90 Points Wine Advocate
The 2013 Vintage Port is an old vines field blend bottled in 2015 with 73 grams per liter of residual sugar. Lacking the concentration and richness of the 2011, also reviewed, this is nonetheless very appealing for its elegance and its crisp finish. The structure is still serious, too, with focus and penetration on the finish. Very tight, this needs time in the cellar. The tannins were not overly hard, initially, but the structure became more assertive with aeration, as tends to be the case with young Port. After several days open, it was much more interesting, with more assertive structure and a slightly tart finish that should serve it well as it ages. It is a smaller wine than the 2011, but it has many merits, including its fine focus and penetration on the finish.
Winemaker Notes:
Touriga Franca/Touriga Nacional/Tinta Roriz plus mixed-variety old vines. From exclusively Class A parcels (Serra Douro and Serra de Baixho) totaling seven and one-half hectares on poor schist soils—the vines are fifty years or older. The fruit is hand-harvested, partly destemmed and fermented exclusively in lagar; fermentation is stopped with seventy-seven-degree wine brandy. The wine is aged for two years in a variety of tonel and balseiro, which are tall wooden tanks from 3,000-60,000 liters with thick staves that slow down oxidation. It finished at a modest nineteen and one-haf percent alcohol and seventy-two grams per liter of residual sugar and was bottled (and numbered) without fining or filtering in July 2015.