Our first-ever Top 100 Wines of Portugal list comes after the JamesSuckling.com team tasted more than 900 wines from the country over the last 12 months, including a weeklong tasting trip in person. Many of our highest-rated Portuguese bottles are fortified wines, but over half of the list comprises table wines, with an exceptionally strong showing from the Douro.
And it’s the latter category that gave us our Portuguese Wine of the Year. The Niepoort Douro Robustus 2017 is not only one of the best table wines from the country, it also pays homage to the first unfortified Douro wine that Dirk Niepoort, the owner and fifth-generation winemaker, made in 1990. Robustus is now produced from Niepoort’s oldest vines – some more than 100 years old – planted on a north-facing, schistous vineyard that results in a wine with power, acidity and tannic structure.
“Portuguese wine in general is on an amazing wave,” Niepoort said during James Suckling’s and Associate Editor Andrii Stetsiuk’s visit to the Douro earlier this year. “The Douro Valley is a diamond, which still needs to be polished.”
Robustus 2017 is a blend of Douro varietals fermented using 100 percent whole clusters, followed by a long maceration period and five years of maturation before release. Brimming with dark fruit, spices, violets and slate, it feels wonderfully fresh, silky and fine, despite the firmness and structure of the wine. It has come a long way since the 1990 Robustus, which was bottled as an avant-garde experiment and at the time was dismissed even by Niepoort’s father.
The Niepoort Douro Charme 2021 (No. 8) is another example of a top Douro red. It’s a more Burgundian expression: elegant, floral and refined, but with focus and tension. And Niepoort’s white wines are just as impressive. The Niepoort Douro Branco Coche 2021 (No. 13) is their most sought-after white, with a chalky minerality and a spicy, long and textural palate, while the Niepoort Douro Branco Redoma Reserva 2021 (No. 29) is a mineral, creamy and fascinating white that you can find for just $40. Both are barrel-matured blends of Douro white varietals like rabigato and arinto.
We must also mention the Douro wines from Quinta Do Vale Meão, a historic estate as the birthplace of Barca Velha. The Quinta Do Vale Meão Douro Monte Meão Casa Das Máquinas 2020 (No. 6) is a blend of touriga franca and tinta barroca from schist soils planted in 1971. It’s a complex, full and concentrated wine with tension.
The Quinta Do Vale Meão Douro Monte Meão Vinha dos Novos 2020 (No. 11) is a pure touriga nacional with fantastic minerality as well as floral, spicy and zesty elements. These two single-vineyard wines are incredible value – both can be found for under $35. However, the estate’s icon wine, the Quinta Do Vale Meão Douro 2020 (No. 51), will set you back more than $200, which is part of the reason it’s ranked lower on this list. On the upside, it’s seamless, classy and refined – a selection of fruit from the estate’s oldest vineyards, with a majority of touriga nacional in the blend.
Our No. 2 wine is one of 13 vintage Ports on the list. Graham’s Vintage Port Quinta dos Malvedos 2019 displays impressive tension, length and structure, with a firm grip of fine tannins. The blend is majority touriga franca with touriga nacional and 15 percent of old, field-blended vines from steep stone terraces that face south over the Douro River.
Another 2019 vintage Port in our Top 10 is the Quinta do Vesuvio Vintage Port 2019 (No. 5). It’s sweet, plush and dark-fruited, with hints of graphite and nutshell accompanied by power and structure. The other vintage Ports on the list are also mostly from 2019, a season with a cooler summer that made complex and structured wines, and 2020, a hot season with low yields and intense, concentrated fruit.
One of the takeaways from our visit to Portugal was the global market’s newfound appreciation for rare tawny Ports, according to the dozen or so Port shippers that James spoke to. Tawnies are ready to drink on release, unlike vintage Ports, and display fantastic tertiary complexity.
For instance, our No. 4 wine, the Quinta do Vallado Port 20 Years Old Tawny NV, is a blend of wines with an average age of 20 years, made from old vines, and it shows beautiful freshness and tangy acidity to go with the caramel and toffee notes. It’s widely found for just $60. Meanwhile, the No. 10 Quinta da Romaneira Port 10 Year Old NV, like many 10-year-old tawnies, offers incredible value at just $30.
According to Cristiano van Zeller, the owner of Van Zellers & Co., the art of blending old wines for age-indicated tawnies results in a sum greater that its components. “Even the smallest fraction of a particular wine, perhaps as little as one percent, can have a profound impact on the overall character and profile of the final blend,” said van Zeller, whose 30 Years Old Tawny NV (No. 92) and 2020 Vintage Port (No. 87) both made our list.
The 15 tawnies on the list below are mostly age-indicated (10-, 20-, 30-, 40- and 50-year-old), but there is a single vintage tawny in our top 10, Graham’s Vintage Port Single Harvest Tawny 1997 (No. 9), which exudes notes of dried blood oranges, flowers and saffron, before a firm but rich finish. It’s a bottling of a selection of casks that winemaker Charles Symington’s father had set aside 25 years ago for extended wood aging, from a declared year that made outstanding vintage Ports.
What is also exciting is a new category for age-indicated tawny Ports, of which there are two on the list. The No. 60 Taylor’s Port 50 Year Old Tawny Golden Age NV and No. 61 Sandeman Port 50 Year Old Tawny NV are blends of incredible old Port wines aged in wood for decades, both intensely flavored, very sweet and rich in aromas of dried fruits, nuts and more.
Six of the fortified wines on this list come from the island of Madeira, including two at the very top of the list in our top 10. The Barbeito Malvasia Cândida Madeira Faja dos Padres Special Reserve NV (No. 3) is a medium-sweet wine that, while displaying mature nutty and toffee notes, stands out with elegance and nuance.
And at No. 7, The Rare Wine Co. Madeira Thomas Jefferson Special Reserve Historic Series NV is a silky, medium-dry and zesty blend of wines of which the oldest component is more than 80 years old. This and the other three Historic Series on the list are complex, aged but affordable non-vintage wines, produced by American wine merchant The Rare Wine Co. with Barbeito owner Ricardo Freitas’ library of old Madeira (check out our Madeira article).
There is much more on the list to seek out, in particular vibrant white wines. While the Douro leads the way with wines from Niepoort, Quinta de la Rosa and Quinta dos Carvalhais in the top 20, there are some bright and delicious vinho verdes as well as excellent value propositions from Alentejano, from field blends like the No. 43 Howard’s Folly Vinho Regional Alentejano Sonhador Branco 2021 to a viognier, the No. 50 Dona Maria Viognier Vinho Regional Alentejano Amantis Reserva 2022. Check out the exciting reds from Alentejano, too, where both syrah and local grapes like alfrocheiro are often grown at higher altitudes to bottle freshness and energy.
As with all our Top 100 reports, the selection factored in availability on the international wine market, alongside score, price and the “wow” factor. For example, we excluded wines like Taylor’s Port Very Very Old Tawny NV because of price ($900) and the Quinta Maria Izabel Douro Branco Sublime 2020 because of tiny production (700 bottles). We also limited each producer to up to four wines, and included only recent releases, so you won’t find the two perfect wines we rated this year on the list, the D’Oliveira Bual Madeira 1908 and Niepoort Port Very Old Tawny 1863.
Whether you are into dry or fortified wines, look through the list to discover Portugal’s myriad of varietals, regions and styles. We hope you find the blend of tradition and innovation as exciting as we do.
– Claire Nesbitt, Associate Editor
Note: The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated in 2023 by the tasters at JamesSuckling.com. You can sort the wines below by vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.
