TN: 2003 Quinta do Crasto Vinha Maria Teresa

[Andy Velebil]

This was opened last night at a very small gathering of friends where many great champagnes and wines were opened. It was quite the headonistic affair and ended at 530am drinking DRC as the sun started coming up. I've never had so many great bottles at one time and there was a little of this left over, so 24 hours later I come back to it with a formal TN. I must preface that this wine was amoung the top 3 red wines of the night for several people at the dinner. That says a lot when it was up against many great Burgundy's and California red wines. For me the Maria Teresa was tied for 2 place with the 2003 SQN "The Inaugural" Eleven Confessions (a RP 99 point wine) and one other attendee had this just slightly ahead of the MT. One of the people there even ranked the MT their WOTN. With that in mind here is we go....

This really took at least 8 hours to even start to open up and show its stuff. Before that it was very tight and just not giving much up on the nose or palate. But when it finally did start to open up, it just took off with both feet running full steam ahead. The nose is incredibly dark, with thick extracted blackberries, leather, and tar. Even on day two it stained the glass it was so thick and dark. The palate is thick and the heat of 2003 does show in the dark almost jammy fruit. But it is by no means a typical over extracted wine that are so popular right now. 24 hours later there are still massive tannins, and when first decanted made it difficult to drink, and also high acidity. The finish is like the Energizer Bunny and just keeps going and going. This is a very balanced wine but needs either lots of cellar time or a very long decant. This is just a massive wine that needs at least another 8-10 years in the cellar. If you were luckily enough to get some I recommend not touching them for at least that long. 95+ points.

[Roy Hersh]

So if you had to compare, contrast and rank this up against the 2004 Crasto Vinha da Ponte, how would you go about that?

[Andy Velebil]

Its important when talking about these two for people to understand that they come from different sections of the Quinta. In that respect its difficult as they really are two different wines that have their own unique traits.

But I would say the VDP has a bit more grip and depth to it overall. To me, in the MT, I've noticed a touch more acidity and the fruit isn't quite as ripe as the VDP. Maybe that is due to the MT being at a lower elevation and east facing vineyard, just above the Douro, where it gets more shade in the afternoons and some cooling influences from being so close to the water. The VDP seems to have a touch more darker fruit to it than its sister. What I can only attribute to being a more south/east facing vineyard and getting more sun during the afternoons, causing it to get riper fruit. Looking over my prior notes on these the VDP has always beaten its sister by at least a couple of points.

[Roy Hersh]

Good assessment Andy, although I believe the MT 2003 also delivers dark berry fruit flavors, I would agree 100% which is the more classic Douro wine. Both will live for years to come.

[Andy Velebil]

Yes it still has plenty of dark fruit, but the VDP even more so. It was interesting as the MT when first opened was quite lean, yet picked up tremendously as time went on. This was not a pop-and-pour wine by any means and I could see someone drinking this in short order and not allowing it to reach its potential, and thinking less of it. It needed hours of airation to really pick up steam and open the throttles wide open.