Spotlight
on Portugal's Dão region
Part
4: Álvaro
Castro – Quinta da Pellada/de Saes
The
wines
Alvaro
Castro Dão 2002
This is distributed by Dirk’s company, UVA, and retails for
around £7 – it doesn’t mention the Quinta. Quite a structured
nose of savoury red and black fruits. Serious palate has a chocolatey,
spicy edge. It is structured and savoury with taut berry and black
fruits with good acidity. Quite firm and a good food wine. Very
good/excellent 90/100
Quinta de Saes 2001 Dão
A blended wine from reasonably old vineyards that is sold quite
cheaply. Chewy, spicy and savoury with dry spicy tannins. A lovely
midweight, savoury food wine with great acidity. Very good+ 89/100
Quinta de Saes Reserva 2000 Dão
This spends more time in wood. Bright, savoury cherry herb and
spice nose. Nice fruit. Quite bright and focused. The palate is chewy
and spicy with savoury tannic structure. Nice hint of bitterness to
the plumy fruit and a chewy, chunky character. Very good/excellent
90/100
Quinta
da Pellada 2002 Dão
Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz, predominantly. Forward, vivid
elegant berry and cherry fruit nose with a sweet edge. The palate is
richly fruited but still elegant and savoury with some spicy tannins
and nice acidity. Quite structured yet retaining elegance and length.
Needs time. Very good/excellent 93/100
Quinta da Pellada Tinta Roriz 2002 Dão
Perfumed nose showing lovely, vivid, chocolatey sweet-edged red
berry and black fruits. Hints of tar. The palate shows a lovely
density of fruit: chewy, chunky and spicy with great purity of fruit
and good acidity. Great structure. Very good/excellent 93/100
Pape 2002 Dão
Pape is an interesting project: a wine made as a joint venture between
Alvaro’s Pellada (the ‘pe’) and rented vineyards from Casa de
Passarela (the ‘Pa’). There are two wines under this label
differing in the amount of Alfrocheiro used and the sort of oak.
(1) Less Alfrocheiro. Very deep
colour. Assertive nose of black fruits with great purity, chocolatey
herby notes in the background. The palate is pure, spicy and quite
approachable with lovely spiciness and some sweetness of the fruit,
with acidity in good balance. Approachable. Very good/excellent 91/100
(2) Very deep colour. Lovely vivid black fruits on the nose
with a chocolately richness. Lovely purity. The palate is chewy,
chunky and spicy with good acidity and structure. Spicy, structured
finish. Very good/excellent 90/100
Quinta da Pellada Baga 2000 Dão
Made from 2 year old vines, with just 300 bottles produced. Fine,
smooth elegant nose with sweet and savoury liquoricey fruit, with a
smooth earthy edge. The palate shows earthy berry fruit with firm
structure and mouth coating tannins. There’s a chocolatey, earthy,
tobbacoey edge. Interesting wine with lovely poise. Very
good/excellent 92/100
Dado 2001
This is a collaboration between Dirk and Alvaro, blending Douro
wine with Dão. Lovely smooth sweet nose showing pure elegant black
fruits with hints of tar, spice and chocolate. The palate has
wonderfully dense elegant cherry and raspberry fruit with great
acidity, some chunky spiciness and an appealing plummy bitterness. A
fine, complex structured wine with great purity. Very good/excellent
94/100
Then it was food time. It was superb. We had seared tuna
and salmon, followed with belly pork, and then langoustines on a
risotto base. Pudding was Requeijão (a dessert prepared from the whey
of cheese) served with sweet pumpkin. We finished with Quijeo de Serra
(mountain sheep cheese). In addition to the wines already open, there
were some more treats.
Quinta da Pellada 1990 Dão
Complex herby, earthy and undergowthy, with chewy, spicy fruit on
the palate. Good structure and lovely earthy minerality. Very
good/excellent 90/100
Quinta da Pellada 1996 Touriga Nacional, Dão
A special cuvee with a wax capsule and ‘100% Touriga Nacional’
on the label. This has become a bit of a cult wine in Portugal. Deep
coloured. Complex earthy, herby, spicy nose with some sweet black
fruits. The palate has rich, dense fruit showing some evolved
complexity. Subtle spiciness with soft herby characters and notes of
tar. Perfect balance here. Excellent 95/100
Von Hovel Scharzhoftberger Riesling Spätlese 1975 Mosel
Saar Ruwer, Germany
Almost perfect nose: fine lemony fruit with lifted acid and
petrolly, honeyed richness. There are subtle toffee notes, too. The
palate is brilliantly poised with high acidity framing the lemony,
minerally fruit. Light and laser sharp. Excellent 95/100
JL Chave Hermitage 2001 Northern Rhône, France
Very fine floral aromatic nose with pure raspberry fruit and a
spicy minerally depth. There are some animal notes in the background.
The palate is perfectly balanced with good acidity and spice. Chewy
and structured with brilliant balance and lovely acidity. Excellent
97/100
Niepoort Vintage Port 2003 (samples)
We tried two blind samples. The first is almost perfect with great
structure and balance. The second is sweeter and more open with a
herbiness to the sweet open fruit. Both are very impressive, but the
first is much better. If this is what ends up being the vintage
Niepoort, then I’ll be first in line with my cheque book!
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