2015…A Very Promising Year for Ramos Pinto!

Ramos Pinto have reported excellent conditions for the 2015 Harvest, with very positive results in terms of quality and quantity.

Leaves on the vine remained very green at the end of July. The soil managed to retain a lot of water, despite a drought caused by low rainfall throughout the year. Although new vines suffered during maturation, well-established vines produced firm, aromatic and balanced grapes.

The harvest began on the 10th August (a week later than 2014) with the Viosinho grape planted in Ervamoira. Cool temperatures recorded during that week slowed maturation of the rest of the white grape varieties, especially Rabigato.

The reds began to be harvested on the 24th August (5 days later than the previous year) and had a high alcohol content, particularly for Touriga Nacional.

Harvest took place in the first two weeks of September in sunny, stable weather conditions. In general the grapes were well balanced and expressive.

The start of the harvest at Quinta dos Bons Ares was brought forward a week, and the white grape harvest began on the 25th August. Red grapes were harvested from the 3rd September and ended on the 29th. Rainfall on the 15th September was a blessing which allowed the Touriga Nacional and Touriga Francesca to reach full maturation.

Grapes were in perfect health from Quinta do Bom Retiro, thanks to well-timed rainfall and ideal maturation conditions.

Harvest ended on 30th September.

The Ports…

The White Port has been very successful, fresh and fruity.

The Red Ports of special categories were vinified in lagares and have revealed exceptional quality, concentration, beautiful colours and great aromatic expression. The Touriga Nacional from Ervamoira and Bom Retiro, and Touriga Francesca from Ervamoira, have played the leading roles.

All in all this has been a very promising year!

The Wines…

The Whites presented very ripe aromas, average acidity and high alcohol levels. They are full-bodied and structured wines.

For the Reds we can foresee an interesting level of quality with concentrated, fruity wines with mature tannins.

Contact Christine to find out more about the 2015 harvest at Ramos Pinto.

Ramos Pinto: Decanter’s Top Port for Christmas

Ramos Pinto Ports have been awarded outstanding scores in Richard Mayson’s “Top 20 Ports for Christmas”, for Decanter Magazine.

Richard Mayson began his career at The Wine Society and specialises in the wines of Iberia, especially fortified wines. He is the author of four books, including “The Wines and Vineyards of Portugal” and “Port and the Douro”.

Richard recommended Ramos Pinto’s Late Bottled Vintage and 20 Year Old Tawny as some of the best Ports to enjoy over Christmas, scoring the LBV 90 points and 20 Year Old Tawny an outstanding 98 points.

Mayson described the LBV:

“Ripe nose yet showing attractive restraint, with a touch of lavender. Rich and full of deep and dark sensuous fruit with lovely freshness and firm, ripe tannins giving good grip. Serious yet vibrant LBV.”

And the 20 Year Old Tawny:

“From a single estate where a quarter of the vines are more than 80 years old. Soft and seamless, boasting waves of dates, dried figs, brazil nuts and toasted almonds. Suave silky texture and wonderful savoury- sweet length. Supremely good.”

Contact Christine to find out more about these high scoring Ports.

Christie’s Champagne Masterclass: Cristal in Magnum with Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon

London, 2nd December: Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, chef de cave at Champagne Louis Roederer, hosted an intimate masterclass at Christie’s lining up 14 different Roederer vintages en magnum, including nine vintages of Cristal.

The event, held at Christie’s in central London, took their annual Champagne Masterclass to new heights this year, showcasing an exceptional range of wines from Champagne Louis Roederer, as part of their education series.

This was the first time in history that such a round-up had been brought together of such wines in magnum.

This unique Masterclass, “Cristal in Magnum”, was hosted by Master of wine Nancy Gilchrist and celebrated oenologist Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, from Champagne Louis Roederer. Over the course of the evening, Jean-Baptiste guided guests through the evolving characteristics of Cristal, shaped by the unique climate profile of each vintage, explaining how these factors would sculpt the wines’ development over time.

The discussion turned also to disgorgement times, and the impact it can have on the wines, demonstrated by the two vintages of Roederer 1990 – one disgorged in 2007, the other in 2015 (on 28th Sept).

Vintages included Cristal 2000, 1999, 1997, 1996, 1995; Cristal Rosé 2002, 1999, 1996, 1995; Roederer Brut Vintage 1999, 1997, 1990 (two different disgorgements); and Roederer Vintage Rosé 1993, tasted exclusively in magnum.

For further information about the event please contact Marinel FitzSimons.

Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru 2013 scores 18.5/20

Sixteen Domaine Faiveley wines have been highly praised in “The World of Fine Wine” review, in particular the outstanding Latricières-Chambertin Grand Cru which was awarded 18.5/20.

“The World of Fine Wine” described it as “A sublime wine, as in 2012. Elegant, pure and refined on the nose, with black and red fruit and gentle spice. A gloriously flowing silk texture[…] A brilliant expression of this special site.”

A love of winemaking has been passed from one Faiveley family member to the next for more than one hundred and eighty years. The Domaine has always remained in the family and continues to be completely independent. The Domaine is run today by Erwan Faiveley, one of the youngest directors of a Burgundy Domaine on record.

Contact Christine to find out more about the outstanding wines produced at Domaine Faiveley.

Capellanía and Zisola included in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2015

Bodega Marqués de Murrieta Capellanía and Marchesi Mazzei’s Zisola Sicilia have been included in the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2015!

Each year, Wine Spectator editors survey the wines reviewed over the previous 12 months and select their Top 100, based on quality, value, availability and excitement. This annual list honours successful wineries, regions and vintages around the world.

Wine Spectator awarded the Marqués de Murrieta Capellanía 92 points and described it as being full of “Aromatic notes of beeswax, camomile and orange blossom…[with] flavours of baked apple, coconut, ginger and tarragon in this generous white, whose fresh acidity and light tannins keep it structured, with the spicy accents lingering on the finish. A traditional style.”

Zisola scored 90 points and was described as “A lovely, medium bodied red, with a pure beam of ripe cherry and fresh acidity layered with supple tannins and accents of star anise, dried thyme, loamy earth and mocha.”

Contact the Maisons, Marques et Domaines team to find out more about these high-scoring wines.

Wine Detective Wine of the Month: Ramos Pinto Duas Quintas Tinto

Sarah Ahmed has chosen Ramos Pinto Duas Quintas Tinto 2011 (Douro DOC) as her wine of the month on her blog, The Wine Detective!

Ahmed described her reasons for choosing this wine:

“This year the Duas Quintas brand is 25 years old. It was one of the Douro’s pioneering table wines and, as last month’s verticals of both white and red revealed, Vintage Port years were a real stand out.

In the exceptional 2011 vintage, this the junior Tinto is a markedly deep hue with a youthfully pink rim still. A youthfulness which is reinforced by a formidably concentrated, still tightly coiled palate with prodigious ripe tannins to match. This will go some distance. It reveals exotic hints of coriander spice and bergamot dark currant/berry and chocolate palate as it opens up. Great structure – an outstanding wine!”

Contact Christine to find out more.

Marqués de Murrieta Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva is one of James Suckling’s Top 20 Wines of 2015

James Suckling has included Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 2007 in his list of “Top 100 Wines In 2015”.

All in all, “JamesSuckling.com reviewed almost 9,000 wines to create this formidable list of the Top 100 Wines in 2015.”

Suckling created this remarkable list by visiting wine regions in France, Italy, Chile, Argentina, Spain, and the United States, travelling for six months of the year in order to visit as many top wineries and producers as possible.

The diligence and skill that went into producing this list is testament to the exceptional quality of the wines that earned a place in Suckling’s Top 100.

Marqués de Murrieta Rioja Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 2007 was ranked 13th, well within the coveted Top Twenty.

The Ygay Gran Reserva Especial 2007 is made from a blend of Tempranillo and Mazuelo grown in an old single vineyard called La Plana, located at 485 metres altitude within the 300 hectare Ygay estate in the Rioja Alta. This premium quality vineyard is used exclusively for the Ygay Gran Reserva, and only in the most outstanding quality vintages.

Click here to read the full article.

Contact Christine to find out more.

Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon is Wine Enthusiast’s Winemaker of the Year

Wine Enthusiast Magazine have named Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon “Winemaker of the Year” in their 2015 Wine Star Awards.

Roger Voss, reporting for Wine Enthusiast, writes that it is Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon’s ability to “catch the moment of Champagne’s revolution” that has made him Wine Enthusiast’s 2015 Winemaker of the Year.

Roger Voss reports that Jean-Baptiste is using modern methods – biodynamic and organic farming, fermenting in wood, picking grapes for ripeness, not acidity – to make a “new-old style of great Champagne”.

Jean-Baptiste has been working with the Rouzaud family, which owns Roederer, since he graduated from oenology school. He worked in the Roederer estates in California, Tasmania and Bordeaux, before returning to his native Reims in 1999.

Lecaillon revolutionized the vineyards by banning herbicides and introducing biodynamic farming to 184 of Roederer’s 590 acres.

He is also responsible for other properties in the Roederer group: the Bordeaux chateaux (including Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande), Roederer Estate in Mendocino, Domaines Ott in Provence and Ramos-Pinto in Portugal’s Douro region.

But, he said to Voss, “I’m not a flying winemaker. Everybody on the spot knows much better than me. I see myself as the team coach.”

Voss sums up his work today: “with ‘many more vintages to go,’ Lecaillon is one of a handful of winemakers changing the way Champagne is produced and how the region sees itself. He’s perhaps the most farsighted, seeing climate change as a major factor in how to approach vines and winemaking. While looking to the future, he has also learned to take from the past.”

Click here to read the full article on Wine Spectator.

Contact Marinel to learn more about the wines of Champagne Louis Roederer.

Duas Quintas 25th Anniversary Vertical Tasting

Award winning wine writer, Sarah Ahmed, has released “Part Two” of her series on the Duas Quintas 25th Anniversary Vertical Tasting.

While “Part One”, published last month on The Wine Detective, focussed on the Duas Quintas whites, “Part Two” concentrates on the reds.

Duas Quintas, of the famous Port House Ramos Pinto, was founded by brothers Adriano and Antonio, and is still run today by their heirs, João Nicolau de Almeida and Jorge Rosas.

Duas Quintas red wines are made from a blend of Touriga Franca, Tinta-Roriz and Touriga Nacional from the Quinta de Ervamoira and the Quinta dos Bons Ares. The Duas Quintas Reserva is a blend of mostly Touriga Nacional with a small amount of Tinta Barroca.

Sarah Ahmed’s article reveals the (sometimes turbulent!) history behind the Duas Quintas reds:

The eagerly anticipated release of the Duas Quintas maiden red was a “very near miss”.

“Chief Winemaker João Nicolau de Almeida told us he was ‘very happy’ with it at bottling. However, the very next day, he received word of disaster. Hot-footing it back to the Douro from Oporto he discovered that, “in something like the coldest year in a century,” the wine had frozen, forcing the corks out!

… Fortunately, when he tasted the wine it was good. In the end, 80,000 bottles were uncorked of which 60,000 were successfully salvaged and released.”

Following an exceptionally successful Vertical Tasting, comparing the vintages from 1990 to 2013, Ahmed concludes:

“As with the whites, this vertical revealed that the best red wine vintages were often made in generally declared Vintage Port years. The other striking revelation of the tasting was the longevity of the Classico – it offers terrific and complex bang for modest buck”.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Contact Christine to find out more about the exceptional reds produced by Duas Quintas.

Tommasi Harvest Update

2015 has been an abundant vintage of exceptional quality, according to a recent article by leading Italian business newspaper, Italy 24.

Tommasi was founded in 1902 and is located in Pedemonte in the heart of the historic ‘Classico’ region, from which the best quality wines are produced. From grandfather Giacomo’s small vineyard holding, the Tommasi estate has grown over the years and today comprises 195 hectares of vineyard including 105 hectares in the Valpolicella Classica and 15 hectares in the Lugana DOC.

Tommasi have released an update following their 2015 harvest:

“The yield is a bit lower compared to 2014, the sanitary condition of the vines is good, with few treatments and a regular vegetative growth.

The vineyards are in good vegetative-productive condition with an excellent quality of the grapes despite the lower yield. The rainfalls at the end of the summer solved some initial stages of water shortage facilitating the next vegetative growth.

The grapes are perfectly safe and intact, which is the characterizing aspect of this vintage 2015. Because of the high temperatures during the summer, the first chemical analysis on the grape show much higher sugar levels than in the past 15 years and a complete phenolic maturation. Therefore, it will not be a vintage of alcoholic wines but a vintage of very balanced wines. The acidity is much lower so the wines will be rounder and softer.

The harvest 2015 shows several strengths: safe grapes, vegetative balance of the vines, not an overabundant production, average sugar and acidity levels with excellent qualitative opportunities.”

In fact, the 2015 Harvest has been so successful that Italian wine growers are setting aside a higher than average amount of wine for “Reserve”. Reserve wines are only produced in excellent years, so the high proportion of wines being set aside this year marks 2015 out as a vintage of exceptional quality.

Italy 24 has quoted Dario Tommasi describing the 2015 vintage:

“We must think about how we can enhance an already extraordinary vintage…in which the July heatwave hindered the growth of parasites and vine diseases, eliminating the use of chemical treatments in the field. Then in August, when the plants began to suffer the stress of dehydration, the right amount of rain came just in time. All with a timeliness that seems entirely planned, and guaranteed high grape quality and a lowering of costs (due to lack of treatment) by approximately 30%.”

Click here to read the full article by Italy 24.

Contact Effi to find out more about the exceptional wines produced by Tommasi.

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