sense of soil, like Burgundy. But OTOH, I agree with Richard's mention of it being "tired" at this point too. I've had this wine many times from when it was first released and well numerous other times along the way. For me, it has seen it's brighter and fresher days and even in full maturity it has always shown some beauty and I knew one last bottle would be shared amongst those that would appreciate it more than anyone else. But I am glad I got to see this before it was literally over the hill. I don't think that Richard was necessarily saying that, just that the fruit was getting tired. Still lots to love.

[Paul David]

Well it was my first time tasting this wine & I enjoyed it. The 95 we had right after it was so different: Very fruity and still so young & tight that I am going to go out on a limb and guess that this is more than just variation due to vintage conditions. It was hard to believe that only 4 years separated those 2 wines. I suspect that there has been a wine making style there? I am starting to think that, at least based on what we tasted (from more recent vintages) there has been a swing in the region's wine making towards more fruit extraction and bigger wines. Of course this is a huge generalization and i would love to hear from some of you who have been following these wines over the years to see if you concur with this generalization.
I am not saying this in a derogatory way, that has been the case in many regions which are trying to obtain bigger export presence (Argentina & Chile spring to mind) Overall I think that the wines improve but sometimes, things get pushed a little to far with the addition of too much new wood. Ultimately time will tell: for all I know these grapes may be intense enough to absorb it all in due time in which case I will enjoy these wines more with more age on them. Again it would be very interesting to hear from those who had some of these older wines when they were young -did they use so much new wood 5 or even 10years ago?
From what I learned in other regions (which I am a lot more familiar withh): When things get scaled back a bit, I find the results are even better. At least that has been the historical case in places such as Piedmont in the early 90's. Roto Fermenters, Lots of French Barrick, New yeasts Yada, Yada.... -sure some good wines were made, but now that things scaled back a bit, I think the overall quality is even better.... Wine Evolution, I guess.

On a different subject, I went back to Roy's article about the Demarcation of the region (written I think in 2006 & featured in the home page of the web site) It is very educational and I always wanted to compliment Roy for writing such a great article and sharing that knowledge. -unfortunately not enough time to always post here, and once again got to run.... will keep lurking & write more whenever I can.

[Andy Velebil]

It was great to taste the two Barca Velha's side by side. IIRC there was quite a discussion about them and we noticed the back labels were very different. With one stating the grapes were from Vale Meao and Quinta de Leda and the newer one didn't. While no one then could remember if the 1995 used Meao grapes or not, we suspected the '95 only used the Leda grapes from the change in the back label.