Tasting Report: My Best 100 Wines in 2013 From Portugal's Top Region – Douro

You might be forgiven for only knowing the Douro Valley as the home of vintage Port. I spent a week there this May for the 2011 declaration (check out all the coverage on the site here), but I also tasted some 200 table wines from the region’s top producers.

With a string of excellent years from 2008 to 2012, Portuguese vintners are now creating well-made, complex table wines that I believe are Portugal’s best. Look to the slightly fresher years for table wines like 2008 and 2010.

In the region’s granite and schist soils, the main varieties for making reds are touriga nacional, roriz, tinta barroca and tinta cão. Those for whites are rabigato and viosinho. Most are blends, though touriga nacional is often used to make single-varietal wines.

"My table wines are now more famous than my Ports," says Dirk Van der Niepoort whose 2007 Robustus and 2011 Redoma Reserva were my best red and white respectively. His family had made outstanding vintage Port for centuries, but it was he who added highly-collectible (especially in Macau) table wines to the line in the 1990s, despite his father’s initial disappointment!

"We have a very special place for growing grapes in the Douro Valley, and it makes unique wines. What is a great vintage for Port is not the best for wine. And what is the best vineyard for wine is not the best for Port."

Table wines from the Symington Family Estates also consistently scored 90 points or above in my tastings. Symington is in fact the largest Port house of all (Think Graham, Dow, Warre, Cockburn and Quinta do Vesuvio).

Says Paul Symington, the company chairman, “It’s the strength of our region that allows us to make great vintage Ports as well as outstanding table wines.” His top two wines were his 2011 Altano and 2009 Quinta do Vesuvio reds.

Then there’s Christian Seely, managing director at Quinta do Noval. I gave his 2011 Quinta do Noval Nacional 100 points as my top vintage Port of the year. But Noval also showed very well in my table wines tasting this year – especially the 2009 and 2010 O Cedro do Noval.

"Of course, we are not giving up the day job when we’re making vintage Ports like the 2011. Port is still one of the most thrilling wines in the world. But I believe that thanks to the exceptional terroir here that has so far found its expression in great vintage and tawny Ports, we are starting to discover a way to express this terroir through unfortified wines."

While some still show little interest in making table wines, overall it’s the Port producers who are leading the way for quality production in the region. It’s always been like that – consider the success of Ferreira’s Barca Velha from the 1960s that set the standard for all table wines from the Douro Valley. Any wine lover must try these soulful and beautiful wines. It’s a region that combines amazing history with contemporary passion.

Below are my Best 100 Wines for 2013. Here’s a list of wines I tasted that didn't make it into the report.