90 points
What a lovely place this Vinho Verde is in, still fresh as a spring morning and bursting with vivacious sweet fruit and flavour, but with a little bottle age adding a subtle background depth. Crunchy, juicy sliced apple and a hint of something like peach or mango, there’s the faintest trace of spritz to add extra spark and zip, and a lovely core of acidity that shimmers on the finish. A delight!
90 points
A blend of traditional local grapes, Viosinho, Codega de Larinho, Malvasia and Rabigato, this surprises as Douro whites so often do with its particular freshness and mineral intensity. Unoaked, it does go through malolactic, which only rounds-out the texture and perhaps softens the acidity a little, but it stays dry, flecked with a salty mineral character, yet there is a lemon rind fruit and light waxiness there, almost like a dry Clare Valley Riesling perhaps, into a long and substantial finish of texture and flavour. Delicious and understated.
93 points
Produced only in exceptional vintages, this foot-trodden blend of whole-bunch Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and other Douro varieties was fermented in lagares and open barrels and aged for 24 months in French oak. This has a lovely nose, vinous and dark, with cherry and ripe plum, again a cocoa and liquorice twist of darkness, and a plush underpinning of quality oak. The palate is flooded with sweet fruit, but it’s an elegant wine, the tannins finer than in the Boango bottlings, a real sense of refinement and harmony into a long finish. This should also cellar well for five years or more.
93 points
A 15-year-old wine from the Dão doesn’t come along every day, and the good news is this is an absolute beauty. A blend of the local Jaen (Spain’s Mencia) and Rufete, it’s a Burgundy-lover’s dream, brimming with truffle and damp forest floor aromas, a touch of medicinal, herb and briar-wood, and a soft background of earthy, cedar-touched bramble fruit. In the mouth the creamy sweetness of the ripe berries is gorgeous, layered with spices and truffly, meat and herb notes, it is complex but at the same time deliciously moreish.
Caves Transmontanas, Vértice Gouveio Brut
92 points
A remarkable wine that spent a full 84 months – seven years – on the lees. It is made by the traditional method from the Gouveio variety, one of the traditional grapes of the Alto Douro’s cool upper slopes. It’s a very refined wine, the delicate fruit profile salty and lemony, but with a tiny floral touch and the long ageing on the yeast adding hints of toast. Crisp and bright on the palate, there’s a hint of wheat and toast again, but that lovely dry lemon and orange rind fruitiness is delightful, a very modest 5g/l dosage giving this plenty of bite and raciness, yet it is not at all tart, the long ageing on the lees seeing to that, as well as part of the juice being barrel fermented, to give a certain weight and luxurious richness. Delicious and a huge bargain at its £21.95 price
Caves Transmontanas, Vértice Sparkling Pinot Noir 2007
93 points
What a terrific wine this is. Perhaps it’s the fact that it is made by the traditional method from the Champagne grape Pinot Noir that has me on more familiar territory, but the beautiful fruit, depth, poise and substance of this wine with only 5g/l dosage made for fabulous drinking. Eight years on the lees has resulted in a touch of coppery depth to the colour and a nose of baked apple pie, lovely yeasty autolysis and a deep almost marmalade fruit note. In the mouth it is rich with a rolling mousse and such lovely, vivid flavours, small red berries etched by acidity, and long into the creamy beautifully balanced finish. A bargain for a wine of this quality.
91 points
A Port-method wine, but made from the aromatic Moscatel in the Douro by Rui Cunha. It’s basically in the style of a 10-year-old tawny Port, the nose showing a touch of floral Muscat character, but more the mellow and walnutty notes of its long wood ageing, dried apricot, lemon and a touch of ginger spice. In the mouth the spirit gives heat, but there’s some rich toast and marmalade character and that lovely sweetness lingers. A fine wine to match with blue cheeses, or to sip with some almonds perhaps.
Vasques de Carvalho Vintage Port 2016
93 points
Vintage Ports are made only in the best years, and Vasques de Carvalho’s 2016 is a selection of their best from that harvest, matured for 12 months in 6,000-litre wooden barrels. It is bottled unfiltered and should be decanted for serving. A very deep, opaque colour, the aromas are dense, meaty and darkly vinous, blueberry and damson fruit with just a tiny floral inflection coming through in this very young wine. It strikes the palate with glorious sweetness, a ripe, creamy richness of black fruit, super-sweet and mouth-filling, the quality of spirit evident in the quiet way it supports. There’s great balance here, chocolate richness and fruit, but elegant in terms of its acid, tannin and long finish. A wine that can be broached now for its sweet and charming fruit and youthful vigour, but which will also age for decades.
Vasques de Carvalho 10 Year Old Tawny
92 points
Aged tawnies bear an age statement that indicates their style and approximate age, though normally they are blends of various vintages chosen to create a consistent quality and character – in this case that spans wines between seven and 14 years old. After its considerable time in barrel, this has a toffee colour with hint of ruby at the core and an inviting nose of walnut and rich Muscavado sugar, plump raisins and a typical lift of shellac. On the palate it has a lovely sweetness, soft and creamy, the spirit beautifully subsumed beneath the lightly leafy but coffee-ish notes, Agen prune and raisins, and a very nicely balanced finish. What a charming 10-Year-Old. 136g/l of residual sugar.
Vasques de Carvalho 20 Year Old Tawny
94 points
Wines in this blend are between 12 and 25 years old, the extra decade or so in barrel not altering the colour too much, but adding to the firm, burnished, walnutty, cinnamon-stick aromatics. There’s deep Seville orange fruitiness too, but the aromas are polished and dark. On the palate the 138g/l residual sugar makes its sweet presence felt, but there is so much incisive citrussy fruit still, and those inter-weaving complex layers of nuttiness and old polished wood as well as acidity. A darker, more intense style than the 10-year-old.
