Catalogue information
Port year 2004 started relatively cool, but the warm and dry period just before and during the harvest made up for a lot. Winter in 2003 was dry and cold like the spring that followed. The growing season in the Douro was therefore greatly hindered by a shortage of water in the soil. As a result, the grape leaves came out somewhat hesitantly and there was no exuberant fruiting. Tinta roriz and tinta amarela in particular bore significantly less fruit and smaller trusses. The summer of 2004 was cooler for the eastern remote Quinta de Vargellas than the year before. The dry conditions came to an abrupt end in mid-August when fortunately the water reserve was restored with almost 60 millimeters of rain in a short time. The harvest was to take place a little later - after September 20 - in perfect, sunny conditions and yields were about three-quarters of the 2003 result. The must had sufficient strength and aroma and the relatively cool growing month of September had provided elegance and structure. All these ingredients would again result at Vargellas in clearly recognizable elegant single quintaports with firm tannins in the youth, nicely concentrated berry fruit and those characteristic floral and terroir impressions. The wine is now still purple black with a beautiful glow. The wine is fruity on the nose, clearly still young, undeveloped, dry with fresh raspberries and black currants. But also that rich scent of plum, cedar, violets and rose petals. Refined herbal notes give Vargellas 2004 an impressive complexity. In the mouth you immediately notice those non-slip tannins that are already promisingly balanced with its exuberant and juicy, voluminous fruit flavor. A possession for decades to come in any serious wine cellar.
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