Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage Port 2013
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Quinta do Vesuvio's 2013 Vintage Port is a blend of 65% Touriga Nacional, 10% Tinta Barroca, 12% Alicante Bouschet and 13% combined of Touriga Franca and Sousão. It comes in at 110 grams per liter of residual sugar. This was bottled in 2015 after 18 months in used oak vats. Seeming full bodied and quite dry in perception when opened, it kept getting sexier with air and time, the sugar and the sweet fruit eventually popping up. At the day day mark, it was irresistible and sensationally delicious. This inky black Vesuvio was probably my favorite Single Quinta in this report, although admittedly the beautiful Dow's makes it a close call and may have even more upside. If I had to pick one, though, this would likely be it. This is the sexier and more aromatic of the two. The Dow is more controlled and brooding, just a bit harder to read. They are both wonderful, though. On opening, this preened in its power, but its signature features will be the tasty fruit and powerful aromatics. That was, admittedly, not completely clear at first. Gripping and lingering on the finish, it is gorgeously constructed, nicely concentrated and it has more upside with cellaring than most of the 2013s I've been tasting. This needs some cellaring to become more expressive and softer. It should be worth the wait. Notes: This Douro Superior Quinta was acquired by the Symingtons in 1989. There were 750 nine-liter cases produced.
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Wine Spectator
Elegant and full of crushed red raspberry, macerated cherry and dark plum flavors. Shows good grip, with an integrated finish of dark chocolate, accented by floral notes. Best after 2020.
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Although historical records mention Vesuvio as early as 1565 it was primarily under the auspices of the Douro's redoubtable widow, Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira, that this vineyard estate acquired its legendary reputation. The estate's industrious founder was her husband who from 1820 began the ambitious task of planting the vineyard. This gargantuan enterprise involving the shaping and construction of terraces on the intractable slopes and the planting of hundreds of thousands of vines took his legions of workers thirteen years to complete. Following the founder's death, his widow continued to develop the property, which under her able management became the showpiece quinta of the Douro. At Vesuvio she built one of the Douro's largest wineries, containing eight granite 'lagares' (treading tanks) each capable of holding 25 pipes (1 pipe: 550 litres). In 1989 Quinta do Vesuvio was purchased by the Symington family whose involvement in the growing, production and shipping of Port began more than a century ago. The family decided from the outset to preserve the traditional character of the Quinta especially with regard to the vinification process where the time-honored method of treading the grapes by foot has been retained. Some technological innovations have been introduced principally in the form of a cooling system to control fermentation in this ancient wine making method. In view of the outstanding quality of the wine, Vesuvio is offered exclusively as a single Quinta Vintage Port. Only about 50 pipes (36,000 bottles) are bottled each year although the production of the property is much greater and this exemplifies the family's steadfast policy of releasing none but the very finest wines from the Quinta.
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.
Best known for intense, impressive and age-worthy fortified wines, Portugal relies almost exclusively on its many indigenous grape varieties. Bordering Spain to its north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean on its west and south coasts, this is a land where tradition reigns supreme, due to its relative geographical and, for much of the 20th century, political isolation. A long and narrow but small country, Portugal claims considerable diversity in climate and wine styles, with milder weather in the north and significantly more rainfall near the coast.
While Port (named after its city of Oporto on the Atlantic Coast at the end of the Douro Valley), made Portugal famous, Portugal is also an excellent source of dry red and white Portuguese wines of various styles.
The Douro Valley produces full-bodied and concentrated dry red Portuguese wines made from the same set of grape varieties used for Port, which include Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz (Spain’s Tempranillo), Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca and Tinto Cão, among a long list of others in minor proportions.
Other dry Portuguese wines include the tart, slightly effervescent Vinho Verde white wine, made in the north, and the bright, elegant reds and whites of the Dão as well as the bold, and fruit-driven reds and whites of the southern, Alentejo.
The nation’s other important fortified wine, Madeira, is produced on the eponymous island off the North African coast.