2007 Quinta do Vale Meao

The 2007 TINTO, the winery’s flagship wine, simply made me smile. Bright, elegant and well structured, this has fine balance, but more than anything else—delicious fruit. Sweet and sexy, this still has a firm backbone and it shows better the next day. It leans a little more to Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz this year, the typical Touriga Nacional percentage (50-60%) having declined to less than 40%, according to winemaker Francisco Olazabal. Comparing this to the 2005, Olazabal called the tannins more mature, and the fruit fresher. I agree especially with the first point. This is remarkably graceful and Burgundian in style, more harmonious than the 2005, but not perhaps quite as ageworthy. My one concern is that the wine is a bit too oaky at the moment (it did get 100% new oak), more so than usual at this stage, it seems to me. It certainly needs a couple of years to settle down. Assuming the oak integrates as well as I think it will, this is a big winner and may even deserve an uptick in score. It should age beautifully and make a lot of friends for the Douro. There are a lot of pricey trophies in the Douro these days whose prices are hard to justify in this economy and in this vintage, where a lot of the lesser wines perform particularly well. But for an upper level wine that almost always delivers (the off vintage 2006 being a notable recent exception), this is an excellent value point, relatively speaking. It has maintained a very reasonable price point, cheaper than wines like Pintas, and around half the price of wines like Batuta and Vinha da Ponte. Drink 2011-2024. Importer: W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Harrison, N.Y.; tel: (914) 251-3209.