Croft Vintage Port 2011
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Winemaker Notes
This deep purple-black wine has complex, seductive aromas with the archetypal Croft opulence along with impressive depth, background and aromatic reserves. Rich, powerful fruitiness is the backdrop for heady scents of blossom and rock rose. Luscious, ripe berry flavors are accompanied by a velvety texture underpinned by taut, muscular, perfectly-integrated tannins, which provide stamina, an attractive firmness, and vigor to the finish. More virile and structured than some recent Croft Vintage Ports, 2011 displays all the rich, ripe fruitiness and exotically scented character associated with the Croft house style.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Effusively juicy, rich and concentrated, showing plenty of snap to the crisp and well-spiced flavors of wild berry, dark currant and plum tart. Orange-infused chocolate notes linger on the exotic, mocha-filled finish. Best from 2020 through 2045.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Croft is initially taciturn on the nose, even after allowing it 20 minutes in my glass. A light swirling immediately awakens the aromatics to offer blackberry, Seville orange marmalade, blueberries and dried fig – complex and quite compelling. There is real mineralite within this bouquet that, returning after 30 minutes, offers alluring ocean spray scents rolling in off the ocean. The palate is medium-bodied with a velvety-smooth opening that belies the fine, structured tannins underneath. It clams up a little towards the finish, shuts the lid tight and consequently there is the sensation of less persistency here compared to the Taylor's or Fonseca. But Croft has a knack of filling out with bottle age and becomes both gentle and generous with the passing years.
Range: 92-95 -
Wine Enthusiast
This shows very sweet fruit that’s ripe, dense and already delicious. That doesn’t mean the tannins don’t bring out the firmness at the core of this powerful wine. It is integrated, packed with black plum flavors, and full bodied. For long-term aging.
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James Suckling
Beautiful aromas of violets and blueberries with hints of blue slate. Full body, medium sweet with chewy tannins and a long, long finish. A leafy, stemmy, nutty undertone to this with hints of shaved milk chocolate. Very refined and beautiful. 5,000 cases produced of this foot-trodden wine.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
The 2011 Croft Vintage Porto is one of the winery's top efforts. The wine is somewhere between elegant and powerful. It delivers excellent ripe red fruits, with hints of stones and mineral. (Tasted: June 4, 2013, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine & Spirits
Each vintage release has improved on the last until this 2011, which is a jump shift in depth and brings Croft back to its rightful place among the elite of the Duoro hierachy. It has the distance and restraint of a great young vintage, the density of the fruit and the mouthwatering tannins held tight, youthfully closed. hinting at its future in bright scents of roses and dark tones of freshly turned earth, this is a wine of significant weight and depth. It should reach its prime around 25 years from the vintage.
Other Vintages
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The House of Croft, founded in 1678, was one of the earliest shippers of Port wines and since the seventeenth century, has been renowned for the excellence of its production.The family first became involved in wine shipping through their connection with a distinguished family of merchants, the Thompsons of York. The Thompsons had been trading with Portugal since 1660 and when Thomas Croft married Frances, daughter of Sir Stephen Thompson, it was only natural that the two families should combine their business interests in the wine trade.
Near river, rail and road transport and lying against a backdrop of rugged mountainous scenery, Roêda is considered to be the finest Port estate in Portugal. And today, it is from its own famous Quinta da Roêda, in the centre of the Douro valley, that Croft annually sends down to its lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia the fine wines that constitute the best of Croft's production.The twentieth century directors and managers of Croft & Co. have assiduously pursued the fine quality and reputation they inherited. The House of Croft has continued to play a dominant role in the development of the Port trade, both in Portugal and internationally.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.