Winemaker Notes
The Prazo de Roriz is characterized particularly by red fruit flavors — raspberries and cherries and the Quinta de Roriz terroir provides a distinctive minerality and appealing peppery spice. The Quinta da Perdiz vineyard also provides grapes for the Prazo de Roriz. The wine is made for drinking young, but with the potential for developing in bottle for several years.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Aromas of sweet spices, dark fruit and elderberries with a nervy touch. The palate is round and concentrated, medium- to full-bodied and expressive, with vibrant dark fruit and polished tannins that add focus in the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Prazo de Roriz was produced with 30% Touriga Nacional, 20% Touriga Franca, 15% Tinta Roriz, 15% Tinta Barroca and 20% old vines (a field blend). It fermented in stainless steel with selected yeasts and matured in 400-liter French oak barrels for six months. It has red fruit and very good freshness, surprising for the year. It was a very dry year (less than 50% of average rainfall) and the grapes were dehydrating, so the harvest started early. Some rain around the 13th of September saved the crop, though they had to stop for 10 days, which was a big decision. They lost the pickers, but it paid off because they got the ripeness they needed. The result seems miraculous. It has contained ripeness, 13.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.72. It is fresh, balanced and elegant, sleek and easily approachable.
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Wine Spectator
Bright acidity and chalky tannins are tightly aligned with a dark range of flavors, includ- ing blackberry, plum skin and herbed black olive, plus lots of minerally smoke and tar notes. This compact red opens nicely in the glass and should pair well with meat from the grill. Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca.
With hundreds of red grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended red wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged resulting in a wide variety of red wine styles. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a red wine blend variety that creates a fruity and full-bodied wine would do well combined with one that is naturally high in acidity and tannins. Sometimes small amounts of a particular variety are added to boost color or aromatics. Blending can take place before or after fermentation, with the latter, more popular option giving more control to the winemaker over the final qualities of the wine.
How to Serve Red Wine
A common piece of advice is to serve red wine at “room temperature,” but this suggestion is imprecise. After all, room temperature in January is likely to be quite different than in August, even considering the possible effect of central heating and air conditioning systems. The proper temperature to aim for is 55° F to 60° F for lighter-bodied reds and 60° F to 65° F for fuller-bodied wines.
How Long Does Red Wine Last?
Once opened and re-corked, a bottle stored in a cool, dark environment (like your fridge) will stay fresh and nicely drinkable for a day or two. There are products available that can extend that period by a couple of days. As for unopened bottles, optimal storage means keeping them on their sides in a moderately humid environment at about 57° F. Red wines stored in this manner will stay good – and possibly improve – for anywhere from one year to multiple decades. Assessing how long to hold on to a bottle is a complicated science. If you are planning long-term storage of your reds, seek the advice of a wine professional.
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.