2014 Luis Seabra Vinhos Xisto Cru
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Tasting notes
The 2014 Tinto "Xisto Cru" is a field blend from 80-year-old vines (35%) with roughly 20% Rufete, 15% Touriga Franca,10% Alicante Bouschet and various others making up the rest. It was aged for 24 months in used French oak and comes in at 12% alcohol. Luis Seabra said he loved this vintage, and this is indeed very nice for this difficult year, but taste it next to the 2015 and 2016—only then do you see what's missing. It lacks the vivid flavors of the 2015 or the concentration of the 2016. If feels like a cooler-climate wine. It is clearly a couple of steps behind in terms of a typical Douro profile. That said, it is sensually textured, with velvet caressing the palate, and perfectly balanced. It is dry and serious, a fine food wine.
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Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
4,673 bottles and 126 magnums. Bush vines age 80+ on clay loam over slate, mostly blue and some yellow at 400–570 m. Rufete, Touriga Franca, Tinta Carvalha, Alicante Bouschet, Donzelinho Tinto, Malvazia Preta and others. The two vineyards were whole-bunch fermented separately. Vinification was done in 3,500-litre old open wooden port vats with indigenous yeast and nothing was added to the wine but sulphur. Total maceration of 34 days. After pressing, the Covas wine aged in 350-litre barrels and the Ervedosa wine in 228 litres. The malolactic fermentation took place in used oak barrels and the wine was in the presence of lees until August 2014. The total ageing in barrel was 22 months. TA 5.66 g/l, pH 3.59. Deep purple cherry red. Like the skins of black cherries. Delicately but intensely fragrant with small dark berries, more wild than cultivated, a light minerality and also a floral note just noticeable. The whole-bunch character shows a little more than in the Indie. A wine of great freshness and supreme elegance, just coming into its own now but with a long life ahead. Super-fine and supple tannins but still showing a nice dry powdery texture – you know the tannins are there but they are whispering and just right for the weight of fruit. I don’t know how Seabra gets this incredible harmony from the Douro at just 12.1% alcohol. (JH)
Grapes are from Meda region in the Douro Superior area, the three vineyards are more than 80 years old and are planted between 650 and 700 m above sea level with exposure to south east and north west. Rabigato is the major variety representing more than 70% of the blend, plus Códega (aka Siria) typical of this region, Gouveio or Verdelho, Viosinho and Donzelinho white. Pruning is traditional bushvine and soils are mica schist. The grapes were harvested 20 September, before pressing the grapes were crushed and destemmed, no prior maceration was done, the wine was decanted at low temperature for 36 hours, fermentation and ageing took place in used French oak barrels of 228 litres. Pale straw. Pears and something a little nutty like almonds. A quince and cedary freshness on the palate and the Douro's super-dry minerality without austerity. Dry, chalky texture and great length and purity of expression. (JH)