Quinta de la Rosa Vintage Port 2012
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Very concentrated and focused aromas, where they divide between fresh, cherry fruit and well ripened plums and wild berries. On one side the port is very generous whilst allowing bitter chocolate and alcoholic flavours to come through. On the palate it is exuberant and seductive, with enormous intensity and complexity but without any extremes resulting in a very balanced and elegant wine. The fruit, chocolate and liquor flavours are well integrated with the tannins which are obvious but yet soft. This 2012 vintage is in an ideal phase for immediate consumption for those who like their vintage ports young and vibrant but it will develop and mature well in the bottle for the next few decades. Jorge adores this vintage port! The 2012s are often underrated after the 2011s but not this one!The 2012 Vintage will age well for many decades but is also a lighter style vintage port that can be appreciated when young. Drink as a digestif with cheese, chocolates or on its own. Remember to decant the port after it has thrown a deposit. This will happen after it has been a few years in bottle. Traditional port varieties, mainly Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca with some Sousão from the older dry stone terraced vineyards at La Rosa.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Offers a spicy aroma, with luscious, well-knit flavors of dark plum and wild cherry. Pepper and milk chocolate notes show on the lush, spicy finish, featuring hints of dried mint. Drink now through 2040.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is not from a generally declared Port Vintage year. However, the year did produce some exceptional wines, such as this one. It has a firm tannic structure under opulent black fruits. Beautifully perfumed, ripe and likely to develop relatively quickly, this is already a balanced, approachable wine.
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Quinta de la Rosa was one of the pioneers of making and selling table wines and olive oil in addition to port directly from the estate. These products are produced, matured and bottled on the Quinta and not in Vila Nova da Gaia as is the case with other shippers. It can be argued that this helps give our ports a dry and stylish nutty flavour. A combination of the best of the old with the new, treading in granite lagares and using stainless steel and temperature controlled technology, together with careful handling of natural materials (such as oak casks for the table wine and large old tonels for the port), ensures that wines of the highest quality are made. As everything is grown, made and bottled on the estate, Quinta de la Rosa is one of the few true "Single Quintas"; it is not a second brand used by most large shippers for their "off Vintage" port years.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.