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JR's notes:

WINE magazine conducts one or more blind tastings every month and this article is a report on a tasting held in the autumn of 1998. I was asked to pull together the opinions of the tasters, and this article appeared in December, 1998. You can see more about WINE magazine on their website: www.wilmington.co.uk

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You say 'Duero', and I say 'Douro'...

This month's tasting compares wines made beside the same river, but either side of the Hispano-Portuguese border. Our panel tasted wines from Ribera del Duero in Spain and (non-fortified) wines from the Port country of the Douro in Portugal. John Radford examines their reactions.

The Duero arises from a mass of tributaries south and east of the city of Soria, over 1,000 metres up in the Sierra de Urbión. It flows south and then westwards over schistose bedrock through Aranda de Duero in the heart of the DO Ribera del Duero (alt. 800 m.), and through Tordesillas in the DO Rueda (alt. 700 m.), around the clifftop town of Toro and into Zamora (alt. 650 m.) after which it forms the Hispano-Portuguese border for something over 100 km. before turning ever westward into Portugal. Here, the river drops into a deep gorge, losing 400 m. of altitude in only 50 km as it passes through the Upper Douro, or Port country, before making its way down to sea level, west of Oporto.

The altitude is important, especially in the DO Ribera del Duero, because the blazing days of summer are countered by cool, fresh nights, and frost is an ever-present danger in late spring and early autumn, needing meticulous vine-husbandry. The vast majority of the vineyard is planted in Tempranillo (aka Tinto del País, Tinto Fino) with a little Cabernet-Sauvignon here and there.

In Portugal, altitude has a different connotation: the grading system for Port vineyards gives an 'A' to lower slopes (up to 150 m.), with increasing altitude bringing lower and lower grades, and those from 650m being the lowest of all - grade 'F'. Each year the Casa do Douro issues a licence to Port producers saying that they may make - say - 40% or 50% of their harvest into Port. The surplus grapes are what go to make the non-fortified wines of the Douro.

Now, if you have an image in your mind of Ribera del Duero taking its pick of perfect, healthy, immaculate grapes whilst the Portuguese are struggling with the Port-trade's leftovers, then that's a massive over-simplification. It may have been true ten years ago, but a good deal has changed, and a grapes which are not suitable for Port by virtue of altitude may be perfect for red wine.

So, how did they do? Looking at the scores, consistency was impressive. Of 43 wines tasted, 42 scored 81+ (and the last one scored 79). Indeed, 18 wines jostle for position in the 'top ten', with three at 3=(88 points) four at 6=(87 points) and a mind-boggling ten at 9=(86 points). The next thirty all scored 82 or more. So job done, then? Quality wines on both sides of the border? New-style winemaking, quality-control and consistency truly established? Well, no. Not exactly.

It's interesting to note that in the top nine wines (scores 87-90) only one is Portuguese, and that from Quinta do Noval and made from the Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo again) at number eight. This seems to indicate that tasters preferred the style of the Tempranillo and that it can perform well in either region. The only wine made from the Touriga Nacional, which is the most favoured grape for the production of Port, came in at 10=(86 points), and that was Quinta do Crasto which is a showpiece estate making some of the Douro's very best non-Port wines. By contrast, of the final ten wines - which we may assume to be made from a mixture of the Douro's available grapes - seven were Portuguese, including all of the bottom five (scores 79-83).

The major theme which emerged, voiced by many of the tasters, was the 'internationalisation' of many of the wines. The Douro came in for more criticism than the Duero on this, perhaps because those early experiments in the late 1980s had been such a failure. New World techniques had been urgently needed to make the wines but, on occasion, this urgency has led to bland anonymity. One taster described the Portuguese range as '...more of a wine-and-cheese party style than of any... ...great character.', and didn't know '...where the Spanish Ribera wines fit in... They need to go back to their roots...'. Oz Clarke concurred: 'where is the thrill, the perfume, the beauty?' He was worried that the marketing-men had been spending too long in the winery and that the magical diversity of the wines was being sacrificed on the altar of market research.

Luigi Fioretti thought the Portuguese examples were the latest trend '...new-worldy and upfront red... Would they replace Beaujolais?' which is an interesting, if back-handed compliment. He also remarked that the Spanish wines were showing best at joven level (i.e. without any oak ageing) and that crianza and reserva styles needed more work.

Caspar Auchterlonie differed considerably: of the Ribera del Duero wines he said '...they had character and offered unique regional styles...' and of the Douro 'Almost to a bottle the wines on show were awful, unpleasant nose, unfocused, stewed fruit and non-existent finish. Hugely disappointing.'

Dominic Kelly was more charitable: '...some very good wines but too much over-cropping and poor use of oak...' was how he viewed the Duero wines. But about the Douro wines he was almost equally scathing: '...winemakers who make Port should stick to that. Most of the wines were awful - dilute fruit and ripping tannins...'

Derek Smedley thought that in the Ribera del Duero '...there is a danger of the wines becoming too one-dimensional...' and suggests that oak could be better used to increase complexity. There are, he says '...some wonderful wines, but others living on the name.' Similarly, of the Douro wines he says '...the good wines are very good, but some are picked at the wrong moment. The growers are used to Port, and spirit hides many faults...'

Others were much more enthusiastic. One found the Spanish wines '...well made, and typicity came through of the Tinta del País - thick, big and black! ...The gran reservas really show the potential of the region.' Of the Portuguese wines he said '...a mixed bag here in styles. After the Duero monsters the first Douro section I found refreshingly different... Great potential for Portugal and its indigenous varieties.'

Konstantinos Lazarikis found the Portuguese wines divergent - 'more traditional at one end and very 'New World' on the other. The latter style seems more convincing.' He is more forthcoming about the Duero wines: 'a quite unique style - power coupled with elegance, high alcohol and sweet primary fruit make these very appealing... If someone gets the balance right, the results can be excellent.'

Sue Crabtree found the whole tasting 'An interesting range of big, gutsy wines, lovely intense inky-blackcurrant colours and ripe, good tannins.' Nicola Danberry commented on the Portuguese wines as being '..more blandly international but most good and will probably do well in terms of value.' Of the Ribera del Duero she was more unequivocal: '...all good, some outstanding and fine examples.'

To sum up: too many 'international-style' wines, (especially in the Douro) and selection of grapes could be more rigorous; too much 'inappropriate' use of oak (especially in Ribera del Duero), where wines which could have become superb jovenes sometimes seem to have been oaked simply because it's seen as an excuse to double the price; and did you spot the lone Toro wine at No. 6? An excellent flag-flier for this small region. Overall, perhaps a 2-1 win for Ribera del Duero but with obvious advances on the Portuguese side of the border. Now, if they'd plant a little more Tinta Roriz on their highest slopes and leave the Port grapes for making Port, things could be very different in another ten or fifteen years.

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