Wine & Spirits - December 2020 - 102

FOCUS: 2018 VINTAGE &
LATE-BOTTLED VINTAGE PORT
Our blind panels tasted 33 2018 Vintage Porto & LBV wines for this issue. Joshua Greene, our critic for Portugese wines, rated 16 as
exceptional (90+) and 7 as Best Buys. Find a complete list of wines tasted and all reviews at wineandspiritsmagazine.com.

2018 VI N TA GE
279151

95 | Taylor Fladgate

$120

2018 Porto Vintage ^ Capturing the brisk
power of a classic Taylor vintage, this wine
opens with a centrifugal force to its flavor
intensity, then continues to evolve over the
course of several days, its presence almost
completely savory, its power developing a
quiet exuberance. As is typical for a young
Taylor, the wine is branded by austerity and
the floral notes of esteva-the local rockrose that grows at the top of the vineyards at
Vargellas, Taylor's home quinta on the south
bank at the entrance to the Douro Superior.
The wine's schist tannins are finely integrated into its shades of blue, black and red
fruit, making this a graceful vintage of Taylor,
easily the wine of the vintage in our tasting
of 2018s. § Kobrand, Purchase, NY
279143

94 | Fonseca

$58

2018 Porto Vintage Guimaraens (Best
Buy) ^ This wine's explosive power doesn't get
in the way of it being remarkably delicious to
drink on release, only strengthening the paradox that has become contemporary Vintage
Port and begging the question: Am I missing out by drinking it now? But who would
choose to wait for a wine that tingles with
complexity, delivering fresh herbal notes,
equally fresh purple-plum flavors and brisk
schist tannins that seem almost floral? Too
many questions. The solution is just to drink
it instead of pulling out a Douro table wine-
or a Napa Valley cabernet, for that matter-
with a duck stew, a cassoulet or chouriço. In
that context, at $58, it's a steal. And then,
forget some in your cellar. § Kobrand, Purchase, NY
279142

94 | Quinta da Romaneira

$68

2018 Porto Vintage (Best Buy) ^ Christian
Seely's day job is managing director of AXA
Millésimes, where he got his start managing
Quinta do Noval when the company purchased it in the early 1990s. Though he's
no longer based in the Douro, he sealed his
personal connection with the region in 2004,
with a deal to purchase the Quinta da Romaneira, upriver from Pinhão. António Agrel102

WINE & SPIRITS

los, then the technical director at Noval,
has helped Seely and his team renovate the
vineyards and continues as consulting winemaker. After the financial crisis at the end of
the aughts, André Esteves of Brazil invested
as Seely's new partner in the 1,000-acre riverfront estate, a property first registered in
1757. Fast-forward to 2018: this wine has
energy to spare, as if it has turned the powerful Douro sunlight into the intensity of its
velvet-rich fruit, gaminess, plumminess and
schist all merging into one, the flavor completely savory and lasting on the breath. "Oh
my God, wow!" said one taster, jolted by the
wine's sophistication and refinement. § Vias
Imports, NY
279141

93 | Croft

$50

2018 Porto Vintage Quinta da Roeda
(Best Buy) ^ Roeda is Croft's historic quinta
adjacent to the town of Pinhão. Farmed by
António Magalhaes since the Fladgate Partnership purchased Croft in 2001, this site is
coming back to match its legendary stature.
In 2018, the wine has the fatness of a year
with ample reserves in the soil, a coolness
that feels tied to the river itself. The fruit
is rosy and vibrant red, the tannins gentle
and aristocratic. Rather than a long-term
wine, this will likely be at its best ten to 20
years from the vintage, though it's already
packed with Douro deliciousness. § Kobrand,
Purchase, NY
279145

93 | Quinta do Noval

$110

93 | W. & J. Graham's

$75

2018 Porto Vintage ^ The peppercorn spice
driving this wine's youthful exuberance led
one taster to compare it to a syrah from Hermitage. Others described the flavor as akin
to tart wild grapes, huckleberries, black currants... The wine is, in fact, packed with fruit,
held tight by that peppercorn-like reduction,
bursting out of its velvet seams. As Michael
Kowalski of Miraval Berkshires in Lenox,
Mass., noted, "It's going places, but it's not
there yet." Built to cellar. § Vintus, NY
279149
2018 Porto Vintage Quinta dos Malvedos ^
Malvedos is the original home of Graham's
and remains the core of the brand's Vintage

DECEMBER 2020

wines. Most of the quinta's parcels face south
toward the river; in top years, Charles Symington produces a special bottling, selecting
fruit from the 19th-century stone terraces
that follow the contours of the hills to face
north. Those parcels are a part of this singlequinta wine in 2018. It has the plumpness
typical of Graham's, some fresh cherry-skin
detail infusing the chocolate richness of tannins. There's a hint of fruit leather along with
superripe notes of peaches from the heat of
the summer season. As is traditional for this
wine, the Symingtons will continue to age
it in bottle for another eight years before
release. § Premium Port Wines, San Francisco,
CA
279147

92 | Cockburn's

$75

92 | Quinta de la Rosa

$80

2018 Porto Vintage Quinta dos Canais ^
Cockburn's had developed this property in
the Douro Superior before the Symington
family purchased the brand. It's an "A"-rated
vineyard on the north side of the Douro that
Cockburn's largely replanted in the 1990s, its
240 acres of vines including significant parcels of touriga nacional (69 acres) and touriga
franca (77 acres). This tastes like a modern
wine, with plum-pudding depths surrounded
by broken-stone minerality and powerful,
chocolate-rich tannins. A superripe balance
of savory and sweet, it will likely be best
around ten years from the vintage. § Premium
Port Wines, San Francisco, CA
279140
2018 Porto Vintage ^ Given travel restrictions
during crush in 2020, Sophia Bergquist settled in for the duration at her quinta on the
edge of Pinhão, where she works with Jorge
Moreira on the wines. It's a beautiful place
be on lockdown, and it produced a beautiful wine in 2018, a time that now seems
like ancient history. Vibrant with spicy
green scents and deep tobacco tones, it has
a fragrance that Nacho Monclús of NYC's
Despaña likened to a Cohiba cigar. With air,
the savory tannins grow increasingly brisk
and powerful while fruit sweetness comes
up to meet them. Pretty delicious as a young
wine, this is structured to age for 20 years or
more. § Winesellers, Niles, IL
279137


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Wine & Spirits - December 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - December 2020

Contents
Wine & Spirits - December 2020 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - December 2020 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - December 2020 - 1
Wine & Spirits - December 2020 - 2
Wine & Spirits - December 2020 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - December 2020 - 4
Wine & Spirits - December 2020 - 5
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