Ramos Pinto, 2017 Vintage Port
Vintage Port
Quinta da Ervamoira
Presented in Original Gift Box
*** 17.5/20 Jancis Robinson ***
***94 Points (MS)- Wine Advocate***
Bottle size: 1 x 75cl
ABV: 20%
Price:
$102.26 USD
Description
Tasting Note
Very deep colour with violet reflexes. lively and intense aromas of raspberry, strawberry and forest fruit. Hints of rock-rose, black pepper and cocoa.
Full bodied with a gripping tannin structure which is alive, dense and has fresh fruit flavours searing through. a very long and enjoyable finish.
Deep and opaque purple centre with a narrow scarlet outer rim. A complex and mature bouquet dominated by black fruit, cherry plum and blackcurrant which surround notes of chocolate and liquorice. Delicate aromas of violets and touches of bergamot.
On the palate this is a powerful win, with density and great volume. Silky tannins are well integrated with the highly concentrated fruit. A fresh and almost never ending finish.
Jorge Rosas, CEO of Ramos Pinto, has said 2017 is “an exceptional year – the 2017s are without a doubt up there with our best vintages. We always listen to the vines and what they tell us, that has always been the Ramos way, and in 2017 we had fantastic quality in the vineyards.”
As with Symington Family Estates and Quinta do Noval who have also declared the 2017 vintage, Ramos Pinto reported a hot year and an unusually early start to the harvest.
Picking began at the same time at Quinta de Ervamoira and Bom Retiro when harvesting there is normally separated by three weeks.
The conditions led to extremely healthy but also concentrated grapes, with master blender Ana Rosas commenting: “The decision to release a Vintage Port always starts in vineyards with the quality of the fruit not in the winemaking. In 2017, the vineyards gave us fantastic quality both in Quinta de Ervamoira and Bom Retiro.”
Condition
Excellent
Reviews
*** 17.5/20 Jancis Robinson ***
60% Touriga Nacional, 15% Touriga Franca, 10% Sousão, 19% Tinta Barroca, 5% Tinto Cão. Foot trodden and fermented in lagares. TA 4.6 g/l, pH 3.7, RS 98 g/l.
Less open on the nose than the Ramos Pinto 2017. More subtle and refined, more withheld and pure, darker fruited. Even though it is more restrained, it has greater intensity and concentration on the palate, with real finesse in the tannin texture and a little more obvious freshness for sophisticated harmony. (JH)
***94 Points (MS)- Wine Advocate***
The 2017 Vintage Port Quinta da Ervamoira (in Douro Superior) is another Port from Ramos Pinto in this vintage that is Touriga Nacional-dominated—60% of the blend. The rest is Touriga Franca (15%), Sousão (10%), Tinta Barroca (10%) and Tinto Cão (5%). It comes in with 98 grams of sugar. This is another of those Single Quinta Ports that is not really intended as a downgrade over the regular Vintage Port. Rather, it is just a different expression of terroir—and it is actually pricier than the regular Vintage Port that Ramos Pinto also made in 2017.
When I first saw this as a tank sample in Porto last June, it seemed super, and I preferred it to the regular Vintage Port. (That's a little less clear today, by the way, as they have swapped places—by a little.) It's now bottled and in the USA. A defining feature of this elegant Port is always going to be the powerful aromatics, mint, eucalyptus, cistus and so on. It is all about the personality. There isn't a lot of fleshiness. It is not as rich as the regular Vintage Port, but it may have more precision, intensity and focus, as well as more personality. It showed a little more grip on the finish after a couple of days open. In the mid-palate, there is considerable finesse and no jamminess. Then, there's the big finish with some notable grip from tannins. All the while, it is fresh and lifted. A couple of days later, it was drinking pretty well. If it is not quite as rich as the regular Vintage Port, it often seems a brighter and livelier one, as well as a delicious one. This should be approachable fairly young and then hold well for a few decades or more without a problem. For the moment, as noted, I think this has swapped places with the Vintage Port—as I had a slight preference for that this time around. The styles will be more important than any perceived qualitative issue, no matter what.