Quinta dos Roques Encruzado Dao 2021

Description

The leading (small) estate in the Dao revolution. At around 450m, Quinta dos Roques lies in the Dao heartland, just outside Abrunhosa do Mato. Luis and Luisa Lourenco lead this family estate, producing a wide array of meticulously assembled wines, where both traditional blending, and avrietal offerings both excel. The Touriga Nacioanl here is often cited as Portugal's finest, while Quinta dos Roques Encruzado is regularly rated as one of the country's leading dry white wines. But perhaps the estate is best judged by Quinta dos Roques Tinto, a classic, Touriga-inspired, Dao red, which won the International Wine Challenge Portuguese Red Wine Trophy in 2014 (for the 2011 vintage).

Its fair to say that Quinta dos Roques single-handedly revived the reputation of the Dao's finest white varietal, and still enjoy the reputation as the finest exponent of Encruzado. Increasingly, Luis Lourenco prefers to keep the oak element in the background, and let the grape's citrussy profile express itself as much as possible.