Quinta do Vesuvio 2000
Single Quinta Vintage Port
The property produced just 2500 cases of 12, selected from just over 10% of the vineyards total production. A great wine.
Description
Good climatic conditions allowed Vesuvio to produce an oustanding wine in 2000. However, the year did not start well with bad weather in April affecting the flowering which resulted in low yields. The remaining fruit however ripened under near perfect conditions during June through to August.
A welcome period of rain in August prepared the grapes superbly for harvesting, which began on Thursday 21st September. The average yield was just 720g per vine with ideal Baume graduations. Temperatures during the harvest were also mild, greatly facilitating the fermentations in the lagares.
The entire production was produced in the quintas' large traditional granite lagares, one of the few remaining properties to do so in the Douro. A team of up to 50 people worked the lagares during the vintage. As each lagar holds approx. 20 pipes (11,000 litres), this number of people is essential to obtaining maximum extraction of colours and flavours.
The 2000 Vesuvio is rich and opulent with the classic nose of ‘violets’. This wine is dark, almost ink-purple. On the palate, the wine has layers of rich concentrated fruit, the tannins are strong, but ripe.
Our Expert's Recommendation
"This young wine should be allowed to age in its own bottle for at least 15 to 20 years from the time it is bottled to achieve its optimum maturity. For those who prefer to drink their Vintage Port young, 4 to 5 years are sufficient. One of Vesuvio's finest wines, yet."
Press Comments
"Inky, its ripe loganberry and blueberry fruits tight-knit and integrated, with good tannic support. Scented with white pepper and chocolate-covered ginger. Drinking well now".
“Excellent deep blackish crimson. Young, green vegetal notes (Baga-like). Big and bold and brazen and even a note of barley sugar. Very blithe blackberry juice. Rumbustious and utterly confident. Good on it. Like heavenly hunting port!”
“It looked like black ink in the glass…I could conclude by saying, 'what more could you possibly ask from an infant VP'?…This delivers such ripe, boisterous and slightly jammy, viscous juice that overwhelms the palate, if not the brain. Moderate tannins show up on the surreal finish. Port on steroids or was this actually a young Harlan? Neither, just a top notch young 2000, which is way high in the pecking order from this wonderful vintage. Given the big fruit, the balance is impressive and the overall structure, near perfect. If you don't own any of these - shame on you”.
"Deep purple-black showing a definite strong floral character, with a savoury, bready tone. It’s deep, dense and very sweet, overflowing with luscious fruit, and an aroma of violets."
"A different style altogether – cool mint and eucalyptus with a touch of mint chocolate rounds out the rich, concentrated blackberry and floral fruit. It is wonderfully concentrated and shows real power and a clean dry edge."
“Lovely nose of plums, chocolate and berries, with hints of spices. Full-bodied, with super firm tannins and a tight tannin structure. Long and refined. It builds on your palate”.
“The aroma is typically Vesuvio: very floral, raisiny, spicy. Dense, fat and meaty on the palate, with polished, silky tannins, complex flavours (cocoa, forest berries, pepper) and a very long finish. A lovely Vesuvio at its best”.
“I have always loved the elegance of this wine that is released as a single Quinta in every good vintage. My affection for the 2000 may stem partly from having trod the grapes in the lagares at Vesuvio, but the objective taster cannot help but note the exceptional ripeness of the grapes and the intense, brilliant ruby-purple colour. Aromas of black raspberry and fresh prune with a wonderful floral character. Lean notes of smoke and tobacco give the wine considerable verve. Violet aromas are beginning to emerge, a quality that becomes more pronounced as it ages. Rich in texture but not overly sweet, its long finish is filled with ripe, slightly dusty tannins and just a hint of dark chocolate on the close”.
“Quinta do Vesuvio’s saturated blue/purple colour is more dense than many of its peers. Impressive in the mouth, with full body, sweet crème de cassis and blackberry liqueur intermixed with smoke, earth, and spice; this sensual effort possesses elegance allied to power and authority. Complex, fat, rich, and intense, it is an exceptionally stylish, graceful effort to enjoy between 2006-2020+”.
“Vesuvio is a vast, conical hill in the Douro Superior, and it grew a vast, structured wine in 2000, filled with the sweetness of the season. It fills the mouth with joy, the sweetness growing right out of the tannins, warming the palate as the sun warms the cool morning schist on a high Douro hillside. The perfect condition of the tannins allow the wine to balance high and tight between sweetness and structure. It’s beautifully formed and seamlessly built for a long life ahead”.
“The best Vesuvio since the Symington family took over ownership of this great quinta in 1989. It is a hugely powerful wine, rich, dense and classic in its balance of sweet fruit and dry tannins. The potential here is enormous, but it could be drinkable in 10 years.”
“Opulent and immediately impressive… Full, ripe jammy flavours.”
“Very good colour. Full and backward. Structured, even slightly dense at present. But undenyingly profound. This is full bodied, rich and concentrated on the palate. Excellent grip. A really vigorous wine. One of the few with real intensity on the follw-through. Very fine plus. From 2018”.
“The 2000 is a dark purplish-black with full opacity and ultra-ripe aromas of violets and blueberry preserves. Alluring sweet berry and jammy plum fruit that dominate the underlying ripe tannins which are anything but shy. This is one powerful beast with the structure to take it to the finish line. Outstanding palate crushing finish that keeps the fans applauding. Will this surpass the phenomenon that was Vesuvio 1994, only time will tell!”
“Muscular, with loads of wet earth, berry and prune character and hints of cassis bush. Full-bodied and medium-sweet, with a powerful structure that builds on your palate. Very long. Masses of grip.”
“Nothing shy or retiring here. Superbly forthcoming fragrance and fruit; crisp, concentration, length”.
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.