Quinta da Romaneira Dona Clara 2021
£26.45
The wine
Fresh and balanced, with intense, expressive fruit, a wild floral character and real depth and complexity from its unusual blend. A full expression of the great vineyard at Quinta da Romaneira.
Dona Clara is unusual in the Douro for including Syrah alongside Touriga Nacional and Tinta Cão. The international variety is permitted here but rarely used by serious estates, and it works because the Douro's heat and altitude give Syrah the same pepper and violet character it shows in the northern Rhône. Each variety ferments separately before ten months in French barriques, 8% new.
The producer
Quinta da Romaneira
View all Quinta da Romaneira winesEstablished in 1757, Quinta da Romaneira is one of the largest single estates in the Douro: 412 hectares with three kilometres of river frontage, of which 86 are planted to vines.
The Douro was the world's first demarcated wine region, mapped and regulated in 1756, so the estate is almost exactly as old as the appellation itself. Its vineyards are cut into terraces on hillsides steep enough that mechanisation is impossible in much of the property, and the soil is schist, a layered rock that splits vertically and lets roots drive deep in search of water. That is what allows vines to survive summers in which the valley regularly exceeds forty degrees.
The many valleys and promontories of the estate give it a range of exposures and several distinct microclimates, which is why single-parcel wines like Liceiras and Mirante make sense here. Both Port and Douro table wine are made, and both are taken equally seriously, which was not always true of Douro estates. The table wines in particular have become some of the most admired in northern Portugal.
