For The Love Of Port

A beautiful bottle of Quinta do Vale d. Maria 2001 Douro made me realise just how well many of the Douro wines are ageing. I was lucky enough to get involved in Douro wines at the time when the 'Douro Revolution' was really starting to take of, with the release of the 2000 and 2001 wines. And although you can argue that many of the winemakers were still trying to find their style at that time, a lot of the wines that I tried recently showed really well (e.g. Redoma 2000, Chryseia 2000, Lavradores de Feitoria Grande Escolha 2001). With all these wines coming of age, we can now begin to see the potential of the region, and it is very pleasing to see that it is fullfilling its promise.

It would be incredibly interesting (and tasty for sure) to put together a large tasting of 2000 and 2001 Douro wines, it only is a pity that it is impossible to do such a thing at the moment for me.... I will just have to settle for the lone bottle every once in a while.

It is amazing to see how these wines are doing for such a young dry wine region...well for upper end or higher quality dry wines that is. As the region has been making dry wines for a long time, albeit nothing to write home about. I recently had some mid 1990's Niepoort Redoma's (1.5L, 750, 375ml) and a couple mag's of 1998's from Crasto last month and for the most part they were still holding very nicely. There is no doubt Douro wines are getting better and better as time goes on and I think it's a nice compliment to the Ports.

As for a tasting, let me know if you ever make it to Southern California area and I'll crack open some old Douro's for you.

Andy Velebil wrote:As for a tasting, let me know if you ever make it to Southern California area and I'll crack open some old Douro's for you.

That may take a while, but if it happens you will surely know about it.

We still have some 1998 Maria Teresa in the cellar, as well as a variety of 2000/2001's, but all of the mid-90's stuff is long gone...

Ronald Wortel wrote:
We still have some 1998 Maria Teresa in the cellar, as well as a variety of 2000/2001's, but all of the mid-90's stuff is long gone...

Leave the '98's in the cellar. It is still a baby and has a LONG road ahead of it still.

Compare even lower priced Douro 2000's with similarly priced 2000's from BDX and then it really shows how well Douro's can age at any price point. This should be no suprise seeing how well and long Dao's can age.

Last night had a 2001 Niepoort Vertente, a low-priced entry level Douro. Bought on release and held just to see how it would age. It aged very well and I was surprised at how well it has held up.

Although I started buying Douro wines with the 1996 Crasto Touriga Nacional being my first to be purchased by the case on release, which is about four or five years prior to what is commonly quoted as the "Douro Wine Revolution" .... I am happy that the mid-late 1990's wines I have had this year have all exceeded my expectations. The longevity shown in just about every older bottling has me thinking that it is a very rare bottle of Douro red ... except the ultra-inexpensive bottlings which are made for immediate consumption and rarely last ... normally all others will last a minimum of 10 years without even trying. Very encouraging for the likes of the greats from 2003 and thereafter.