Refreshing and fruity rosé, bursting with aromas of strawberries and raspberries. On the palate the wine is soft and fruity with a light spritz. Nice fresh acidity and a touch of sweetness on the finish
Clear and bright, intense garnet colour, with crimson reflections. Lively refreshing aroma, notes of spices, cinnamon, white pepper. The deeper bouquet has notes of wild berries, black plums and citrus. Very smooth and fresh on the palate, with silky tannins, balanced and easy to drink.
90 Points Wine Enthusiast
“This densely structured, finely crafted wine is the latest vintage from one of the Douro’s iconic brands. It has great weight and, at the same time, elegant fruits and structure that offer good aging potential. It could be drunk now, but best to wait until 2016.”
A delight for any Port lover, this beautifully crafted wooden box houses three wines from the stellar 2011 vintage from the houses of Fonseca, Taylor’s and Croft.
97-99 points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. “The Fonseca 2011 is typically more forthcoming on the nose compared to the bashful Croft: a strident bouquet with lifted scents of freshly picked blackberries, kirsch, crushed stone and a dash of Hoi Sin and oyster sauce. It is very well-defined, very focused and direct. The palate is silky smooth with not a rough edge in sight, though not a typically voluptuous Fonseca because of the keen thread of acidity and the structure that lends this mighty Port wonderful backbone. A slight viscosity on the finish lacquers the tongue and indicates a core of sweet fruit is ticking away underneath that will surely explode several years after bottling. A tincture of salted licorice on the aftertaste is very attractive. This will turn out to become an outstanding Fonseca, the growing season taming its exuberance with spectacular results. So much potential, but just 6,000 cases were produced.” (NM) (6/2013)
98 Points Wine Spectator “Massive, concentrated and powerful, this offers lush, heady flavors of dark plum, blackberry and cherry tart, with touches of anise. Shows plenty of grip as well, featuring a long, rich finish of dark chocolate, toffee and cream. Best from 2040 through 2060.” (2/2014)
97 Points Wine Enthusiast “A powerful, spicy wine, luscious in its peppered berry fruits and sweet tannins. The structure is dramatic, offering a smooth texture as well as a drier core. With its weight, density and dark, final character. This is a wine for serious aging.” (11/2013)
96 Points Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar “Bright, saturated dark ruby. Spectacularly multifaceted nose combines high-pitched medicinal cherry, briary black raspberry, pungent menthol, dried herbs, incense, Indian spices and a whiff of passion fruit. Boasts great creamy depth and vinosity to its black raspberry and licorice flavors, with huge sweetness buffered by spicy minerality. The note of passion fruit carries through on the palate. Really reverberates on the back end, finishing with powerful tannins and a rising whiplash of flavor. This got better and better with extended aeration, with the tannins making it obvious that it will be extremely long-lived.” (5/2014)
95 Points James Suckling “Very grapy and leafy with hints of spices on the nose. Full body, medium sweet with fine, chewy tannins. Powerful, long finish with nuts and shaved chocolate. This young Fonseca has grip. 6,000 cases produced of this foot-trodden wine. Try in 2022.” (5/2013)
19.5/20 Points.Jancis Robinson “Heady, opulent nose. Completely enveloping, Smells as though there is going to be the most fabulous texture. Wow! All stops pulled out for this one. It’s all absolutely gorgeous intensity of sweet fruit on the front palate and then gradually the schist and structure reveal themselves. This is really wonderful stuff. So tempting to sip it decades before it is ready.” (5/2013)
The heady scents and opulent ripe fruit which define the Croft Vintage Port style are supported by a mesh of taut, muscular tannins. These, together with impressive depth of flavour, make the 2011 one of the most structured and powerful of recent Croft vintages.
Deep purple black colour. The complex seductive nose has the archetypal Croft opulence but displays impressive depth, background and reserves of aroma. A rich, powerful fruitiness provides the backdrop for heady scents of blossom and rock rose. Luscious ripe berry fruit flavour surges though the palate. The wine’s velvety texture is underpinned by taut, muscular, perfectly integrated tannins which provide stamina with an attractive firmness and vigour to the finish. More virile and structured than some recent Vintages from this classic house, the 2011 nevertheless displays all the rich ripe fruitiness and exotic scented character associated with the Croft house style.
97 Points Wine Spectator “Effusively juicy, rich and concentrated, showing plenty of snap to the crisp and well-spiced flavors of wild berry, dark currant and plum tart. Orange-infused chocolate notes linger on the exotic, mocha-filled finish. Best from 2020 through 2045.” Kim Marcus, September 2013
95 Points James Suckling “Beautiful aromas of violets and blueberries with hints of blue slate. Full body, medium sweet with chewy tannins and a long, long finish. A leafy, stemmy, nutty undertone to this with hints of shaved milk chocolate. Very refined and beautiful.” May 2013.
95 Points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate “The 2011 Croft is initially taciturn on the nose, even after allowing it 20 minutes in my glass. A light swirling immediately awakens the aromatics to offer blackberry, Seville orange marmalade, blueberries and dried fig – complex and quite compelling. There is real mineralité within this bouquet that, returning after 30 minutes, offers alluring ocean spray scents rolling in off the ocean. The palate is medium-bodied with a velvety-smooth opening that belies the fine, structured tannins underneath. It clams up a little towards the finish, shuts the lid tight and consequently there is the sensation of less persistency here compared to the Taylor’s or Fonseca. But Croft has a knack of filling out with bottle age and becomes both gentle and generous with the passing years.” Neal Martin, Eroberparker.com,
The winter preceding the 2011 harvest was cold and wet. The weather station at Croft’s Quinta da Roêda registered 496 mm of rainfall between 1st November and 31st March compared to a 30-year average of 358mm. The rain proved very beneficial, replenishing depleted ground water reserves and allowing a balanced ripening of the grapes during the hot dry summer which followed. Budburst occurred at the normal time towards the end of the third week of March and wet and relatively warm conditions in April encouraged vigorous growth. From early May conditions turned generally dry and remained so for most of the summer.
Only 12 mm of rain fell at Roêda in the months of May, June and July compared to a 30-year average of 105 mm. In spite of the arid conditions the vines were able to draw water from the ground reserves providing ideal conditions for balanced ripening of the grapes. The hot dry weather in August was broken at the ideal moment by two spells of rainfall, on 21st August and 1st September, which rounded off the ripening season and produced a balanced and evenly mature crop.
Picking began at Quinta da Roêda on 10th September in excellent harvesting conditions. Fermentation times were long, allowing for complete and even extraction, and the musts in the quinta’s lagares showed exceptionally intense colour and aroma.
An exceptional dark color with blue tones. It presents a complex ensemble of aromas that combines red fruit compote, ripe plum and small-berried fruits with notes of dark chocolate and pepper. Elegant and well-structured on the palate, extremely full-bodied and full of fruit flavors, a good concentration and firm tannins that will give it great aging potential. A seductive, warm finish that is long-lasting and velvety.
91 Points Wine Enthusiast “Herbal scents accent the nose of this Port, which otherwise shows pleasant plum and cocoa aromas. More plum on the palate, joined by black cherries and spice. It’s lush and intense, turning a little tart on the finish. Tannins are supple and not overly prominent, even at this young age.” W.E. – November 15, 2003
91 Points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate “Seductive, sexy, accessible. Dense with jammy red & black fruits, smoke, earth, licorice. Sweet, layered, full-bodied. Now-2020”
90 Points International Wine Cellar “Moderately saturated medium ruby. Expressive aromas of black fruits, smoke, tree bark and tobacco, with a slightly green note of roasted herbs. Lush, suave and seamless, with concentrated flavors of black cherry, plum, menthol and tree bark. Not particularly powerful or structured but finishes firmly tannic and long, with a suggestion of walnut skin.” Stephen Tanzer – February 2003
Winemaking.
This wine has a lively, young, vibrant color. It is thick and dense, showing whole red fruit, typical of the Douro region. In the glass, it has thick droplets that demonstrate power and softness. On the nose, the first impression is still, yet promising. Notes of blackberry, currant, cherry, raspberry, black plum, jam, and a mixture of fruit slowly reappear, giving the wine complexity and presence. In the mouth, the attack is full, supported by whole delicate tannins and signs of a long life. The 2000 vintage is ready to consume now, or can be cellared for more complexity.
The year 1999/2000 was a dry and hot year. There was less precipitation than usual that caused premature budding to occur and persistent rain from late Apr-May delayed flowering. A dry spell from late May until harvest slowed the grape maturation, which caused high concentrated grapes and a good sanitary status.
The harvest was delayed two weeks later than usual due to the slow grape maturation, keeping small concentrated grapes with good sugar degrees but with high acidity.
The production was inferior to that in 1999, but the quality of the wine was very. The Ervamoira wine was excellent, with good structure, deep color and body. The white wine at Bons Ares were delicious and complex, and at Bom Retiro the wine was phenomenal. All signs were present that a vintage wine would be produced since the first moment of harvest.
Varietal(s) 60% Touriga Nacional, 15%Tinta Roriz, 10% Tinta Barroca, 15% traditional varietals Aging 20 months in large oak vats, chestnut-tree wood or mahogany Alcohol 20% Wine Acidity 4.12% pH Level 3.88 Residual Sugar 89.2
Clear & bright, it is golden in colour with traces of green. It has a sweet bouquet of white & yellow roses, peaches and apricots followed by complex hints of minerals. On the palate it’s full & rounded with notes of citrus fruits and minerals, a structured & fleshy with elegance & finesse.
86 Points Wine Enthusiast
“Soft, earthy and gentle, this is already developing and drinkable. It has fresh lemon flavors along with bright pineapple. Finished with bright acidity, it is lightly mineral and crisp at the end. Drink now.”
Duas Quintas is a white wine from the Upper Douro, more specifically from Quinta de Ervamoira (150 metres altitude) and Quinta dos Bons Ares (600 metres altitude), and is a
blend of traditional grape varieties that expresses the potential of this most extreme region. It is a structured, unctuous white wine but also fine and elegant.
2013 was an excellent year for our production of white wines on the Upper Douro. Its climatic characteristics, namely a wet winter and dry summer, as well as the perfect conditions that occurred during harvest (between August 13th and September 18th), provided very well balanced grapes with great aromatic expression
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