QUINTA DA ROEDA
2018 Croft
This is upfront, plump and joyful in 2018. Very much the opening act in the trio from Fladgate where it is a charming, immediately accessible vintage release that will be a pleasure to drink in its teenage years. Rounded soft and sleek on the palate. Gentle spice and easy flow. You step up quite dramatically when you get to the Guimaraens and the Taylor is from a different planet! Yet this has great appeal and will be a wonderfully enjoyable vintage port - at an unbelievably fair price - for 20 years.L&S (Jan 2021)
In Bond
75cl bottles (case of 6)
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The 2018 Quinta da Roeda Vintage Port has an intense nose of black fruit mixed with raisin, fig, cloves and a touch of boot polish. The palate is well balanced with quite a strict, terse opening, very spicy with black pepper, cloves (again) and bay leaf. Broody at first but opening with time to reveal a very attractive and complex, structured finish with hints of tobacco and smoke. This is a lovely nascent Quinta da Roeda. Drinking range: 2030 - 2065 Rating: 93 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Jan 2021)
Ripe and expressive, this delicious single-quinta Porto also has fine concentration and some pop on the finish. Indeed, as this sits and airs out, it proves it has a real backbone. Two days later, it was pretty tight. This is more about fruit than structure, though, and this sexy, nuanced and succulent Port is going to be hard to resist as it ages. Likely to be accessible on the younger side, it should still hold very well. For the moment— and young Ports do change notably as they age— this would be my favorite of the trio. Drinking range: 2027 - 2060 Rating: 94 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, www.RobertParker.com (Jan 2021)
Sleek in feel, with a mix of raspberry and plum reduction, melted black licorice and fruitcake notes that stretch out over a graphite edge on the finish. Has good energy from start to finish. Drinking range: 2030 - 2045 Rating: 93 James Molesworth, The Wine Spectator (Jan 2021)