TN: 2007 Pombal do Vesuvio Douro

[Andy Velebil]

I picked up 12 bottles of this at the tasting Dominic Symington hosted last tuesday when he was here in Los Angeles. I took a bottle last night to share with my dry wine group at our regular dinner gathering. It was a small group this month due to being on Halloween eve, but between 7 of us there was about 16 bottles on the table. I was only able to decant this about 1 hour before we started to drink it, and with so many bottles, most were left 1/2 full. I took home the remains to see how it developed 24 hours later.

An extremely fragrant nose full of blackberries and some vanilla that eventually gave way to lush raspberries. I expected this to be very fruit forward and was surprised to find the opposite. The tannins really showed themselves after 24 hours and this put on considerable body weight during that time. Initially the bright red cherries bordered on being too tart, yet 24 hours later this was perfectly balanced with blackberries, vanilla, and some lovely minerality. The cedar, tannins, and blackberries on the finish coated the throat and lasted for a long time. While I really liked this after one hour of decanting, it really shined the next day. I will be sure to give a longer decant for my next one. I have no doubt this will age nicely for many more years to come and I have already put six bottles away in long term storage to chart their path over the next decade or two.
93 points

One thing that did strike me was a comment Roy had made about this being more of a traditional Douro style of wine. I agree with that, as this is far more traditional Douro than "new world." With such great terroir in the Douro I wish more producers would make their dry wines this way. A wonderful first release of the Pombal do Vesuvio.

[Roy Hersh]

Nice note Andy!


Just so that our TNs are here together:

2007 Quinta do Vesuvio, Pombal do Vesuvio, DOC Douro Red wine – The baby brother to
the Vesuvio release, this is no wall flower. Stuffed with earthy notes of leather and dark black cherry
fruit, it proffers a distinctly drier profile than its sibling. With a fine palate presence that is sumptuous
and immediately approachable, the blackberry and well integrated gentle hints of oak are not only
food friendly, but will make for a solid sipping wine. The old vine blends used in this distinctive Douro
effort show greater structural components the 2nd day it was open and it drank with even more verve
and body weight. With a couple of hours in decanter, this can be enjoyed today but there’s no
question that it will improve over the next decade, so put a few bottles out of reach for at least a few
years. ~ 92+ points ~ 9/29/09

[Clark Anderson]

Great piece of writing.
Like it.