Multi: Ferreira & the Douro Boys, Oslo, 14 Nov 2005

[Jan-Tore Egge]

I noticed people asked for more posts on Douro wines, so I thought I'd post these TNs from a tasting in the Norwegian Wine Academy.

Miguel Roquette (of Quinta do Crasto), Vasco Magalhães (of Sogrape, owner of Ferreira) and Dirk Niepoort brought some of their own wines plus a few others for us to taste after a series of short lectures, following the same pattern as last year's port tasting. Thanks to a train delay, I arrived fourty minutes late (I'll spare you the details). When I arrived, Vasco Magalhães was talking — about the history of Barca Velha, I think; I needed a couple of minutes to calm down sufficiently to pay proper attention. Luckily, I didn't miss out on any of the wines.

I have added comments on some of the wines and estates, as they were presented to us. I haven't really done any further research, and the descriptions in these comments are not based on my own tasting, though the TNs are, of course.

There was a kind of informal discussion between the "panellists" (producers), and the public was invited to ask questions. Dirk did a fair bit of the talking, as you would expect, but the others chimed in too from time to time. Dirk emphasized a change in attitude among Douro producers in the last fifteen years or so: there is now an informal network of producers swapping ideas and commenting freely on each other's wines, and they taste extensively from the rest of the world, which wasn't very common under the Salazar regime. He said he wasn't primarily looking for fruit in his own wines, but for freshness, harmony and elegance. And unlike many others, he has great faith in the tinta amarela grape (aka trincadeira).

This is what we tasted:

Vallado Reserva 2003 (Quinta do Valado) (97% touriga nacional, 3% sousão; 14.5% ABV)
Medium depth of colour. A fruity nose of cherry, bilberry and bramble with a little anise (and a hint of chocolate?). Fresh in the mouth, with pure fruit and good acidity. Tannins cleanse the mouth, but are not intrusive. Remarkable purity of fruit.

Tinta Roriz 2003 (Quinta do Valado)
Medium depth of colour. More closed on the nose. Some cherry and plum. Fresh, with more noticeable tannins.

(This estate is situated in the extreme west of the Cima Corgo. If I understood correctly, a replanting scheme was undertaken 15-20 years ago, with block planting of varietals, the usual ones: touriga nacional, touriga franca and tinta roriz. The first vintage was 1997, and it was an immediate success as an inexpensive monster wine. There is a cold soak resulting in quite a lot of prefermentary extraction.)

Meandro 2003 (Quinta do Vale Meão)
Medium depth of colour. Forest fruits, particularly bilberries. Juicy, fresh, some tannins after a while and a little oak. Nice balance. Good VFM.

Quinta do Vale Meão 2003 (14+ % ABV)
A little darker than the previous wines. Sweeter on the nose. Obviously a bigger wine, but still fresh. Dark berries. Fresh in the mouth, too, with adequate acidity and quite noticeable tannins. Very appetizing, and very impressive, but so is the price.

(Vale Meão has been replanted in varietal blocks, the oldest being approximately 35 years. Fermentation is partly in lagares, partly in stainless steel, and there is some foot-treading, some robot-treading. Meandro sees less oak than the grand vin, none of it new, while the grand vin is matured in 50% new oak for 18 months. The first vintage was 1999; before that the grapes were used for Barca Velha. There is 40-60% touriga nacional plus tinta roriz and touriga franca. They're no too keen on tinta amarela.)

Quinta do Vale Dona Maria 2003 (15% ABV!)
Medium plus depth of colour. Very fresh, attractive nose of cherry, forest fruits, plum and some spice. Quite plummy fruit in the mouth, but not jammy. Very good acidity, tannins and some oak. Young.

(We were told they used 15-20 grape varieties at QdVDM. According to Dirk Niepoort, who usually prefers separate sites for port and table wines, this is a great terroir for both. The wines are fermented in steel and then matured in oak for 18 months.)

Quinta do Crasto Touriga Nacional 2003 (13.7% ABV)
Quite floral on the nose, and there's almost a hint of cedar, too. Is it the oak? Bramble and bilberry. In the mouth, the wine is juicy and not quite as powerful as I expected.

Quinta do Crasto Vinha Maria Teresa 2003
Dark (easily the darkest so far). Dark berries and attractive perfume. Surely a wine with a great future. Some anise verging on liquorice. Fresh, with great fruit and tannins. Very impressive. Must telephone the importer (but I fear it won't be cheap)...

(What is there to say about Quinta do Crasto? This estate, famously depicted on one of the tiles in Pinhão railway station, is everybody's envy in terms of location, including swimming pool, and winemaking equipment. There is a sizeable winemaking team, including main winemaker Australian Dominic Morris. They produce a number of table wines and ports.)

Quinta da Leda 2003 (Ferreira)
Medium depth of colour; doesn't look quite as young as the previous wines. Sweeter on the nose than the Maria Teresa. Red berries. Raspberries! A hint of minerals, too. Beautiful, fresh fruit on the palate. Not the most powerful wine of the night, but elegant. Burgundy with a Portuguese accent. Some tannins, too.

(This estate is tucked away in the Douro Superior, in a narrow valley with a wide variety of expositions. Barca Velha is now produced in the winery here. The grapes are mainly tourigas nacional and franca and tinta roriz. They have for a number of years worked on a clonal selection programme, selecting 6-7 clones of touriga nacional from a total of 178 and planting them in blocks.)

Batuta 2003 (Niepoort) (oak aged for 18 months)
There seems to be a hint of cedar on the nose Some vanilllin, too. Not overtly fruity, but fresh. Red berries, I would say. This wine took me by surprise after the massive (and impressive!) 1999, tasted three years previously. This is less powerful in comparison, almost Burgundian. Balanced and fresh, with surprisingly soft tannins.

(This wine contains fruit from two different vineyards, one north-facing and one south-facing. Dirk said that while they usually pick grapes from the two vineyards at different times, in 2003 they did it simultaneously to preserve freshness. I liked this, but was more impressed by the next:)

Batuta 2001 (Niepoort) (en magnum; 12.8% ABV, oak aged for 13 months)
Red fruits on the nose here, too, but again not as overtly fruity as, say, the Leda. Hint of cedar. Seems much more tannic than the 2003, and more savoury. Firm tannins. I loved this, and would cellar it for a long time.

(According to Dirk, this wine is imperfect in that it contains brett. It didn't come across to me as particularly bretty, but maybe it adds a little something.)

Reserva Ferreirinha 1996 (Ferreira)
Medium plus depth of colour. Looks remarkably young. Slightly watery rim. Not a particularly fruit-driven wine. This is hiding something. It's beginning to show a little development, but if I had had this in my cellar, I would not have touched it for quite a few years. In the mouth, there are *** berries (illegible notes), and the wine is fresh, with very Portuguese tannins, if you see what I mean.

(This is declassified Barca Velha, the second wine if you like, though with Barca Velha being produced so rarely, it's a grand vin by most standards.)

[Frederick Blais]

Jan, very interesting comments!

I agree with you on the Batuta 2003. I was there this fall with Luis the Niepoort winemaker and I told him that the red wine from the 2003 harvest where very different from what I've taste of Niepoort from the 1999-2001 harvest. In fact they where more in the same vein as the pre 1999 Redoma.

He told me I was right. He finds that wines like the Batuta 99 and 00 and are great right now on their fruit but as it will dry, he fears the structure will not be able to offer a fresh and enjoyable wine. So now they aim to make that. Wine with more complexity, higher acidity and firmer tannins that gives more elegance and should age beautifully.

Lets not forget that these wines are made for fess than 5 years, they are still experimenting and trying to find the right parameters to make the best out of the grapes.

For the Reserva Ferreirinha 1996 , It is just so good right now, I already tasted it 3 times this fall. And indeed it will pay with 2-4 more years in the cellar and it will hold well for more years.

For the price of Quinta do Crasto Vinha Maria Teresa 2003, in Canada it will be sold at 150$, around 105 euros. I'm also trying to get one bottle but the importer is not yet sure he will get more than one case as it is a very limited production. The yield are 0.5 hL per hectare if I remember well!!