Quinta dos Carvalhais, `Único` Dão Tinto

Quinta dos Carvalhais is credited with spearheading the quality renaissance of Dão wines in the early ‘90s and continues to make some of the region's finest wines today. After being purchased by Sogrape in 1988, significant improvements were made to the winery and vineyards, including the replanting of near-extinct Dão varieties such as Encruzado, a grape now heralded as one of Portugal’s finest. Current Quinta dos Carvalhais winemaker Beatriz Cabral de Almeida continues to champion these varieties, making an impressive range of estate wines that show lovely depth, vibrant fruit, and exceptional elegance.

The estate’s 50 hectares of vineyards are mainly planted predominantly with white indigenous varieties; each matched to a specific vineyard plot. Circled by mountains and located 465 to 500 metres above sea level, a combination of granite soils and warm days followed by cool nights lends great ripeness and elegance to the wines. Quinta dos Carvalhais follows viticulture practices in harmony with nature, grazing sheep in the vineyards both to boost soil health and reduce the use of herbicides to a minimum. The modern gravity-flow winery is filled with numerous small stainless-steel fermentation tanks, allowing plots to be vinified separately. Typical of the Dão, all Quinta dos Carvalhais’s wines undergo oak ageing, with Beatriz expertly employing a mixture of new and used barrels of varying sizes to subtly integrate the influence of oak.

Quinta dos Carvalhais’s single-variety wines are complex blends of different plots on the estate, vinified separately before blending. The Encruzado, partially fermented and aged for eight months in French oak barrels of varying sizes, marries the vibrancy of this variety with delicious toasty notes from the oak. The Touriga Nacional showcases this prized indigenous variety's signature black fruit and violet characters alongside a well-integrated spiciness from 12 months in French oak.

The Branco Reserva is a blend of Encruzado and Gouveio aged for 18 months in used French oak. It balances the citrus-fruit freshness of both varieties with a savoury complexity derived from time in barrel. The Branco Especial is a unique non-vintage blend of oak-aged whites from seven different vintages. It is hugely complex, combining notes of dried fruits and nuts with a honeyed complexity bound together by a linear acidity.

The Tinto Reserva is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro and Tinta Roriz aged for 12 months in a combination of new and used French oak. It is a rich and sumptuous wine with pronounced black fruit aromas, polished tannins and a lingering finish. The ‘Único’ is a Touriga-Nacional-dominant blend, only produced in exceptional vintages from the best plots on the estate. Aged in French oak for 24 months, this wine treads the line between power and elegance. Intense and complex, the palate is layered with blackberry, black cherry and violet notes, with spicy nuances and a wonderful freshness.