Wine & Spirits - October 2019 - 79

FOCUS: 2017 PORTO
273496

272648

93 | Cockburn's

272598

95 | Warre's

$140

2017 Porto Vintage ^ This is an unusually
powerful vintage of Warre's- "A huge wine,"
said Craig Ganzer, a rare-wine appraiser who
joined our 2017 Porto panel. "As big and rich
as it is, it's not clunky or cloying." The power
and mass comes from different sides, including a heavy drape of oak and a complete
range of fruit at what feels like optimal ripeness, with raspberry and darker blueberry
notes creating a mouthwatering sensation.
Notes of hibiscus and pressed flowers tie
directly into the tannins through the wine's
beeswax density. This has the remarkable
integration that is a hallmark of the vintage,
and a vinous character that should be fascinating to revisit as the wine ages. § Vineyard
Brands, Birmingham, AL
273475

$95

2017 Porto Vintage ^ Cockburn's had made a
major investment in new plantings of touriga
nacional during the 1980s, an asset that modernized and enriched what had been a traditional British style. Perhaps the 2017 vintage, which Charles Symington reports as
particularly noteworthy for touriga franca,
helped guide Cockburn's back toward its
classical elegance. This is tight and firm,
with a cool feel in spite of its peppery intensity of alcohol. As the wine develops with air,
there's a moment when the wine achieves an
impeccable balance-a taste of chocolate in
heaven-before the tannins begin to show
the green edges of youth. Consider this in 20
years. § Premium Port Wines, San Francisco, CA
272644

93 | W. & J. Graham's

$125

2017 Porto Vintage ^ This wine contrasts
sunny black-cherry lusciousness with sous
bois shadows of schist, black mushroom
and conifer. Then there's the dark-chocolate
freshness that pegs it as a Vale Mendiz classic, grown in the hills above Pinhão. The arid
year lent tar-black earthiness, and the oak
is a little prominent right now, but neither
impinges on the wine's clear identity. My last
note after three days of blind tasting: "I'd like
to own that." § Kobrand, Purchase, NY
272647

2017 Porto Vintage ^ This has the plump
sweetness of a Graham's vintage, teeming
with black fruit and saturated with tannins
as chewy as the thick black skins of blueberries. Underneath the smoky oak tannins,
there's a gentle rose scent that hints at the
wine's development ahead. Malvedos, the
vineyard central to the rich fruit style at Graham's, benefitted from its north-facing exposition, especially in the sectors of old vines
that Charles Symington features in the Stone
Terraces bottling (also recommended here). §
Premium Port Wines, San Francisco, CA
273476

$95

$90

94 | Fonseca

94 | Quinta do Vesuvio

$120

2017 Porto Vintage ^ Sweet and sleek, with
a black-mushroom savor, 2017 is a fat and
happy vintage for Vesuvio. The 800-acre
property, on the south bank of the Douro
just above the Cachão da Valeira, was originally developed by António Bernardo Ferreira, and remained in his family until the
Symingtons purchased the estate in 1989. It
has a range of expositions, from the riverside,
at 425 feet in altitude, to the top of the ridge,
at 1,735 feet, marking the entrance to the
arid Douro Superior. This is a modern Vintage Porto, with a refinement and ease to its
purple-plum-and-bitter-chocolate richness,
the alcohol beautifully integrated into the
wine. § Premium Port Wines, San Francisco, CA

93 | Krohn

2017 Porto Vintage ^ Krohn is noted for its
stocks of Colheitas (vintage-dated Tawny
Ports); this is the second Vintage release
from Krohn since the Fladgate Partnership
purchased the firm in 2013. Based on fruit
from Quinta do Retiro Novo in the Rio Torto
valley, the blend is a dark, savory beauty, the
flavors concentrated into a black kernel of
fruit wrapped tightly in cocoa-powder tannins. It takes days to move toward juicy richness. Port collectors would do well to get on
board now with an early vintage of Krohn
under David Guimaraens's care. § Kobrand,
Purchase, NY

93 | Noble & Murat

$120

93 | Quinta do Noval

$125

93 | Quinta do Vesuvio

$185

91 | Quinta de la Rosa

$95

2017 Porto Vintage ^ This is made by a partnership of two families, led by Alexandre
Antas Botelho and António Borges Taveira.
They work with six vineyards, blending this
wine from vines ranging from 60 to 110 years
old in the Pinhão Valley, aging the juice in
large, century-old chestnut casks. Once the
initial tarry reduction blows off, the wine
shows the classical dimensions of those oldvine mixed plantings, offering complex layers of wild blueberry, green fig, tobacco and
dates. It's beautifully rich, though the wine's
youthful tannins give it some austerity.
Check on this 15 to 20 years from the vintage. §
Olé & Obrigado Imports, New Rochelle, NY
272428
2017 Porto Vintage ^Vintage Jet black, this shows the
arid vintage in its desert-rose scents and in
the umami savor of tiny dried black currants.
There's black-cherry density inside the concentrated tannins, which need a decade to
begin to relax. § Vintus, Pleasantville, NY
272646
2017 Porto Vintage Capela da Quinta
do Vesuvio ^ Charles Symington blends this
from two cofermentations, pairing up varieties that ripen simultaneously at the quinta.
In 2017, touriga franca, touriga nacional and
souzão all ripened simultaneously, offering
him the unusual opportunity to vinify them
together. That lagar fermented cooler and
sustained more perfume than the lagar he
filled with an old-vine field blend and alicante bouschet, to provide structure. They
come together in a meaty, purple-fruited
Port, layering notes of green fig and quince
into the intense tannins. It has the stuffing to
last. § Premium Port Wines, San Francisco, CA
273482
2017 Porto Vintage ^ From a vineyard on the
north bank of the Douro, near Pinhão, La
Rosa shows the arid 2017 vintage in scents
of schist dust and prunes. There's youthful
stemminess in the tannins that will mellow
with time; there's also plenty of velvety fruit
and crushed-rock minerality that will sustain
it as it ages. § Winesellers, Niles, IL n

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2019

79
https://www.cockburns.com/wines.php https://www.warre.com/wine/vintage/12
Wine & Spirits - October 2019

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