For The Love Of Port

In the first Finnish off-line generated through this board, we tasted among other nice wines, this fine Douro table wine:

Quinta do Côtto Douro Grande Escolha 2001
Very dark red. The nose is at the same time earthy, terroir driven yet modern in its abundant fruitiness. It had a pronounced and delightful vegetal streak in it which I really loved. The palate is tannic, sweetly fruity, with fine acidity, plentiful but soft tannins and fine length. A very fine example of the mid-modernist style. Nice!

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Some nice stuff, tasted 8.6.2006:
Dirk van der Niepoort kindly sent me a sample of his Charme 2004. Previously he had sent an earlier sample, but had changed the blend a little since. Lovely though the earlier one was, this final blend was even better. This is an astonishingly good, modern styled Douro wine!

Niepoort Douro Charme 2004
A barrel sample, kindly sent by Dirk van der Niepoort, of the final blend. He had sent me another sample before but has changed the blend somewhat. This is certainly more elegant than the last one with less obvious oak and malo. The previous smelled of strawberry joghurt. This one has crushed red berries, almost but not quite jammy, a hint of oak. The palate is gloriously fruity, with decent acidity and high but soft tannins. An unashamedly modern, yet elegant wine. A great example of its kind.

Collares (sic!!) Reserva tinto Viuva José Gomes da Silva&Filhos Colheita de 1996
Not a Douro wine, but this is such great stuff that I have to give some space for it anyway! :) Anyone know why it is spelled (several times) on the label with two l's?

Well, the colour is orange tinged. The nose is marvellous! Earthy, rustic, with plentiful VA, red berries - very reminiscent of Musar. The palate is wild!! Tangy, harsh and rasping acidity, formidable tannins, yet lovely concentration of fruit also. Incredible depth on both the nose and palate. This stuff rocks as much as Musar! I've never been so excited about any wine before! And I've never used so many exclamation marks in a TN before either!!

I HAVE to get my hands on more Colares!

Hi Otto,

So who else joined you from this Forum?

Thanks for the well detailed TNs. I recently had Dirk's latest lineup too but did not try the new Charme. I have enjoyed it just slightly more than the Batuta in the past.

Hope you are enjoying your summer!

Roy, Antti Nevalainen aka Nevski (as reported here) was there. AFAIK he's the only other Finn here.

would have to agree about the charme 2004 its fantastic .I am gratefull to Dirk Niepoort for giving me the chance to taste it over lunch with him as well as the batuta 2004 and 2003.If this is the way douro wines are going to evolve then I am all for it .Hoping that this year is going to be of good quality grapes are ripening well and bunches are of small but otherwise healthy grapes.Looks like the hail damage was not as bad as first expected good old mother nature .Noticed that the charme is selling over here for £50 per bottle wish I had taken the rest of the bottle with me .

Pinalta,

How was Batuta 2004? I've only tasted the 2003, but I have a special love for this wine because I am a mad keen fan of the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta (thought there is no relation to the name of the wine). I thought the 03 fine, but would have hoped for a cooler vintage so that the acids would be greater and the fruit a bit less and 04 should fit that mold?

-Otto-

Hi Otto.I found the charme 2004 to have medium + acidity with a medium level of ripe tannins ,on the nose youthfull aromas of plums and smokey edge.It was meduim bodied with again hints of plums and cherrys with a slight tannic note from oak?.A very smooth mouth feel with the alcohol in balance and a long finish,one that promises more for the future as the fruit was very undeveloped and only hinting of what the wine will evolve into.Have some notes on the fabelhaft 2004 if its of interest.Regards Andrew. 8)

Otto Nieminen wrote:Pinalta,

How was Batuta 2004? I've only tasted the 2003, but I have a special love for this wine because I am a mad keen fan of the Arab traveller Ibn Battuta (thought there is no relation to the name of the wine). I thought the 03 fine, but would have hoped for a cooler vintage so that the acids would be greater and the fruit a bit less and 04 should fit that mold?

-Otto-

I've only tasted it from barrel and it impressed me more than the Batuta 2003. Having more structure, depth and complexity. Still it had 3-4 months to do in the barrels at that time and some blending to be done but for me 2004 is going to be a great vintage for dry wines. According to Dirk, 2005 is even more sensationnal.

For the meaning of Batuta, it is the stick of the Maestro(orchestra director) that you can see in the middle of the round globe on the label. That globe represent the earth, so the Batuta lead and brings balance to this planet.