Quinta do Vesuvio 1997
Single Quinta Vintage Port
Touriga Franca and Tinta Barroca form the backbone of this outstanding vintage.
Description
Quinta do Vesúvio is privileged to be one of the only properties with varietally planted vineyards that are now over 25 years old, consistently producing low yields of balanced and concentrated fruit. After a rigorous selection of the very best lots, just 3000 cases of the Quinta do Vesúvio 1997 Vintage will be estate-bottled and released.
Our Expert's Recommendation
"This Vintage is beginning to show some of the wonderful characteristics of bottle matured wine. It can be drunk now but will repay a few more years in your cellar. Still very tight but showing massive rich fruit content."
Press Comments
"'Wow' was my first impression when sniffing and sipping this wine. Impenetrable opacity to this wine’s appearance. An herbal note and straight forward violet aromas punched my proboscis. A massive wine, yet more approachable than expected from the ink in the glass, with ripe, chalky tannins but otherwise a gorgeous mouth feel. Almost syrupy but the acidity prevents the viscous black currant fruit from seeming cloying. With all of this, the best part of this Port is the sensational length and complexity to the aftertaste. If you own a case, open a bottle tomorrow. If you own a single bottle, wait fifteen to twenty years and drink it when it’s more mature."
“Dark crimson with slightly ruby rim. Rich and alcoholic with a hint of bonfires and raisins. Lots of fine tannin not yet integrated but it should get there. This is a striking young port with a good future ahead of it. Very ripe, sweet finish. Big and brassy but masses of tannin underneath all that ripe fruit”.
“Good deep colour, thin purple rim. Totally closed on the nose, giving very little away. Fine, firm, sinewy fruit with a solid tannic core. Long, tight tannic length. Very good, and should develop well”.
"A delicious…dark saturated ruby/purple port, this 1997 reveals copious quantities of jammy, grapy, black fruit flavors intermixed with earth and spice, full body, and silky tannin."
“A tightly padlocked wine, which can only stand in its favour. The aroma shows notes of flowers and currants. Very good on the palate, elegant and majestic, integrated, warm and long on the finish. It has everything you could ask of a young Vintage”.
"1997s in bottle live up to their heralded reputation". "A fresh and dark Port, with lovely floral, berry and cherry aromas. Full-bodied, medium-sweet, with a firm backbone of tannins and plum and tabacco on the finish."
“A superb wine. Loads of fruit, red and black, including very ripe mulberries. The tannins too are very ripe. Fleshy.”
“This extremely youthful port has a very restrained nose, but the palate has huge, concentrated fruit, a massive dose of spice and a long, clinging, tannic finish”.
“Very fine nose. Lovely fruit. Sophisticated and complex. Very classy. Fullish. Intense. Very ripe and concentrated. Up with the Taylor in class and character. Very very long and lovely. This is really fine.”
“The relative coolness of the vintage has suited Vesuvio, and with the 1997 this grand old property has produced its greatest wine since coming into Symington ownership. Under 10% of the harvest was used to create a beefy, succulent, fiery port with a fresher fruit style and crunchier tannins than previous Vesuvios.”
Additional Information
For more information about Quinta do Vesuvio, please visit
http://www.quintadovesuvio.com/
Click here to download the Quinta profile.
Click here to download the wine specification sheet.