For The Love Of Port

Wine & Soul is a new company in the Douro. It is a realization of Jorge Borges(ex-Niepoort) and his wife Sandra Tavares involved in a few Douro Port and wines including Quinta Dona Vale Maria.

Their first vintage for red wine was 2001. I've come accross the 2003 in the Douro and could not resists buying it. I paid 37 euros for it but can be seen much pricier in other wine shops.

Opaque ruby color, exuberant nose, very floral with black cherry and plums flavor, hint of vanilla, very fresh. The 14% alcool do not show at all. The mouth is perfect, smooth and balanced, lots of concentration but again the acidy keeps everything fresh, nice palate of crushed strawberry, plums and cherry, we feel some bitter tannins giving that sweet dark chocolate flavour for a long finish. 17.5/20+

This wine was decanted for 4 hours. After 6 hours, the wine was getting a bit too hot and the flavours were showing much more creamy sweet oak as there was almost none at 16-17 celcius. So keep it around 16 to get the most pleasure out of it! Again this morning, I had the last glass and the wine just held so well, tannins are a bit more present.

My buying list for my next trip just keep growing! :?

Wait till you taste the 2004... Your buying list will grow even more!

...and of course, there's their '03 & '04 VP as well: not bad AT ALL!

I agree with your TN, even if I rated it a bit higher...I am SO happy to have a case of this in the cellar!

And if you have the chance, try to taste some Qta. d. Chocopalha '04s as well, Fred - for my taste, the best wines yet from the estate of her parents (Alentejo).

Thank you Steven for these recommendations. I should be able to put a case in the cellar of Pintas as someone is supposed to import them in Quebec somewhere in the summer. I was able to buy one bottle of 2003 Port last year too but this one I'll wait some years before trying it.

Regarding my rating, 17.5 is probably similar to 94-95 for the WS 100 points rating.

I'm an easy grader when the wine is well made, it can earn easily 16, around 88-90 then I'm keeping more points to show more difference between great wines.

Tasted again last weekend thanks to Steven.

Didn't make a TN, but I loved every bit of this wine, and it showed beautifully. Seemed more elegant than when I tried it last (after it was just bottled), great harmony between all flavours and a very promising future. Yum!

We tried every single vintage while visiting with Sandra and Jorge. It was great to see them and their adorable young son and dog Pintas too!

The 2004 is amazing but the 2001 from Mag was absolutely delicious. The 2005 and even the 2006 are both stunning too. This couple makes some great wine with their Pintas venture as well as the other properties they are involved with.