CASE PRICE = $33.99 per bottle (add 12+ quantity to your basket)
Tasting Notes:Colour: Brick Red
Aroma: Intense and lifted complex aromas of spices , wild Douro bush (Esteva) combine with fresh red wild berries. Great complexity.
Palate: Impressive and elegant Upfront, developing to a rich full and round palate, of great balance. Displaying rich Douro berry fruit characters with integrated oak tannins with a great length of finish.
Ageing in wood:16 months in 225 litres barrels. 85% French oak and 15% American oak.
Ratings & Reviews
93 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate:The 2009 Reserva “Old Vines” is a Douro stalwart that has crept up in price over the last several years, but in fairness – it was cheaper in the USA than in Portugal for the most part and it competes well with Crasto’s higher priced entrants in most years. So, too, this year. Once again, I look at this and it seems equal or superior to more expensive wines, particularly including Crasto’s. So, it’s hard to complain. Powerful, focused and intense, this is ripe and delicious, but it has the structure to support the fruit and oak and some pretty good acidity. If you like them sexy, sweet and rich, this qualifies. If you like them elegant in the mid-palate and structured, it does that, too. It did calm down with air, even if it is burlier than usual, certainly a very different wine than the more compact, elegant, but utterly charming 2008 that I loved. While not as big on the “wow” factor as some of the so-called upper level wines, it’s probably Crasto’s best and best balanced upper level wine this year, not completely immune to impressions of alcohol, but handling it very well and combining a lot of virtues successfully. This is not really in a great place now – two to three years in the cellar could help a lot. Drink 2014-2023. - Mark Squires (Dec 2011)
94 Points & "Cellar Selection" - Wine Enthusiast Magazine (2008 vintage):"From
low-yielding 70-year-old vines, this is a beautifully structured wine,
its dark tannins balanced by complex dark coffee, plum skins in a rich
texture. It’s obviously a wine for aging —give it at least four years."
— R.V. (11/1/2010)
Rank #62 Top 100 of 2011 & 93 Points - Wine Spectator Magazine (2008 vintage):"A
solid core of savory spice and leaf notes provides a supple overlay to
the flavors of dried berry and smoke. The deft finish lingers, with
touches of cream and vanilla as well as plenty of cocoa powder notes.
Very elegant and suave. Drink now through 2017. 1,700 cases imported."
–KM (Feb 28, 2011)
92 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (2008 vintage):"The
2008 RESERVA “OLD VINES” is an old vines field blend (70 years) aged in
a mixture of French (85%) and American (15%) oak for 16 months. This
traditional favorite delivers again this year. Initially quite
disjointed, showing its oak far too much, it eventually proves it has
the structure and complexity to become something else in the cellar,
becoming surprisingly graceful and elegant, with a crisp, rather austere
demeanor after 90 minutes of air. It is particularly tight and closed
at the moment. Its power and overall balance suggests it will show
better in a few years. The longer I had it open, the more I liked it,
and it showed nicely the next day as well, crisp and focused,
beautifully structured, velvety in texture. Much to my surprise, after
an hour or so on Day 2—it was better still, a very good sign. At the
moment, I confess a preference for the ’07 though. As with a lot of
‘08s, some cellar time may help, and it may not always be as obvious
what is going on with the wines early on. There were 105,000 bottles
produced, plus some halves and large format bottles. Drink 2012-2023." -
Mark Squires (Dec 2010)
