2018 Wine & Soul, PINTAS Vintage Port

Pintas Vintage Port har siden sin debut i 2003 vakt opsigt. 2018 versionen er endnu en formidabel udgave af denne kult-portvin, som der i 2018 kun produceres 2000 flasker af. Den åbner med en bragende intens næse som igen spænder fra det vinøse til klassisk port-toner. Stor, sødmefulde aromaer af brombær, solbærkoncentrat, lakrids, violer, asfalt og blomster pirrer og kærtegner næsen. Smagen er dernæst endnu mere imponerende. Stort anlagt, kraftig struktureret med forrygende syre og bragende baggrundstannin som base overvælder vinen tungen med sin overdådige og usædvanlig dybe og detaljerede frugt. Righoldig, næsten cremet i sin koncentration viser den superbt strukturelt fokus og en klarhed i sit udtryk, som kun de største årgange. Superb storvin! (-2060+) *****

97 points Robert Parker: "The 2018 Pintas Vintage Port is a field blend from old vines (88-year-old vines and more than 40 different grapes) and comes in with 96 grams of residual sugar. It spent 19 months in old casks. Powerful, concentrated and precise, this intense Porto is not terribly expressive on opening—it shows dry, closed and serious, the fruit taking a back seat to the old-school power. Unevolved, this seems potentially brilliant, but it is going to need some extra time. You might be able to approach it in eight to 10 years, but a lot more time would be helpful—not so much to resolve the tannins, although they are formidable, but to allow the fruit to develop and assert itself. It doesn't seem as fresh and as balanced as the wonderful 2017, but it might have as much concentration and power, maybe more (they weren't here together). A few days later, it demonstrated better better balance too, as the fruit poked its head up and asserted itself a bit, while the alcohol took a back seat (it actually has less than the 2017). Let's start here, but it looks like another terrific Port from this producer, one of the finest 2018s so far. It won't be fun to drink young, though. There were only 2,000 bottles produced."