Port Wine Croft Vintage 2011 75cl
Tasting Notes
Deep black-purple color. The seductive nose complex has the typical Croft opulence but boasts impressive depth, background and aroma reserves. A rich and powerful fruity resulted in a base with plenty of aromas of flower buds and rock rose. Taste the delicious ripe wild fruit to emerge in the mouth. The velvety texture of the wine is supported by taut and muscular tannins, seamlessly integrated, providing energy with an attractive firmness and vigor at the end. More manly and structured that some recent vintages of this classic home, the 2011 features all the rich ripe fruity character and exotic aroma associated with the style of Croft House.
Awards & Accolades – James Suckling, May 2013
“Beautiful aromas of violets and blueberries with blue slate notes. Full-bodied, medium sweet with chewy tannins and a very long finish. A woody hint, the foliage and nuts with milk chocolate notes just scrape. Very refined and beautiful.”
Neal Martin – Eroberparker.com – 95 points
“At first, the Croft 2011 features a little morose nose, even after you have left open for 20 minutes in my glass. To slightly shake the aromas agree immediately presenting us with blackberry, Seville orange jam, blueberries and ripe fig – complex and quite engaging. There is a real minerality in this bouquet that after 30 minutes, offers attractive aromas as sea breeze to emerge from the ocean. The palate is medium bodied with a velvety and soft start, which incorporates fine and structured tannins. In the end, it closes a little, …the Croft has the merit of assigning maturing in the bottle and becomes smooth and generous over the years.”
Kim Marcus – Wine Spectator September 2013 – 97 points
“Effusively juicy, rich and concentrated, with a lot of intensity in sparkling flavors of wild berries, black currant and plum tart. Chocolate notes infused orange remained an exotic end impregnated the mocha. To drink from 2020 to 2045.”
Notes on Viticultural Year and Harvest
The winter preceding the vintage of 2011 was cold and damp. The weather station at Quinta da Roêda (Croft) recorded 496mm of rainfall between November 1 and March 31, which was an abundant amount compared with the average of 358mm recorded in the last 30 years. The rain was, however, very beneficial, completely replenishing groundwater reserves and allowing the balanced ripening of the grapes during hot and dry summer that followed. Sprouting occurred in the usual period, more precisely at the end of the third week of March, and the relatively wet and mild conditions April encouraged vigorous growth. The weather conditions recorded in early May were generally dried, thereby keeping most of the summer. There was only 12mm of rain in Roêda in May, June and July, which was very little compared with the average of 105 mm in 30 years.
Despite the arid conditions, the vines were able to remove enough water from underground reserves, providing the ideal conditions for balanced ripening of the grapes. The hot, dry weather in August was broken in the ideal height for two periods of rain, August 21 and September 1, which ended the ripening time and resulted in a balanced and evenly ripe harvest. The picking of the grapes began on September 10 in the fifth of Roêda in excellent conditions for harvesting. The fermentation times were long, allowing for a complete and uniform extraction, and the musts in farm mills showed exceptional intensity of color and aroma.
