Portugal’s icon wines: top bottles from the Douro

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at the launch of Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port 1931. This iconoclastic Port from a single 1.7ha plot of five-year-old vines bucked the Douro’s staunch tradition of blending parcels (‘vinhas’) and estates (‘quintas’). How else to obtain balance, complexity and finesse in an extreme continental climate? Yet Nacional is widely regarded as the Everest of vintage Ports and priced accordingly.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 12 of Portugal’s top fine wines

Almost a century later, Noval has marked the launch of its new ‘Terroir Series’ single-parcel Douro wine range with Quinta do Noval Vinhas da Marka 2019 at £170 per bottle. Others have caught up, too, producing top-end single-parcel vintage Ports – for example, Graham’s Stone Terraces from Quinta dos Malvedos and Croft’s Quinta da Roeda Serikos.

There has also been an increase in Douro wines – a category pioneered by Quinta do Crasto, who first produced Vinha Maria Teresa and Vinha da Ponte in 1998.

Given the region’s reliably scorching summers, you might have thought that making single-parcel Douro wines was even more challenging than making single-parcel vintage Port. However, as Hedonism’s head buyer Alistair Viner observes, finding standout parcels of vines is an inevitable consequence of getting to know your vineyards intimately.

‘As with any area – Burgundy, Bordeaux, California – producers find parcels to bottle that, year on year, can stand on their own two feet as an exceptional wine,’ he explains. ‘It’s a direction that naturally happens as producers get more akin with vineyards.’

From monopoly to monopole

The catalyst for this process was the end of the Port houses’ traditional monopoly on wine sales in the mid-1980s. This opened the floodgates for making Douro DOC wine. It allowed quintas to produce and sell their own wine, as opposed to selling grapes or wine to Port houses. Conversely, it also encouraged Port houses to invest in vineyards and winemaking.

From near contiguous plots, Crasto’s two charismatic big hitters (Maria Teresa and da Ponte) could not have made a better case for this growing niche of distinctive, distinguished single-parcel wines.

For chief winemaker Manuel Lobo, Maria Teresa’s east-facing orientation results in more afternoon shade and edgier tannins. On the other hand, Ponte always produces rounder tannins (and a darker fruit spectrum) due to its southeast-facing location and relatively high sunshine hours.

Similar attention to detail has paid dividends at Noval under AXA Millésimes’ ownership. Each vineyard is managed autonomously by an individual local team ‘devoted to making the greatest wines they can produce in the conditions that nature has given us,’ says CEO Christian Seely.

Their number includes Quinta da Marka, a predominantly west-facing 11ha estate owned by the Agrellos family. Located on slightly deeper soils planted to the estate’s oldest vines, Vinha da Marka – a 1.45ha parcel – also benefits afternoon shade from two adjacent mountains. So says Carlos Agrellos, Noval’s technical director.

Vine and bottle age

It is surely no coincidence that all 12 wines recommended below hail from resilient old field-blend vineyards. Having scores of well-adapted traditional Douro grape varieties (red and white) plays into complexity and balance. The same applies to deep-rooted old vines, which find water and nutrients in even the harshest conditions.

If Crasto’s reds are a guide (they boast a 20-year track record), this inherent balance allows wines to retain their delicious fruit for a decade or more – while developing glorious complexity with age. With the trend towards extracting less and an increasing emphasis on freshness, recent vintages might age better still; only time will tell. My drinking windows are conservative.

A matter of character

For producer Dirk Niepoort, old vines may be the key to balance and concentration, but the impetus for departing from traditional blends boils down to character. As he describes it, there will be a wine that shouts: ‘I am this and not part of a blend.’

One or two barriques always stood out, he says, requiring longer ageing. Take Niepoort Museu dos Lagares, for example, a single-vineyard offcut from Niepoort Charme. By contrast, Niepoort Turris is aged in large foudres: wilder, and with distinct forest notes, it is a different animal altogether.

House style is important too. Describing them as ‘chalk and cheese,’ Hedonism’s Viner says that the single vinha wines from Crasto and Niepoort resonate with consumers’ willingness ‘to spend more to discover new things and expand their knowledge’.

While Crasto’s offerings are opulent, Niepoort’s championing of elevated sites and earlier picking produces a fresh, elegant expression which is low in alcohol. At the other end of the spectrum, at 15.5% alcohol, Ramos Pinto Vinha da Urtiga favours a denser style.

Lofty ambition

Priced from £100-£300, the single vinha wines under review are pitched somewhat below the £450 release price of Casa Ferreirinha ‘Barca Velha’, the original Douro icon which launched in 1952. There again, they are new or have a much shorter track record. Are they worth it?

For Lay & Wheeler buyer Fiona Hayes, Quinta do Noval Vinha da Marka 2019 has ‘a significant USP’ which ‘needs to be conveyed to those drinking it.’ Here is a unique, extremely low-yielding, single-parcel bottling (‘smaller than a lot of grand cru Burgundy’) with a prestigious name behind it.

She believes it ‘sits nicely alongside other highly sought-after Mediterranean wines at that price point, such as Pie Franco from Casa Castillo in Murcia and the Super Tuscan Tignanello.’

Keen to support fine wines ‘beyond the usual suspects’, Theatre of Wine’s Daniel Illsey lists Douro single vinha wines ‘to illustrate the potential of the terroirs and the skills of the makers.’ If Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port is Everest, this Himalayan Douro dozen offers alternative peak drinking.

Portugal’s iconic wines: Sarah Ahmed picks her top 12

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