Winemaker Notes
Deep purple in color, the wine shows elegant gum cistus aromas well integrated with complex notes of fresh spice and wild berry fruit. Balanced on the palate, evolving into a powerful wine that shows red berry fruit flavors, excellent volume and firm, textured tannins. This is an engaging, food-friendly wine, with a fresh, lingering finish.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Tinta Roriz was aged in new French oak for 16 to 18 months, depending on the plot (with three vineyards separately fermented). It comes in at 14.5% alcohol. Usually Crasto's burliest, most tannic wine—even the Ponte, while often more closed and with just as much power, doesn't always seem so astringent on first taste—this has calmed down a lot since I first saw it. Very graceful and surprisingly elegant, it is a wine that doesn't seem even a little burly or rich now. As time has gone on, Crasto has moved more and more to finesse in general. Of course, the 2015 vintage helps with that as well—it wasn't really a big and jammy year. Mostly, it was a fresh and elegant one. Showing beautiful mid-palate finesse and relatively ripe tannins for the brand, this dances across the palate beautifully. It has lost some of the intensity it originally had, but it still tightens notably. It is not ready by any means. While losing some intensity, it has not yet replaced that with harmony and complexity. We are in a bit of an awkward stage. We are going to have to wait a few more years, at least. This is a little more closed than when I last saw it, but its future still looks bright.
Nestled on a privileged location in the Douro, Quinta do Crasto is one of the oldest winemaking estates in the region – the name ‘Crasto’ is derived from the Latin word ‘castrum’, which means ‘Roman fort’. The first known references to Quinta do Crasto can be traced back to 1615, long before the Douro became the world’s first Demarcated Wine Region in 1756. In the early 1900s, Quinta do Crasto was purchased by Constantino de Almeida, the founder of the famous Constantino Port house. Today, his granddaughter, Leonor Roquette, and her husband Jorge Roquette own and manage the estate, together with their sons, Miguel and Tomás. The Roquette family has invested tremendous time, attention, and resources to rebuild and expand the vineyards and facilities to produce top quality Port and Douro table wines. Vineyard mapping, DNA-matched replanting, a new state-of-the-art wine cellar and centuries of tradition mean that no detail in the winemaking and vineyard management is overlooked.
Quinta do Crasto produces different styles of port and table wines each year. Together with their winemakers and their entire team, they seek to produce year after year wines that display the unique and beautiful characteristics of the Douro, through a tireless devotion to tradition, integrity and excellence.
Notoriously food-friendly, long-lasting and Spain’s most widely planted grape, Tempranillo is the star variety of red wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. The Rioja terms Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva indicate both barrel and bottle time before release. Traditionally blended in Rioja with Garnacha, plus a bit of Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano, the Tempranillo in Ribera del Duero typically stands alone. Somm Secret—Tempranillo claims many different names depending on location. In Penedès, it is called Ull de Llebre and in Valdepeñas, goes by Cencibel. Known as Tinta Roriz in Portugal, Tempranillo plays an important role in Port wine.
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.