Wine & Spirits - February 2021 - 61

Year's Best Northern Portugal
French oak barrels, yielding a wine with
strawberry-ripe sweetness and rosemary
scents to its tannins-a simple red marked
by the schist terroir of the Douro. § Winebow
Imports, NY

91 | Prats & Symington

$27

2018 Douro Post Scriptum de Chryseia ^
This is generous in its dark fruit flavors of
floral blueberries and their skins along
with woodland mushrooms. It's a fruitdriven wine, edged by bay laurel scents
and peppery spice. Decant it for beef with
black mushrooms. § Premium Port Wines, San
Francisco, CA
279664

91 | Quinta do Vale Meão $100

2018 Douro ^ The Olazabal family farms this
Douro Superior quinta where vines fan out
along a fault line of granite and schist. The
riverside blocks produce a generous and
bold wine, the 2018 virtually half and half
tourigas nacional and franca, with small
additions of tintas barroca and roriz. Briefly
foot trod (with 10 percent of the stems), this
ferments in small vats then ages in French
oak barriques (60 percent new). The oak
dominates the wine for now, surrounding
blackberry, date and olive notes in mouthcoating wood tannins. There's savory fruit
detail underneath, needing bottle age to
emerge. § Deutsch Family Wine and Spirits,
Stamford, CT
279656

91 | Wine & Soul

$115

2018 Douro Quinta da Manoella Vinhas
Velhas ^ The old vines at Manoella include
more tinta francisca than is typically found
at most Pinhão Valley vineyards; it's a variety
with a lean profile that seems to point up
the schist tannins in this wine. Those dry
tannins are completely filled out by the
velvety richness of the fruit, sweet, ripe and
smoothly oaked. Berkshire chef and baker
Amy Loveless found the ripe blackberry
flavors compelling, and commented, " I can
imagine this with a blackberry-apple pie. "  §
Winebow Imports, NY
279658

90 | Duorum

floral notes that keep it bright. Simple and
pleasing. § Signature Imports, Mansfield, MA

$11

2018 Douro Tons de Duorum (Best Buy) ^
This is a stainless steel-fermented blend of
estate-grown fruit, half of it touriga franca,
the balance touriga nacional and tinta roriz.
It spends three months in American and

279757

90 | Quinta dos Murças

$40

2015 Douro Reserva ^ Smooth and dark
fruited, with lasting spice, this is a finely made
wine with some tension to its structure, right
at the cusp of maturity. Ready to drink with
roast lamb. § Now Wine Imports, Livingston, NJ
279687

90 | Quinta do Noval

$78

2017 Duriense Syrah ^ Syrah handled the
dry heat of 2017, ripening to a lovely mellow
richness. A cream puff baked in the Douro
schist, this wine has notes of sugar plums and
orange zest, smoky and easy to enjoy with
prime rib. § Vintus, NY
279662

90 | Quinta do Vale Meão

$20

2018 Douro Meandro do Vale Meão (Best
Buy) ^ Meandro is Vale Meão's the second
wine, mostly touriga nacional, touriga franca
and tinta roriz. Francisco Olazabal and his
team foot tread each variety for four hours
in granite lagars before fermenting the wines
in small vats, then aging them in used French
oak barrels. Time in oak enriches the dark
plum and currant flavors of the fruit, adding
some black walnut tones. The fruit feels cool
and spicy, brisk and bright, suggesting the
oak, which blunts the finish for now, will
meld with bottle age. § Deutsch Family Wine
and Spirits, Stamford, CT
279738

88 | Altano

$22

88 | Delaforce

$13

88 | Dow's

$13

88 | Santos & Seixo

$19

87 | Altano

$13

87 | Casa Ferreirinha

$13

2017 Douro Vale do Bomfim (Best Buy) ^
Clean and fresh, this is all floral strawberry
and cranberry in its bright and simple fruit.
A peppery red for burgers. § Premium Port
Wines, San Francisco, CA
279751
2016 Douro Perspectiva Reserva (Best
Buy) ^ A soft and herbal blend of touriga
nacional, touriga franca and tinta roriz, this
wine's mint and black pepper notes rise off
dusty tannins. It's a simple, spicy red for a
steak. § Diniz Cellars, Burbank, CA
279659
2018 Douro (Best Buy) ^ Dark and beefy,
this wine's black currant flavors are juicy
and sweet. The tannins are charry, the wine
developing some meaty funk as it opens with
air. Pour it with a ribeye. § Vineyard Brands,
Birmingham, AL
279639
2018 Douro Esteva (Best Buy) ^ Smoky, spicy
and soft, this wine carries the scent of purple
grapes and crushed flowers though a light,
lean frame. Pour it with baba ghanoush or
fried eggplant. § Evaton, Stamford, CT n

2019 Douro Naturalmente Organic
Biologico (Best Buy) ^ A fresh young wine
with a light tannic bite, this has the tangy,
purple grape flavors of tourigas nacional
and franca. Its dusty tannins can take
on barbecued pork. § Vineyard Brands,
Birmingham, AL
279675
2017 Douro Red Blend (Best Buy) ^ While
saturated with Douro-grape flavors, this
wine retains lightness along with pretty
WINE & SPIRITS

FEBRUARY 2021

61
https://www.wine.com/product/prats-and-symington-post-scriptum-de-chryseia-douro-2018/648497 https://www.wine.com/product/dows-vale-do-bomfim-2017/580452 https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/esporao+quinta+dos+murca+rsrv+douro+portugal/2015
Wine & Spirits - February 2021

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