Winemaker Notes
The wine features a deep and complex nose with a variety of aromatic nuances.
The palate is vibrant and elegant, exhibiting an excellent integration of the oak,
a broad range of flavors including ripe blackberry, cloves, and vanilla bean, and
a wonderfully long finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This is the latest release from an estate that was founded in the 19th century by the legendary Dona Antónia Ferreira at a time when the upper Douro was almost inaccessible. This wine continues the line of magnificent wines created by her descendants. It is structured and dense yet poised. The rich dark fruit has melded with the tannins, although both will take much more time to fully develop.
Cellar Selection
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Wine Spectator
A powerful yet elegant red, offering a finely crafted array of steeped cherry, ripe raspberry and baking spice flavors, interwoven with violet, toast and schistlike minerality. Sinewy tannins and tangy acidity offer a powerful and refined structure, along with herb and smoky details on the seamless finish. Should age nicely. Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca and Tinta Roriz. Best from 2022 through 2032.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Tinto is a 50/40 blend of Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca, with Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca filling out the blend, all aged for 16 months in 50% new French oak. It comes in at 14% alcohol. This was last seen as an unbottled sample in Porto. It is now in bottle and in the USA. As this has settled in, it seemed a little less impressive—at first and on opening. A calling card here will be the intensity of fruit flavor. Yet, while it is certainly very ripe, it never seems jammy or sweet. It retains precision, and it becomes somewhat more complex as it airs out. The tannins are ripe enough so that this is actually approachable now, but there is some tannic pop, and this needs development. It would be a mistake to open it today. Come back around 2025 for better results.
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.