Nick Dobson Wines Douro

Quinta dos Avidagos

This estate is in fact one of a group comprising 4 individual properties, coming under the umbrella of Quinta dos Avidagos. They are located in the upper Corgo district of the Douro valley, with grapes beintg grown on alll 4 but the winemaking being carried out at Quinta dos Avidagos itself, the most recently added property in the estate, purchased in 1978. The origins of the estate date back over 300 years. Tthe 19 hectares of the estate vineyards comprise vines aged on average 25 years. The principal grape varieties grown today are Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca and Tinta Barroca, although today the estate is increasing (from a low base) white wine production, and more Malvasia Fina and Verdelho are being planted. The estate is managed by the young and energetic Pedro Tamagnini.

Avidagos Branco 2009 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro
Ref: 3510019

This Avidagos white is a fresh fruity wine offering great value for money. It's a blend of Malvasia Fina, Gouveio & Vital grape varieties. A very pale yellow, with a nose which is aromatic, floral and vibrant, with hints of tropical fruits - pineapple and passion fruit. The palate is light to medium bodied; there is quite some complexity here, with fresh orchard fruit and citrus flavours and a good long clean finish. This is an excellent crisp dry refreshing wine which should be drunk chilled and can be enjoyed with or without food. A great summer wine.

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Price: £8.10 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Avidagos Rosé 2009 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro
Ref: 3510020

A great Rosé made from the Portuguese grape varieties of Touriga National, Tinta Roriz & Tinta Barroca. A vivid neon pink, this wine red berry fruit aromas on the nose, and on the palate is fruity, flavoursome, and very very soft. Good length with a dry mineral finish - very moreish. Drink chilled with or without food - a great summer wine ideal for barbeques and general hedonism.

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Price: £8.10 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Tinto 2007 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro
Ref: 3510021

*££

This is a really good red for the price - tremendous Portugese character and truly delicious.

Made from Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Barroca, and aged in stainless steel, this wine is a deep pastel red, with a nose of violets and loganberries, this wine has a big fruity palate - loganberries again, with cream, some cinnamon and cardamom, and a hint of liqourice. Soft tannins give a smooth, rounded dry finish. Would partner well with lamb or wild boar.

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Price: £10.20 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Tinto 2007 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro

Tinto Reserva 2007 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro
Ref: 3510022

*(*)£

As with the standard Avidagos red, this is made from Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Barroca, but is aged in oak (mainly 1st year French) for some 16 months. It has a forward nose packed with fruit, Asian spices, cloves, and some oak. On the palate it is velvety and soft, quite intensely flavoured, with plenty of ripe red fruit, and with a hint of dark peppery spice. Good length, with long finishg with more spice and fruit.
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Price: £12.90 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Tinto Reserva 2007 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro

Quinta do Além Tanha Old Vineyards 2004 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro
Ref: 3510008

***

This is an exceptional wine - a real find, and one of the best Portugese reds I have tasted. It's made from a blend of Tinta Roriz , Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, and Carvalha. Decanter named the 2004 vintage one of the best Portuguese red wines in it's price category and described it as "Dusty and developed with a hint of black cherry. Notes of vanilla oak. Round, juicy and complex."

It's a big well-structured wine, with a lovely nose of cream, and a blend of asian spices, which reflect on the palate along with rich dark fruit. There are hints of chocolate, cloves, and nutmeg. It's smooth, velvety, soft, and has superb structure; a huge finish which goes on forever. Probably best to decant and leave to breathe for an hour or so before drinking. One for food.

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Price: £24.60 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Quinta do Além Tanha Old Vineyards 2004 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro

Quinta do Além Tanha Old Vineyards 2007 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro
Ref: 3510023

***

This is an exceptional wine - a real find, and one of the best Portugese reds I have tasted. It's made from a blend of Tinta Roriz , Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, and Carvalha. Decanter named the earlier 2004 vintage of this wine as one of the best Portuguese red wines in it's price category and described it as "Dusty and developed with a hint of black cherry. Notes of vanilla oak. Round, juicy and complex."

It's a big well-structured wine, with a lovely nose of cream, and a blend of asian spices, which reflect on the palate along with rich dark fruit. There are hints of chocolate, cloves, and nutmeg. It's smooth, velvety, soft, and has superb structure; a huge finish which goes on forever. Probably best to decant and leave to breathe for an hour or so before drinking. One for food.

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Price: £25.20 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Quinta do Além Tanha Old Vineyards 2007 Quinta dos Avidagos Santa Marta de Penaguião, Douro

Pacheca Tinto 2006 Quinta da Pacheca Régua, Douro
Ref: 3510001

*£

The flagship red wine from Quinta da Pacheca is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, and Touriga Francesa. The destemmed grapes are fermented in traditional granite lagares for 6-8 days. The wine undergoes malolactic fermentation, and is then aged in 225 Litres old French oak casks for 12 months. It will age 10/15 years if stored correctly.

A deep red, with a creaminess and spice on the nose; on the palate this is quite a big powerful wine, with lots of red ripe berry fruit, cream, spice (chinese 5-spice powder), and grippy tannins. Excellent length, with fruit and spice again.

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Price: £12.00 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Pacheca Tinto 2006 Quinta da Pacheca Régua, Douro

Touriga Nacional 2006 Quinta da Pacheca Régua, Douro
Ref: 3510002

**(*)

The Portugese quality red grape - most often seen in blends, but here used top draft a monovarietal wine of great quality. An intensely dark red, with a powerful nose packed with sweet red fruits, violets, Asian spices, and cloves. On the palate there is sweet berry fruit, some dark chocolate notes, clove, and more Asian spice. An intense long fruity finish. This is a complex powerful wine which shows what can be done in the right hands with this exceptional grape. A wine for food; decant and serve around 15-16 degrees.

Wine Enthusiast (2006) - 91 points - "An impressive, finely balanced wine, which wears its ripe fruit, dark chocolate and sweet plum flavors easily and opulently. The tannins are rounded, never dominant."
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Price: £26.40 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Touriga Nacional 2006 Quinta da Pacheca Régua, Douro

Late Bottled Vintage Port 2003 Quinta da Pacheca Régua, Douro
Ref: 3510003

This port is made from a blend of traditional grapes - Touriga Nacional, Tinta Amarela, Tinto Cão, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Barroca. 50% of the wine is aged in old barrels of Portugese oak, the other 50% in stainless steel. The result is superb - with the characteristics of a great vintage port in a soft and easily accessible form. An intense and silky palate with a complex array of wild fruits. It's a rich, lovely wine which offers exceptional value.

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Price: £15.90 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Vintage Port 2003 Quinta da Pacheca Régua, Douro
Ref: 3510004

Pacheca produced their first vintage port only in 2000; the juice is 100% foot trodden in 8 large traditional lagares. With tremendous depth of colour, this port has a powerful nose pefumed with rich dark fruit, raisins, and star anise. On the palate there is huge depth of flavour - yet remains soft, with sweet ripe red berry fruits. Very easy to drink, classy and elegant, with a long ripe berry finish. Only 550 cases produced.

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Quinta da Sequeira This private estate is located in the Douro Superior and owned by the Cardoso family, Mário Cardoso being the current generation owner.The property is on flatter undulating land some way from the river. It had produced Port wine since 1899, but since 2001 has switched to making exclusively a range of high quality table wines, using the best grapes from the Quinta. The estate has 15 ha (37 acres) of vines, the oldest being over 100 years old. The red grape varieties grown are Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Amarela and Tinta Barroca. The white varieties are Malvazia Fina, Gouveio, Rabigato and Códega do Larinho. The wines are produced exclusively with grapes from the Quinta's own vineyards, and are aged and bottled in the Quinta. The maturation process takes place in new barrels made with French oak from Tronçais, Allier, Nivernais and Vosges. The wines made here are simply stunning - not just the reds, but also the outstanding white and a rosé which is described by other winemakers as being one of the best in Portugal. Also of note is a late-harvest non-botrytis dessert-style wine - very rare in these parts and quite delicious. Read my account of tasting a Quinta da Sequeira Port wine from the 1900 vintage further down this page.

Sequeira Branco 2007 Quinta da Sequeira Horta do Douro, Douro
Ref: 3510009

This is s blend of Gouveio, Malvasia Fina, Rabigato, and Codega. Made in stainless steel, this wine is a pale golden yellow, with a fruity mineral nose. There's quite a lot going on on the palate - a creamy minerality with exotic fruits, rather more intense than the nose suggests, with just a barely detectable hint of residual sugar. Good length with a lingering acidity.

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Price: £12.00 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Tinto Reserva 2003 Quinta da Sequeira Horta do Douro, Douro
Ref: 3510010

*(*)

A blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Amarela, and Tinta Roriz, this wine spends 10 months in 1-year-old French oak barrels before bottling.

A very deep red, with an intense nose with a slightly herbal note; smooth, dry, and creamy on the palate. Huge length, with a soft dry and spicy finish.

This is only made in some years - the next was 2005, not yet released.

Robert Parker (2003) - 89 points - "Fragrant and tinged with a bit of rhubarb ...the palate, the immediate impressions comes from the tasty fruit, but the structure here is excellent, too. It soon asserts itself. In fact, the fruit recedes to the background for awhile and shuts down. It is lively, bright and gripping. The haze of tannins show that this wine is unready and built to age. It should have a nice future. At the moment, it needs a few hours to wake up and come into balance, but when it does the fruit is quite attractive. Some gamey notes did appear at that point, too, which some will appreciate more than others. The key question at this winery always concerns the likelihood of the tannins coming into balance with the fruit, but this wine should do a better job than most of knitting together."

SILVER MEDAL at Austria Wine Challenge 2006

Rated 92 POINTS in Wine Passion Magazine (August 2007) and in Vinhos de Portugal 2008 book by Joao Paulo Martins

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Price: £15.00 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Tinto Reserva 2003 Quinta da Sequeira Horta do Douro, Douro

Tinto Gran Reserva 2005 Quinta da Sequeira Horta do Douro, Douro
Ref: 3510011

**(*)

I first tasted this wine as a barrel sample at a lunch with the producer in Portugal in August 2008. It's made using the same grapes as are used in the Reserva, except 100% new French oak is used for this one - the wine is matured for 14 months in oak. An immense wine, almost black and with high opacity. An intense nose of spice and vanilla, with a huge palate bursting with youthful vibrant fruit. One which will go the distance - will improve with some bottle age.

Robert Parker awarded the 2004 vintage of this wine 90 points - "This 2004 GRANDE RESERVA has a different feel at the outset, with more overt fruitiness and far better integration of tannins. It is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Amarela, Touriga Franca and Tinta Barroca. It is ripe and aromatic, quite sweet on first taste. They didn’t forget the tannins, which are lurking underneath, and steadily emerge, but there is fine fruit here, too, and a better chance of creating a well integrated whole. The fruit tastes so young that it seems almost like a barrel sample at times. The aromatics on this wine are powerful, and they are the wine’s best feature. It is likely that this will come into harmony, retain its fruit, and taste great in a few years. It is a pleasure to just smell. Its mid-palate is elegant and well constructed. With air, the wine turns rather earthy. This might be my pick for my favorite wine so far from this estate."

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Tinto Gran Reserva 2005 Quinta da Sequeira Horta do Douro, Douro

Quinta da Sequeira Port from the 1900 Vintage

Here's one you can't buy! I was in the Douro valley in Portugal in July 2011 to catch up with some producers, and visited Mário Cardoso at Quinta da Sequeira. Mário had kindly laid on a tasting of his range of wines - but then he announced there would also be a "special wine" - and what a treat this turned out to be - a stunning example of an old Port dating from 1900, the very first days of Quinta da Sequeira. The wine is still stored in the original wooden barrel and a small sample was specially drawn for the tasting. It was truly an honour to be given the chance to taste such a wine - this is not something that happens every day, even when you are in a relatively privileged position as an "insider" in the trade. I wrote the following tasting note......

A gorgeous orange-tinged reddish-brown which has remained remarkably dark for its age. A huge nose of incredible intensity, heady and penetrating; there's a huge amount of stuff going on in there, with caramel, mocha coffee, molasses, tar, leather, tobacco, orange zest and spices, particularly a hint of cinnamon. On the palate this wine is huge; it's one of the most concentrated and complex wines I have ever tasted. Velvety-smooth, warming, and elegant, this wine has remained fresh and alive, with good underlying acidity and remarkably well preserved fruit. Mildly and pleasingly viscous, with the consistency of a very light syrup; it has a rich texture that coats every part of your mouth. Again there is much going on; a riot of complex flavours dominated by caramel, toffee, mocha coffee and molasses, but also with cloves, cinnamon, prunes, a hint of marzipan, candied orange, plum pudding and even a little liquorice. The finish is clean and rich but not overtly sweet, with prunes, caramel, and mocha coffee to the fore; length is huge, with layer upon layer of complexity revealing itself over several minutes; we tasted this in the tasting room at Sequeira, then drove to lunch maybe 30 minutes away, and the flavours were still quite evident on our arrival.

Tasting this wine was a truly life-enriching experience, and it is remarkable to ponder that when the grapes used to make this wine were growing, Queen Victoria was on the throne, Britain was engaged in fighting the second Boer war, and the invention of powered flight was still some years away.

How good was 1900 as a year for vintage port? Well, many houses declared a vintage in 1900, and Berry Brothers maintain a vintage chart going back to 1846 - in which 1900 was rated as 9/10. So probably quite a good year. I wondered what would be a good food match for it. I concluded that "nothing" was probably correct. To begin with, the power of this wine would have dominated just about every food I could think of. Then of course you don't really "drink" wines like this - you encounter them rarely, and you want to treat them as an experience and to savour them. So whilst it is interesting to ponder this, to me it would seem wrong to pair such a wine with something that, however fine it may be in its own right, must by definition change one's interpretation of something so special. If I were forced to choose something, I would probably pick a classic port partner such as Christmas pudding or very strong cheese.

Amarela White Port (50cl) Quinta da Casa Amarela Horta do Douro, Douro
Ref: 3510016

*(*)£

Lovely rich white port, with jasmine, toffee and butterscotch on the nose, along with some tropical notes (mango, banana) and an underpinning minerality. Lavish and warming on the palate, with creamy toffee, butterscotch, and a hint of honey. Nice harmonious structure and well balanced, with good refreshing acidity. Very long warming finish.

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Price: £13.50 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Amarela White Port (50cl) Quinta da Casa Amarela Horta do Douro, Douro

Ruby Reserve Port Quinta da Casa Amarela Horta do Douro, Douro
Ref: 3510017

*££

A fantastic port from this excellent family producer. Grapes: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Amarela, and others in a field blend

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Price: £15.00 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Ruby Reserve Port Quinta da Casa Amarela Horta do Douro, Douro

10 Years Old Tawny Port (NV) Quinta da Casa Amarela Horta do Douro, Douro
Ref: 3510018

This wine is made from a blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Amarela, and others from a field blend. Classic Tawny colour - mid-reddish brown, with an orange gloss. It has a nose of sweet red fruits, ornage peel, and some nuttiness. On the palate it has a broad attack and is reminiscent of a top amontillado sherry, with sweet nuttiness underlying rich strawberry red fruit, orange peel and iodine, with hazelnut and caramel flavours. It's smooth and rich, very more-ish, Nice finish with caramel, oak, and citrus - very long.

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Price: £27.60 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Quinta de São José Tinto 2005 João Brito e Cunha Vila Real, Douro
Ref: 3510013

***

This is a stunner, one of the top 2 wines in this Portugese list. A blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Amarela, and Tinta Roriz.

Decanter (2005) - 4 stars - one of the top Portuguese reds under £20 - "Sun-baked blackberries and earthy, savoury notes. Plenty of perfume and minerals - a complex and expansive nose. Soft, sweet concentration. Fine balance and elegance. Liquorice and black plums. Lovely mineral length. Excellent."

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Price: £20.40 (Including VAT at 20%)

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Quinta de São José Tinto 2005 João Brito e Cunha Vila Real, Douro