Douro: Portugal's Hidden Valley – Quinta do Infantado

Quinta do Infantado is another top Port house (see their note and score in my 20 recommended 2011 vintage Ports report) whose table wines all feature in James'  "Best 100 Wines in 2013 From Portugal's Top Region – Douro." Each got a score of 90 points or above. 

João Roseira's family has been making Port for nine generations and table wines for three. Indeed, they were the first Port house to bottle Port in the Douro back in 1979. Before then, the Portuguese government had limited Port production to only those who could afford shipping their produce first to Vila Nova de Gaia.

It was arguably Infantado then that revolutionized the Port industry, setting the path for small producers to legally produce their own Port.

Today, Infantado carries their prestige in making fine Ports to their table wine production. All of their wines are organic and mechanically "trodden": They use machines that replicate the movement of peoples' footsteps to press their grapes in lagares (small, squared-shaped troughs originally made of stone but now often stainless steel). People have been making wines in the Douro in these for centuries. 

As João Roseira sums up, it's all about letting the grape speak for itself. Check it out in the video.

-JMS