“Deepest crimson with purple rim. Rich, spicy black fruit, dark and savoury like the Douro’s best. Blackcurrant and blueberry sweetness. Ultra-fine tannins, so refined, elegant and incredibly well balanced for such a young Barca Velha. Powerful but so harmonious you barely feel the power. Immense length. The tannins are extremely fine and a little thicker than in the 1999. As it opens, there’s more violets and more of Touriga Nacional’s floral perfume. The tannins build in the mouth but they are still refined, polished smoother at this age than they would have been in the older wines, I suspect. Head winemaker Lus Sottomayor described the 2015 as having ‘The body and structure of 2011 but the freshness and elegance from 2008’.”

Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com