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
Prices:
Bottle
£18.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl8cs
With traditional lagare foot-trodden grapes and 16 months in new and one-year-old French oak, the 2010 has plenty of individuality and no dearth of class, with abundant black fruit, herbal and savoury notes in support and, perhaps most importantly, very fine tannins holding the edifice in place.
Bottle
£32.45
Bottle 6 x 75cl29cs
Bottle
£34.95
The young vines portion (defined as 15 years old, which is fine for most people) includes Touriga Franca (25%), Tinta Roriz (20%), Touriga Nacional (20%), Tinta Amarela (5%) and Sousao (3%).
Although it does not show a lot of mid-palate depth, noting that the wines from this estate are always on the more elegant side, it has fine structure and complexity, a certain earthy nuance and some brightness. It is gripping on the finish and should develop a medley of flavors as it ages. It is yet another in the string of regular or second wines in this vintage that perform particularly well at excellent price points. Drink now-2017.
Mark Squires - Wine Advocate - eRobertParker.com - Dec 2009
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)
Bottle 6 x 75cl3cs
The vinification takes place in state of the art gravity-flow fermenters and the wine is matured for 10 months in 400 litre French barrels. Pombal is rich, with powerful flavours of cassis, mulberry and black plum, all laced with a stony minerality and underpinned by very fine tannins. Stylish and not without local charm, this is a very popular wine, deservedly so.
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer
More commonly known for their fine single Quinta vintage ports, Quinta do Vesuvio’s still red wine is a sumptuous style produced from three noble varieties. Deep in colour, brooding dark fruit and a touch of red liquorice are characteristics displayed among the velvety tannins on the palate, wrapped up with a fine acidity.
Chris Lamb - London Shop Staff
Bottle 6 x 75cl1cs
Will Heslop - Buyer