2024 Vintage Ports II
Samples of the recently declared 2024 Port vintage have been coming into my office in dribs and drabs over the summer. The recent lull in summer high temperatures here in the UK (even where I am in the North Derbyshire Peak District) provides an opportunity to taste and appreciate them properly. I have tasted some of these wines before, at a rather rushed, over-heated tasting in London in May and I will be conducting a fuller, more extensive tasting of all the 2024 Vintage Ports for the World of Fine Wine Magazine in September.
Before notes on the individual wines, here’s a brief reminder of the growing season in 2024 and what to expect from this vintage: after a succession of extreme years, there was nothing extreme about the growing season in 2024. The previous winter was relatively warm and very wet which kept soils at field capacity from November until March. April/May was warm and dry with budburst, flowering and the pintor (veraison) all falling at about average times. July was hot but without the extremes of previous years, though there was a brief heat-spike in August. From 15th August onwards temperatures were in the low-30s with relatively cool night time minimums until the end of vintage. Picking started in early September (with the increasingly popular Sousão grape) and vintage began properly for most around the middle of the month (a little later than in recent years). There was a small amount of rainfall at the end of September but otherwise conditions were perfect all the way through to the end of vintage in October. Yields were around or above average and wines were balanced with baumés registering around 13-14 degrees all the way through.
Ricardo Pinto Nunes, winemaker for Churchill, said ‘without hesitation, this is a vintage that has surpassed my expectations’ capturing ‘purity of fruit, precision…and an elegant balance that combines depth with finesse and length’. This sums up a wonderful wine from Churchill (see below) as well as the style of the majority of wines from this vintage. Only a very few show the heat that has been the salient feature in recent years.
The following wines are tasted in alphabetical order:
Burmester 2024 ***/****
A blend of 45% Touriga Nacional, 40% Touriga Franca, 10% Tinta Roriz and 5% Alicante Bouschet: deep, opaque with a crimson-violet rim with lovely, evocative floral aromas showing some depth and richness: soft, rich and refined with a hint of liquorice mid-palate, firm dusty-gravelly tannins and a bright fruit-driven finish showing the purity of fruit that seems to be a hallmark of this vintage. Not big but fresh, defined and well balanced. 9,964 bottles. 16.5
Churchilll 2024 ****
A field blend in its entirety with the backbone coming from old vines at Quinta da Gricha in the Cima Corgo, this wine is not quite as deep in colour as some of its peers; expressive with lovely, pure mulberry and blueberry fruit on the nose, quite rich (a hint of opulence) and dense with ripe minty fruit and firm, broad spicy tannins, lovely definition with a vibrant, long linear finish. Lovely wine with a good future ahead, I think Churchill has produced a tremendous wine in 2024. 18
Ferreira 2024 ****
Sourced from Quinta do Caêdo and Quinta do Porto with as much as 50% coming from old vines (field blend) backed by Touriga Nacional (30%), Touriga Francesa (15%) and Sousão (5%), made in lagar at Quinta do Seixo; good, deep opaque colour; lovely ripe berry fruit aromas, exuberant with a hint of gum cistus, tar and dark chocolate; rich and well-structured with lovely ripe fine-grained tannins, just a hint of Douro heat in the ripeness of the fruit and a broad, supple juicy finish. Still a little raw around the edges and not as immediately approachable as some 2024s at this stage, but a lovely wine that needs 10 -15 years to soften. 17.5
Kopke ****
With 75% old vine fruit and 25% Touriga Nacional, surprisingly deep and opaque with ripe, expressive, lifted minty fruit with a hint of dark chocolate and liquorice; fresh, sweet and opulent initially with firm, ripe tannic structure building in the mouth leading to a big, broad, sweet finish, still a little raw and not as approachable as some, this should come together as a really lovely wine for the medium-to-long term. 17
Niepoort 2024 ****/*****
No technical or background information that I could find: not as quite deep in colour as some; ripe but still quite demure on the nose, gently lifted with a hint of esteva (gum cistus); firm and linear on the palate with lovely fine-grained tannins, showing tension and great poise, not a big wine but firm, tight knit and well-structured with an elegant, spicy but slightl green finish expressing the freshness and purity of the vintage. Needs plenty of time in bottle for its green edge to integrate. 18.5
Poças 2024 ****
No technical or background information: very deep and opaque in colour; ripe and still rather raw on the nose with intensity underlying; similarly, rather raw on the palate but this is a big, rich full-flavoured and well-structured wine with juicy fruit that should come together well in time with ripe, grippy tannins and a big, bold finish. Lacking a little finesse at this stage but an impressive wine. A wine to look forward to drinking in 15. 17
Ramos Pinto, Quinta da Ervamoira 2024 ****
Single estate wine from the Douro Superior, 68% Touriga Nacional, 12% Touriga Francesa, 10% Sousão, 5% each of Tinta Barroca and Tinto Cão; quite open and expressive on the nose, angular with well-defined spicy-sappy hedgerow fruit; similarly fresh and nicely focused, ripe berry fruit with a leafy edge on the palate, good definition and purity with classic berry fruit and spicy tannins on the finish. I like this wine more every time I taste it: lovely finesse. Drink over the medium term. 17
Ramos Pinto 2024 ****/*****
With fruit from Quinta da Ervamoira (see above) and Quinta do Bom Retiro in the Cima Corgo, a blend of 49% Touriga Nacional, 20% Touriga Francesa, 12% Sousão and (intriguingly) 2% each of Tinta Barroca and Malvasia Preta: deep in hue, somewhat withdrawn on the nose initially, with suave, seductive underlying ripeness; lovely fresh pure berry and plum fruit, very precise with firm, structured tannins rising in the mouth and a lovely, long pure sweet berry-fruit finish. A really beautiful wine that you can appreciate and even drink now but has the balance and poise to last and last. A triumph from Ramos Pinto. 18.5
Quinta de la Rosa 2024 ***/****
From a magnificent family-owned single estate in the heart of the Cima Corgo, no technical information though La Rosa says that ‘we produced a limited quantity as only a few of our vineyards reached the neccessary concentration’ and this wine includes grapes from Vale do Inferno close to the River Douro: deep in hue, rather demure and seemingly quite loose-knit on the nose, not as expressive at this stage as most of the wines here; lovely, sweet berry fruit, suave and very approachable with gentle yet firm tannins, showing much greater purity and definition on the palate than on the nose and a firm, ripe, linear finish with a hint of liquorice. 16.5
Sandeman 2024 ****
A blend from Quinta do Seixo and Quinta do Vau with 40% old vine fruit, 30% Touriga Francesa, 20% Touriga Nacional and 10% Sousão; very deep and opaque in colour with a dense, super-ripe prune and tapenade nose, full of generous hot country fruit; ripe and fleshy in style, full and foursquare with broad ripe tannins, vibrant black fruit compote and dark chocolate concentration with a broad, structured finish. Atypical of the vintage (but typical of the rather dense style of recent Sandeman Vintage Ports), this shows hot county fruit and intensity yet it remains fresh and exuberant. Impressive and is some ways rather gorgeous (if lacking in finesse at this stage), it will be interesting to see how this wine evolves. 18+?
