TN: 2004 Quinta do Crasto Vinha da Ponte Douro

[Andy Velebil]

From this gathering HERE

Decanted for about 6 hours by the time we started drinking it at dinner. The nose on this is so enticing it's hard not to keep smelling and something Chris and I comment on several times. I've had this a number of times in the past few years and this is the first one that was showing signs of being closed down. It wasn't until the end of dinner that this started to finally open up and the deep fruit and tannins just started to show themselves in their full grandeur. Still a baby of a wine and I was amazed that the oak has already integrated so nicely from when this was first bottled. I'd recommend putting these away for a few years or give it a very long decant. My score for this is normally a bit higher and reflects this bottle only, but 94+ points still isn't too shabby for a tight bottle!
01/18/10
94+ points

[Pedro Guimaraes]

This is the only Crasto Single Vineyard i own and i plan to keep my remaining pair away in the cellar for some time....

My first bottle of this wine told me a story about a wine that can easily sleep for 10years, improving!


Andy,

Did you get the same feeling?

[Andy Velebil]

Pedro,
You've got some very good bottles there and if you only have 2, then I'd leave them alone for at least another 10 years.

I've had this particular wine many times, and all previous vintages of the Ponte except the seemingly rare 1998 (and all vintages of the Maria Teresa), and they never cease to impress me. This was the first one that seemed like the wine was starting to shut down as it took a lot of airation and coaxing to open up, more than normal in my experience. I have no doubt these will last a very long time as even the older versions of this wine, and its sister the Maria Teresa, are holding up extremely well and still drink so young and with some amazing complexity.

[Pedro Guimaraes]

Pedro,
You've got some very good bottles there and if you only have 2, then I'd leave them alone for at least another 10 years.

I've had this particular wine many times, and all previous vintages of the Ponte except the seemingly rare 1998 (and all vintages of the Maria Teresa), and they never cease to impress me. This was the first one that seemed like the wine was starting to shut down as it took a lot of airation and coaxing to open up, more than normal in my experience. I have no doubt these will last a very long time as even the older versions of this wine, and its sister the Maria Teresa, are holding up extremely well and still drink so young and with some amazing complexity.

I have two left from a 3 pack and i intend to follow your advise on the 10years...at least!

I was planning to get some Vinha da Ponte 2007 but the price is very high, specially because everyone is saying that this year the Vinha da Ponte is much better than the Maria Teresa....Did you try any of them? Do you share the same view?

[Andy Velebil]

Yes I've tried the 2007's twice now, in June and October 2009. I think both are at the top of their game and just may be the best Ponte and Maria Teresa produced so far, but time will tell. I love them both, but they are distinctly different wines, so IMO it's not really fair to compare them against each other. But I do think this is the best Ponte I've had to date (disclaimer, I've had all but the 1998).

Interestingly this is only the second time that both were produced/released from the same vintage. The first was 1998, which was the first commercial release for both of them.