All about gentleness and harmony, this vintage of DQ Reserva shows the figgy ripeness of fruit from Ervamoira, a riverside vineyard near Foz Coa in the Douro Superior, balanced by fresher notes of purple plums, reflecting fruit from the cooler, high elevations of Bons Ares. It’s meaty and lusciously rich, integrating oak tannins into a reserved and elegant lasting impression.

A powerful dense wine that is rich and firmly structured, so it has big bold black fruit flavors that are still firmly embedded in dark tannins. It is a fine complex wine, the fruit of two of Ramos-Pinto's quintas in the Douro Superior. Keep this wine until 2018 at least. Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2015, this brand was the among the first Douro still wines.

90+ The 2013 Duas Quintas Reserva is a blend of 66% Touriga Nacional, 21% Touriga Franca and 13%Tinta Barca, fermented in large vats and aged for 16 months in a mixture of new, second and third use barrels. Not showing quite the density of some, it still has gorgeous structure and beautiful fruit. It is a very nice effort in a difficult vintage, but it is showing very little now except its power. Lots of aeration allowed, this might be a bit more interesting, but all you can do with this just now is cellar it. At the moment, it doesn't quite have the concentration of some of the stars here, but they didn't seem quite as concentrated when young, either. This will be released in mid-2016. - Mark Squires