2001 Quinta do Vale Dona Maria
We were so pleased with the still red wine from this Domaine, offered to Bin Club members in 2003, that when we were given first refusal on some of the vintage port we jumped at the chance. As pedigree goes then this estate must rank as best in show. Cristiano van Zeller ran Quinta do Noval for many years before, in 1996, he and his wife bought back his wife's family vineyard, previously leased to the Symington family. Cristiano believes in traditional techniques for port making and so this is trodden by foot in traditional lagares before fermentation. The fortification is followed by four to six days further treading in the lagares to allow the spirit and the wine to blend. This is opaque in colour at this early stage and has a wonderful sweet nose of raspberries, plums, bramble fruit, spice and pepper. Medium weight on the palate there is an intensity to the fruit and a soft rounded feel to the tannins. The spirit is marked at this stage but does not over power the fruit. This is the first vintage produced at the new winemaking facility at the Quinta and shows the undoubted quality of both the vineyard and the winemaking ability of Cristiano van Zeller.