For The Love Of Port

On Thursday, I am having a friend over for lunch who is also a serious Douro lover. His bottle is a 2003 Quinta do Crasto Maria Theresa. I am deciding between three bottles to pair it with. A 2003 Vinha da Ponte, a 2004 Vinha da Ponte, or most likely ... a 2005 Maria Theresa. Tough choice and my decision is not made yet. I am thinking that it would be cool to have both wines from 2003, but I've had them side by side before. I am intrigued to have both the 2003 and 2005 MT to compare and contrast.

Your suggestions?

As much fun as it would be to pit the 2 MT's together, I vote for the 2003 Vinha da Ponte. What better fun then to slowly drink these two wines from the same year side by side and note their similarities and differences.

The only issue is that I have only one of those (2003 VdPs) and am considering that it might be best left to mature in cellar a bit before taking advantage, as I have already had it a few times in Canada and Portugal and know that it is sooooo young. I still might do that as I am deciding on what Port too. I am also seriously considering a 2003 Niepoort Redoma (red of course) which I know he has never tried and one that I have not had in awhile. Who knows?

He loves Vesuvio and I know he never has had the 1991. It is a possibility.

This may just be my last wine celebration prior to disappearing for many weeks leading up to our trip to Portugal. Although I am planning to get together with Glenn and also Stewart before I become an ostrich in a couple of weeks.

If you only have one of the '03 VdP, then I'd chose something else and leave that one to mature for another 10 years in the cellar. If you have a Batuta, that would be a better choice to pair with the MT than the Redoma. Or if you have any CV, that would be fun to pit against the MT.

I did do the Redoma and it was actually better than the MT. I was pretty darn surprised by that and would have bet just the opposite. I have saved 1/3 of each bottle to taste again tonight. The Redoma is a stellar wine and I had no idea it was THAT good. Whoa!

I liked the MT too, but with time open it started to show a very sweet almost candied profile and lots of oak was protruding. Still a very fine wine that needs a lot more time to hit its stride. It was better over the first two hours open. We'll see how it shows by tonight.

I find that the MT's usually need a lot of time to come together. I wish I owned some of the young ones, so I could lay them down in the cellar. The 1998 is just coming around the corner and still needs a bit of time to truly shine, IMO. Good choice on the Redoma! :)

The TNs for these wines will be in the next newsletter, but solid impressions are on the homepage: Roy's Blog if you are interested. That Redoma rocks. I am going to keep my hands off the rest for years!