Quinta de la Rosa Estate Red 2018, Douro DOC, Portugal

Wine has been made in the Douro since Roman times, but it wasn’t until modern temperature control systems became widely available that high quality wine production was possible. Quinta de la Rosa was one of the first quintas in the Douro to make table wine from indigenous port grape varieties. Traditional port varieties, Touriga Nacional (40%) and Touriga Franca (30%) with 30% Tinta Roriz. The grapes mainly come from the Lamelas vineyard planted by Tim Bergqvist more than 30 years ago. “The terroir in the Douro is still largely unexplored and by making wines with harmony and equilibrium from our vineyards, we try to enable the grapes to express themselves in the bottle.” The La Rosa style is to make well defined wines without too much extraction, tannin or oak. Wines that are rich and full bodied whilst being fresh and lively with a good acidity and minerality. The wine was fermented in small stainless steel vats and then matured in aged Allier French oak casks. 2018 vintage: Intense violet color that shows the concentration of the wine, aromas still very young with enormous complexity that, whilst difficult to define, shows all of the Douro – mature dark red fruit, floral, cistus, herbal and schist elements are all present. On the palate, dense and rich but at the same time not heavy. Long and complex with a good, balanced tannin structure which give tension and structure to the wine without destroying the elegance and equilibrium of this wine.