TN: 1998 Quinta do Vale Dona Maria

[Scott Kipping]

The first vintage I purchased from Cristiano. Last bottle. Upon opening and decanting, not a very expressive nose at first. Faint notes of chocolate, cherries and menthol. The palate was lacking and rather thin. Blackfruit and acid with a greeness. After decanting for two hours a completely different wine. Better mouthfeel, black fruit had changed to red fruit, like ripe plum [had never experienced this before]. The fruit now was bigger and sweeter. The air brought out some soft velvety tannins, the acid was still providing support. Fair finish, not as long as I would have liked. This wine is at its pinnacle now, and while it will last a lot longer with the tannins and acid, I think the fruit will start to turn bitter.

[Roy Hersh]

Scott,

Great to see you come back to visit and place the first Douro TN in three weeks, so you bringing it is much appreciated. I think that your TN shows that Cristiano was still developing his chops with Douro wines after so many years perfecting his talent as a Portmaker. So possibly you have nailed the fact with your note on the '98, certainly one of his earlier dabblings with DOC wines, a decade ago. Between 1995 and 2000 was truly the renaissance period for Douro wines, when Port producers and grape growers were starting to convert some of the thoughts and vineyards to producing table wines. It was a learning experience for many, while a few others like Francisco Olazabal at Meao for example, were already way ahead of the curve, having been involved with the winemaker of Barca Velha, as his grape grower.

Come back more often!