2014 Reserva Especial, Casa Ferreirinha, Douro, Portugal
Critics reviews
Full bottle a horribly heavy 1,753 g. Fruit from Quinta da Leda and from very high elevation to have high capacity to age. Longer bottle ageing. Aiming for a pH of 3.5 (some wines 3.8 and some with 3.2). A notably wet winter, particularly in January and February, helped replenish water reserves in the soil. A fresh summer was defined by swings in the weather, as evidenced by a heatwave in June and rainfall in both July and September. Harvested in September. 42% Touriga Franca, 34% Touriga Nacional, 13% Tinta Roriz, 11% Tinto Cão. Destemmed, all varieties co-fermented in stainless-steel tanks; long maceration. Malo in old oak. Matured in Vila Nova de Gaia in French oak barrels (75% new) for 12 months then blended. Filtered before bottling in May 2016 and released only in 2023. TA 5.5 g/l, pH 3.5.
Very dark and still with some purple in the crimson rim. Beautifully scented with some cedar and rock rose and still a lot of black fruit. Dark, dark and a little peppery/spicy but it is the fruit that shines, and the oak is subtle even if it has thickened the texture of the tannins. A tannic baby with fruit at its core, dark blackberry, savoury. Really refined. Even with all these tannins it flows across the palate in a dry river of elegant and fresh fruit. Chalky finesse on the finish. This has a long way to go though you could broach it now with food if you prefer fruit over greater complexity.
Drink 2026 - 2040
Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com (January 2024)
Dark fruit with black cherries, blackcurrants, mineral, and slate undertones. Medium to full body. Racy fine tannins. It’s chewy and driven. This is an undeclared Barca Velha. Superb Douro red. Latour of the Douro. A blend of 42% touriga franca, 34% touriga nacional, 13% tinta roriz, and 11% tinto cao. Drink after 2025.
James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (December 2023)
A lovely notion of camomile and dried hay flowers appears even before the caramelised red fruit. Melted vanilla laces dark black fruit. Brooding and overwhelming, firm and structured with some heat, but very well done. Mouthwatering and fresh. Nominated by Sarah Ahmed.
Drink 2024 - 2031
Tina Gellie, Anne Krebhiel MW and Michaela Morris, Decanter (November 2023)
About this WINE
Casa Ferreirinha
Casa Ferreirinha is a wine producer in Portugal’s Douro Valley. The winery is renowned for its unfortified red wines, mostly notably its flagship cuvée Barca-Velha, whose first vintage was 1952. The team here is led by winemaker Luís Sottomayor. Casa Ferreirinha is part of the Sogrape group, a large portfolio of vineyards and wineries in Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Chile and New Zealand.
Douro
The Douro region begins 100km inland from Porto and extends east to the Spanish border. With its winding river, sculptured terraced hillsides and wild, hilly vistas it is one of the most beautiful wine regions in the world.
Dominated by the region’s famous fortified Ports, the Douro’s still wines are gaining a rapidly improving reputation. Most top wines are labelled as Douro DOC (Denominação de Origem Controlada) although there are also some good wines using French grape varieties (not authorised under the DOC) that are labelled as Vinho Regional Terras Durienses.
With much of the areas overlapping, the Douro DOC covers almost 38,000ha, the Vinho Regional slightly more (45,500ha) and the DO for Port slightly less (32,000ha). The region’s soils benefit from a thick layer of schist on top of the typical granite that abounds in most of northern Portugal. The schist absorbs and radiates heat back into the vines, while allowing the limited amount of rain to seep far into the ground and the vine roots to delve deep into the vertical planes.
The wines are predominantly red and range from relatively light, lively and fruity to deep, dark, concentrated and fully-flavoured. The former tend to be made from Rabigato, Gouveio, Codega, Donzelinho, Malvasia Fina and Viosinho while the latter come from the better-known Port varieties: Tinta Roriz (aka Tempranillo), Touriga Nacional, Tinta Francesca, Tinto Cão, Bastardo, Mourisco Tinto, Tinta Amarela and Tinta Barroca. Classic French varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc and Gewurztraminer are also planted and used to produce the Vinho Regional wines.
Recommended Producers: Quinta de la Rosa, Jorge Moreira, Altano
Other Varieties
There are over 200 different grape varieties used in modern wine making (from a total of over 1000). Most lesser known blends and varieties are traditional to specific parts of the world.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
Full bottle a horribly heavy 1,753 g. Fruit from Quinta da Leda and from very high elevation to have high capacity to age. Longer bottle ageing. Aiming for a pH of 3.5 (some wines 3.8 and some with 3.2). A notably wet winter, particularly in January and February, helped replenish water reserves in the soil. A fresh summer was defined by swings in the weather, as evidenced by a heatwave in June and rainfall in both July and September. Harvested in September. 42% Touriga Franca, 34% Touriga Nacional, 13% Tinta Roriz, 11% Tinto Cão. Destemmed, all varieties co-fermented in stainless-steel tanks; long maceration. Malo in old oak. Matured in Vila Nova de Gaia in French oak barrels (75% new) for 12 months then blended. Filtered before bottling in May 2016 and released only in 2023. TA 5.5 g/l, pH 3.5.
Very dark and still with some purple in the crimson rim. Beautifully scented with some cedar and rock rose and still a lot of black fruit. Dark, dark and a little peppery/spicy but it is the fruit that shines, and the oak is subtle even if it has thickened the texture of the tannins. A tannic baby with fruit at its core, dark blackberry, savoury. Really refined. Even with all these tannins it flows across the palate in a dry river of elegant and fresh fruit. Chalky finesse on the finish. This has a long way to go though you could broach it now with food if you prefer fruit over greater complexity.
Drink 2026 - 2040
Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com (January 2024)
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