Great DOC wine ... great price

[Roy Hersh]

2009 Quinta Do Vale D Maria Tinto Douro (Cristiano van Zeller)

"The 2009 Tinto (Quinta do Vale D. Maria) is a Douro field blend. This year, it has a sexiness to it that is captivating. Yet, that is certainly not all it has. The structure is impressive as is the balance, although it may need a few years to get where it's going. The tannins are obvious, sometimes hard edged, but they are ultimately going to integrate..."
Wine Advocate: 96 Points
Regular Price : $59.99
Sale Price : $41.99
Lowest price in America according to winesearcher.com (3/18/12)

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Roy's note: This is one of the highest rated non-fortified wines ever to come from Portugal, by the usually "hard grading" Mark Squires. This is a PRE-sale and the wines will be arriving at the end of March. I have zero involvement in this. I just bought a six pack and there are ten more six packs available, although you don't need to buy six in order to get free shipping.

[Russ K]

thanks Roy, sounds lieka great deal.

[Ray Barnes]

Without trying to sound like a stick in the mud, and perhaps I am misreading something, the March 31, 2012 edition of WS gave this wine a score of 90. This is not to suggest the other score is too high, since each taster is entitled to his or her own opinion, and the wine drinker must choose on one's own taste. Both major publications consider it to be at the very least an outstanding effort (WS lists its price at $55). The tasting notes reminded me fondly of a recent introduction to this estate's 2007 VP.

If it's sourced from and made with the same care as the grapes used in the VP, this ought to be very enjoyable and fine value for money. I hope to give it a whirl.

The better Portugese table wines are nice to drink for sheer pleasure - something I can no longer afford to do with better red Burgundies. It's nice to continue to enjoy whatever one can.

[Roy Hersh]

I don't want to look, but was that Kim Marcus who gave out that 90 point score?

As Andy can tell you, I have no love for Mark Squires who ran a forum on which I had over 14,000 posts on Port/Madeira/Douro etc. in the same amount of time that I have been on FTLOP. So you can say, I was active on his Forum. That being said, when Mark took over the rating of Douro wines, I was actually blown away by the excellence of his reports. So although we have very different opinions on almost everything, I have huge respect for the vast majority of Mark's WA scores and articles on Douro wines and Portuguese wine in general ... and far more so than that other wine infomercial magazine. It was very different when JS was still there.

[Ray Barnes]

HI Roy, unless there are two or more contributors to WS with the initials K.M., then yes that note is by Kim Marcus. I agree that this publication would do well to tone down its advertising.

By the way, my TN of this estate's 2007 VP used the same descriptive adjective as was used in your vintage review - and for the record I did not read your notes until after I had posted my own. No copying, just coincidental.