2010 Quinta do Crasto Reserva Vinhas Velhas Old Vines

The 2010 Reserva Old Vines is Crasto’s familiar old vines bottling (70 years of age on average), tank fermented and then aged for 16 months in a mixture of French (85%) and American (15%) oak. This is, not to sound like a broken record, another nice example of Crasto’s success in this vintage. If this is not quite as sexy and intense as the 2009 – which will no doubt win the blind tastings – it is quite lovely, focused, elegant and juicy, with fine depth for the level and the vintage and a lingering finish. It has some restraint this year, but it shows beautiful harmony and finesse, while still retaining a real backbone. Its texture is caressing. It is a good example of what I’ve said elsewhere – if you didn’t know this was a difficult vintage, no questions would be asked about this. If it has one early flaw, it is that the oak is far too prominent. Based on track record, it should pull that together well with cellaring. As confirmation, while playing with it for a few hours I saw it begin to integrate its oak. Let it settle down a bit. There were 79,000 bottles produced. Drink 2014-2024. Crasto is not the only Douro producer that had a nice 2010 vintage – a year reputed to be difficult. However, Crasto is surely one of those that overachieved in it. Having seen these as a group three times now in various places and contexts, I feel confident in saying that there isn’t much to argue about here. All pros and cons considered, they aren’t much if at all off of their normal pace, although they sometimes lean a little more to the finesse side of the equation. With this most recent tasting, they also demonstrated the ability to evolve in the glass, change and improve significantly. The upper level wines were all retasted the next day as well and held their own beautifully. Particularly impressive – the lower level 2010s also seemed to show exceptionally well and offer a lot of value for the money. There wasn’t much compromise there at all. Importer: Broadbent Selections, San Francisco, Ca.; (415) 931-1725