Quinta De La Rosa Douro Red - Perfection From Portugal And It's Not Port

It doesn’t get much better than this under $20, the Quinta De La Rosa Douro Red.

40% Touriga Nacional 30% Touriga Franca and 30% Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo) from the Douro, Portugal. The wine was fermented in stainless steel and aged in used Allier French oak casks for 9 months. It has residual sugar of 0.6 g/L.

Sample submitted for review. The Quinta De La Rosa Douro Red has an SRP of $25 and is available for as low as $16 (or even $14 if your Costco has it). Ready to buy? Check your local retailers. Imported by Winesellers LTD.

From the bottle:

Family owned and run, all Estate made from grape to bottle, ‘A’ graded grapes, low yields.
Grape Varieties: Touriga Nacional 40%, Tinta Roriz 30% and Touriga Franca 30%
Hand Picked. Matured in French barriques. Aged oak casks for 9 months.
13.5% Alcohol

The Douro region in Portugal has a long history with Port. And while there is some truly delicious Port out there, the most exciting thing coming out of the Douro, at least for me, is table wine. Table wine has been produced here for ages but it was just in the 1990’s that it began to be taken more seriously and widely exported to the rest of the world.

The producer of today’s wine, Quinta de la Rosa, was one of the pioneers in this endeavor to produce world-class table wines. Today we once again visit their Estate Red which uses the same grapes commonly found in Port.

The 2016 Quinta De La Rosa Douro Red begins with a strong aroma of succulent ripe fruit that sucks you right in. The fabulous bouquet features blackberry, plum and wild herb notes with vanilla and spice rounding it out. The wine tastes serious! This is a delicious full-bodied wine with wonderful complexity. The oak aging is done to perfection adding all the right notes without overdoing it. The La Rosa delivers a smooth, silky and rich texture featuring concentrated, succulent fruit and layers of tasty spice. And despite the big and serious nature of this wine it is quite easy to drink. The finish goes on and on with sweet blackberry notes and loads of spice. It simply doesn’t get much better than this for under $20!

Ready to buy the Quinta De La Rosa Douro Red? Check your local retailers.