Quinta do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Port, Douro, Portugal

克拉斯托晚裝瓶年份波特酒

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：4650

The 2016 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend with 102 grams of residual sugar. This is a traditional, unfiltered LBV. It was bottled with a long cork in February 2021 after about four years in Portuguese vats. Crasto's LBVs are some of the best bargains in the category. You get low prices, aging ability and high quality. What are you waiting for? It is not always that they are the biggest or most powerful, although they have proven that they are structured enough to age well, but they are very expressive and nuanced. They are very much mini-Vintage Ports that can age, develop and become even more expressive. They just sing in terms of the flavor medley. This is another good example of that. Beautifully constructed, with moderate tannins for support, this is also delicious and able to develop in the glass. It is a pleasure to drink at that very nice price, and it adds some distinction as well. There were 24,269 bottles produced, plus some half bottles.

The 2015 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend with 95 grams of residual sugar. It is a traditional, unfiltered LBV bottled in February 2019 with a long cork. The mid-palate here is average, but the structure is a bit more notable. The fruit is very tasty, in a dry and controlled fashion, but this young LBV shows no hint of complexity or gravitas just yet. It needs a little more time to develop, obviously. It should hold well—there is no rush. Even if you think it is approachable now—moderate power does come out with aeration—it will benefit from a couple of years in the bottle. I'm not surprised this is showing well—in 2015, Crasto made one of its best ever Vintage Ports—but it is a bit understated, relatively speaking, especially on opening. If it is not quite as impressive in its category as the 2015 Vintage Port was, it still managed to improve dramatically when retasted the next day. At that point, there were some nuances of eucalyptus on the nose as well. There were 47,300 bottles produced (a dramatic uptick over the difficult 2014 vintage), plus 12,000 half bottles, from vines with an average age over 60 years old.

The 2014 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend with 107 grams of residual sugar. It is a traditional, unfiltered LBV bottled in February 2019 with a long cork. There were 17,000 bottles produced, plus 6,000 half bottles, from vines with an average age over 60 years old. This isn't the most concentrated LBV this year, but the flavors are classic and the structure is reasonable—indeed, the structure is notably better than the fruit. Crasto has a fine reputation for LBVs, and at this price level, this is a very respectable offering in this rather difficult vintage. You can drink this now. It won't age as well as some of Crasto's big stars, but it can easily hold for 15+ years or so.

The 2013 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend with 116 grams of residual sugar. It is a traditional, unfiltered LBV bottled in June 2017 with a long cork. This is elegance with deceptive power. Focused and tight, this is a bit closed just now, but you can already see how expressive the fruit will become with time. The tannins give fine support to the fruit, but they are ripe enough to allow you to dive in early. They will also allow this to age beautifully. This is a pretty fine LBV—Crasto doesn't make bad ones. It is tight enough so that it is worth being a little conservative in evaluation just now, but it should evolve well in the cellar. Now, look at that price. Traditionally styled LBVs are the best value in Port. This is more interesting than some Vintage Ports in this report. There were 49,427 bottles produced, plus 6,603 half bottles.

The 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Port is an unfiltered field blend with a long cork. If you've been following my LBV comments, including last year's long article, you know that I mostly always think that traditional LBVs are a super value, perhaps the very best in Port. Add a terrific vintage to a traditional producer and there is not much to question here. Opening soft, lush and seductive, this expands in the glass and follows through with some tannic pop. It has a firm, tight finish. The expressive fruit is delicious now. As the vertical I did some time ago proved, though, these will age, acquire complexity and keep getting better. A few days later, it was showing fine definition of fruit and wonderful freshness that lifted and delivered the fruit to the palate. It seemed elegant all the while. This will have to evolve nicely to match the brilliant 1994 and 1997 in Crasto's oeuvre, but it seems right on track. In particular, it has that old school finesse that reminds me of some high-end Port. There's nothing clumsy here. It is well worth leaning up at the moment. Put it away for a few years and let it come together and show more complexity. It really needs a year or three to calm down in terms of tannic pop, but even after that it will gain complexity. There is no rush and it will offer a lot more if you wait until around 2022. Of course, if you buy enough, there is no reason to choose just one option.