2022 Quinta do Vesuvio Capela
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Tasting notes
The 2022 Capela da Quinta do Vesúvio Vintage Port was closed and tight even after a couple of hours in the glass. It's named after the Chapel vineyard, the first to be replanted in the property after phylloxera. It's a field blend of centenary vines, and the wine also has grapes from other plots, including a younger one planted exclusively with Touriga Franca. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in oak casks for 18 months. It's subtle and with incipient complexity. It has a super balanced palate, with abundant tannins but in great harmony with the rest of the components, coming through as powerful and elegant. It has a beautiful sense of harmony. It takes a long time to open up, and it's not explosive; it keeps the subtleness. I believe this is going to age very well, as it has the components and the balance between them to do so. It has 20% alcohol, a pH of 3.64 and 100 grams of sugar. They produced the equivalent of 5,520 bottles, 4,320 numbered bottles and other formats. It was bottled in 2024.
Critic scores
Average Score
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Just 5,000 bottles produced from three specific parcels at Vesúvio in the Douro Superior – less than 1% of the Vesuvio harvest. One parcel is the Vinha da Capela, a field blend of 100-year-old vines where any replanting is done with cuttings from the same parcel. The second is the Escolha vineyard in the estate's more shaded central valley. The third is 50-year-old Touriga Franca in the Vale da Teja. They have replanted 150 ha over 4 years, built the schist walls and the house and the winery. Charles Symington sees this wine as 'an opportunity to show exceptional vineyards separately'. Co-fermented in 2022. Longer fermentation before fortification to give a drier result. Subtle aroma, non-spirity, dusty mineral Douro nose. Blue and black fruits, dusty hedgerow fruit with real purity. Succulent, silky, chocolate-like flavour and texture. Almost gentle in its intensity. Texture is so beautifully dry and paper-fine. A little bit closed at the moment but the refinement is remarkable. Chewy as it builds. Densely packed and incredibly long. (JH)