Croft Vintage Port 2011《Terroir Collection -TP598》
Region : Roêda/ Douro/ Portugal
Grapes : Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, TintaBarroca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão, Tinta Amarela
Alcohol : 20.5% vol
Website: croftport.com
⭐ Over 400 years history of making Port wine
⭐ Only produce 5,000 case
⭐ Traditionally treaders crush
🏆 Wine Spectator 97 pts
🏆 James Suckling 95 pts
🏆 Wine Enthusiast 95 pts
🏆 Wine Advocate 92-95 pts
🏆 Wine & Spirits 93 pts
🏆 Vinous 90 pts
🏆 Jancis Robinson 17/ 20 pts
Beware: Some Ports have a splash of white paint or chalk, called a “Splash Mark”, on the bottle. It tells you which way the bottles were cellared (splash mark up). You too should then store your Port Wine with the splash of white paint uppermost. This way, all the sediment collects uniformly on the same side.
History
Founded in 1588, Croft is among the oldest original Porto houses and owns the famous vineyard property Quinta da Roêda. With the expertise of the top viticultural team in the Douro, Croft consistently produces coveted wines.
THE EARLIEST YEARS OF CROFT
The Croft family can be traced back 700 years, and first became involved with Port wine shipping through their connection with a distinguished family of merchants, the Thompsons of York, through marriage. It was only natural that the two families should combine their business interests in the wine trade.
A great-grandchild of this union, John Croft, was born in 1732 and was to become the most famous personality in the house. He traveled regularly between York, where he was sheriff for quite some time, and Oporto,and was a member of the British Factors, who built the historic Factory House in 1790 that still stands today. In 1788, his treatise on the wines of Portugal was published, an event that placed the Croft family at the forefront of the British community based in Oporto.
JOHN CROFT'S TREATISE
Croft’s treatise allows great insight into the early days of the Port wine trade. When British shippers first started to buying and selling Port it was not a fortified wine but rather a heavyweight wine that was probably no more than 12% alcohol by volume. There is no exact date for when Port became fortified to help stabilize the wine on its long journey to Britain, but John Croft mentioned monasteries in the Douro that were adding brandy earlier in the fermentation process, producing an off-dry Port. Theses lightly sweeter Port wines became popular in Britain and prompted growers to begin adding the brandy earlier in the fermentation process. The sweet Port wine that we know now finally evolved by the mid-18th century.
STELLAR GROWTH
By 1827, Croft & Co. had become the fourth largest Port wine shipper. One hundred years later, the company occupied the number one position. The house of Croft enjoys a major reputation for its Vintage Ports in particular and acquired Quinta da Roêda in 1875 from John Fladgate, Baron of Roêda and a partner in the Taylor firm.
THE CROFT PREMISES
Croft has aged its wines on the same premises in Oporto since the 19th century. These include the famous Terreir inho vault, the longest Port wine lodge of all, which measures over 140 meters from end to end. The company’s cellars house an extensive and rare collection of vintage Port,including some that have never been sold.
A new winery began operation upriver at Quinta da Roêdain 2002. There, state of the art fermentation tanks were installed, modeled on a design developed by Taylor Fladgate & Yeat man’s winemaking team. These Port-Toes, as they have come to be known, aim to emulate the action of the human foot by the use of pistons to macerate the wine. The team have also reinstalled a large number of traditional granite lagares in which to tread the grapes for the vintage and single-quinta wines by foot.
THE FLADGATE PARTNERSHIP
Croft today is part of the Fladgate Partnership, made up of three of the most historic and highly regarded Porto houses: Taylor Fladgate, Fonseca, and Croft. Their Portos are produced with the attention to quality that is the standard to which all other Port wine houses aspire. It is a family-run company with the present members representing the eighth generation of the Yeat man family, originally from the Port house of Taylor Fladgate & Yeat man, now with more than 300 years of history. The group owns several of the best-known wine estates in the Douro Valley—including the famous Quinta de Vargellas and Quinta do Panascal—totalling more than 290 hectares of A-classified vineyard. It also has interests in tourism and catering.
QUINTA DA ROÊDA
In the Douro Valley there is a common saying, attributed to the 19th-century poet Vega Cabral: “If the wine district were a golden ring,Roêda would be the diamond.” This magnificent property was probably planted early in the 18th century, during the great surge in demand for Port following the 1703 Methuen Treaty, under which England agreed to levy one-third less duty on Portuguese wine than on French. Previously owned by Taylor Fladgate &Yeatman, it was acquired by John Fladgate personally in 1862. With the marriage of Fladgate’s daughter to a Croft, the property passed into the House of Croft in 1875.
Today Quinta da Roêda consists of 270 acres planted with approximately 332,000 vines. It is located on the north bank of the Douro just to the east of Pinhão in the Cima Corgo growing region, an area that has traditionally been considered the center of the highest-quality Porto viticulture. Quinta da Roêda is the cornerstone of Croft’s reputation as a producer of superb vintage and vintage-style Portos. Its characteristically plump, full, vigorously fruity wines, with their hallmark aroma of gum cistus,the aromatic bush, are the quintessence of the inimitable Croft house style.
Quinta da Roêda forms the backbone of the Croft Vintage Porto, produced only in years when vineyard conditions are optimal and warranta “declared vintage.” Wines from Quinta da Roêda are characteristically plump,full and vigorously fruity, with the hallmark aroma of the gum cistus bush—a character that informs the Croft house style. The grapes are trod by foot in granite lagares to minimize the release of harsh, bitter compounds from skins and seeds, and the wine spends two years aging in vat before bottling. Croft Vintage Porto will continue to develop in the bottle and may be cellared fordecades before opening.
Wine Spectator 97 pts
Effusively juicy, rich and concentrated, showing plenty of snap to the crisp and well-spiced flavors of wild berry, dark currant and plum tart.Orange-infused chocolate notes linger on the exotic, mocha-filled finish. Best from 2020 through 2045. 5,000 cases made.
James Suckling 95 pts
Beautiful aromas of violets and blueberries with hints of blue slate. Full body, medium sweet with chewy tannins and a long, long finish. A leafy, stemmy, nutty undertone to this with hints of shaved milk chocolate.Very refined and beautiful. 5,000 cases produced of this foot-trodden wine. Try in 2021.
Wine Enthusiast 95 pts
This shows very sweet fruit that's ripe, dense and already delicious. That doesn't mean the tannins don't bring out the firmness at the core of this powerful wine. It is integrated, packed with black plum flavors,and full bodied. For long-term aging.
Wine Advocate 92-95 pts
The 2011 Croft is initially taciturn on the nose, even after allowing it 20 minutes in my glass. A light swirling immediately awakens the aromatics to offer blackberry, Seville orange marmalade, blueberries and dried fig – complex and quite compelling. There is real mineralite within this bouquet that, returning after 30 minutes, offers alluring ocean spray scents rolling in off the ocean. The palate is medium-bodied with a velvety-smooth opening that belies the fine, structured tannins underneath. It clams up a little towards the finish, shuts the lid tight and consequently there is the sensation of less persistency here compared to the Taylor’s or Fonseca. But Croft has a knack of filling out with bottle age and becomes both gentle andgenerous with the passing years.
Wine & Spirits 93 pts
When it purchased this historic brand in 2001, the Fladgate Partnership was reunited with the Quinta da Roêda, which John Fladgate’sdaughter brought with her in marriage to Charles Wright of Croft in 1875. Sited on the north bank of the Douro adjacent to Pinhão, Roêda is the heart of Croft vintages. It has been a major focus for António Magalhaes, charged with viticulture for the Fladgate Partnership, who has been working with David Guimaraens to restore the vineyard to its former glory. Each vintage release has improved on the last until this 2011, which is a jump shift in depth and brings Croft back to its rightful place among the elite of the Douro hierarchy.It has the distance and restraint of a great young vintage, the density of the fruit and the mouthwatering tannins held tight, youthfully closed. Hinting at its future in bright scents of roses and dark tones of freshly turned earth,this is a wine of significant weight and depth. It should reach its prime around 25 years from the vintage.
Vinous 90 pts
Bright medium ruby. Slightly reduced, spirity aromas of kirsch,blackberry, boysenberry, licorice pastille and mint, plus a suggestion of nutty oak. Densely packed and quite sweet, but the slightly disjointed black fruit flavors are tough going today; this struck me as more like a ruby port. Quite closed and tannic on the back end, in need of patience to display its personality. Many other critics rated this wine considerably higher than I did.
Jancis Robinson 17/ 20 pts
Not one of the deepest colours. Rather smudgy, indistinct nose.Something a bit vegy/herby about this wine. More open than most. Almost as though it is made to sit under the Fonseca and Taylor from this stable.Agreeable but not the most ambitious. Slightly sudden dry finish. Just a tad spindly.
