2022 Quinta da Pedra Alta Reserva Tinto

94 pts DD Import
Quinta da Pedra Alta |Douro Valley |Touriga Nacional
A rich yet fresh Douro Reserva from historic Quinta da Pedra Alta, well worth discovering if you love generous reds.

Price:
Sale price$59.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
Rendering loop-subscriptions

Description

"A new Douro star… Pedra Alta was a Quinta with an amazing history, and the potential for making serious table wines. It was massively undervalued. They were excited by the prospect of matching the amazing site with one of the best young winemakers around: João Pires."
- James Goode (Wine Anorak)

If you’re getting to know Quinta da Pedra Alta, the Reserva Tinto deserves a place in your first order. This is the step up in the range, made from selected parcels across the estate’s best sites, with less than 400 dozen produced.

This wine is all about the vineyard. In the hot, dry 2022 season, the estate’s elevation slowed ripening, giving João Pires and Matt Gant time to pick for flavour while retaining freshness. Touriga Nacional from the higher slopes leads the blend, with Touriga Franca from lower terraces adding weight. The team combines traditional foot treading with gentle extraction, then gives the wine twenty months on lees in French oak to develop texture.

Plum, blackberry and red berries come with spice, smoky oak and a savoury edge. It’s rich certainly, but still lively enough with smooth texture, firm tannins and a long finish. To us this is in a really nice sweet spot between old Douro and new - it has power and depth, but remains elegant and balanced.

Open it with roast lamb and give it time to breathe, or follow it over the next five to ten years. For drinkers who enjoy a generous, richer red, this is a chance to explore the Douro through its own varieties and some of Quinta da Pedra Alta’s best vineyard parcels.

94 points
”Elegant and polished, it has all the qualities of a modern classic of the region.”
- Tim Atkin MW (Tim Atkin Portugal Report 2026)

"We really want to show this place and interpret the fruit in that way... identity, freshness, and purity is the main thing."
- João Pires (Quinta da Pedra Alta Winemaker)

 

94 points - "Made from a traditional blend of local varieties sourced mainly from older vines, this wine spends 20 months on lees in French oak. Despite the richness of the vintage, it remains lively and fresh. Red fruit, spice and graphite notes combine with well integrated oak and just enough tannic grip to provide structure. Elegant and polished, it has all the qualities of a modern classic of the region." - Tim Atkin MW (Tim Atkin Portugal Report 2026)

LUSCIOUS / LAYERED / TEXTURED

Quinta da Pedra Alta Tinto Reserva is a complex, rich, oak matured Douro red, made from a blend of selected parcels from the best sites on the Quinta.

VINTAGE: A very dry growing season, combined with above-average summer temperatures and very low yields, led to rapid ripening across the Douro. Nevertheless, at Quinta da Pedra Alta, our higher elevation and healthier yields resulted in a more gradual ripening curve, allowing us to harvest the grapes at full flavour.

VINIFICATION:

Once the grapes are picked, our aim throughout is to preserve the fruit flavours and avoid over-extraction through gentle handling. The grapes are handpicked, hand-sorted, destemmed, and fermented with wild yeasts at temperatures ranging from 20–25°C for 10–12 days on skins. Fermentation is managed using various techniques depending on the vessel: foot treading followed by gentle plunging is employed in granite lagares, while open-top stainless steel tanks and picking bin ferments are simply plunged. At the end of maceration, the ferments are drained, pressed, and transferred to a combination of new French oak puncheons, hogsheads, and barriques (66%), and seasoned French oak puncheons and barriques (34%) to undergo malolactic fermentation (MLF). After MLF, sulphur dioxide is added, and the wines mature sur lie for 20 months before blending. Each varietal parcel contributes unique attributes to the final blend. In a warm year, Touriga Nacional from the highest elevations of the Quinta brings a textured palate with luscious red and blue fruits; Touriga Franca from the lowest elevations adds mid-palate weight and structure, with rich black fruits and meaty character; Tinta Roriz contributes good structure and intense colour; and Tinta Barroca offers juicy, vibrant red fruits. The wine was blended and bottled in July 2024.

COLOUR:
Dark plum

AROMA:
Red, blue, and black fruits, with meaty, spice notes and smoky oak complexity

PALATE:
Luscious and fruit laden wine, with a long-textured palate, and balanced acidity

SERVING TEMPERATURE:
Decant and serve at 16 to 18 degrees centigrade

FOOD SUGGESTIONS:
Roast lamb with rosemary and garlic, Aged hard cheeses, Wild mushroom and truffle risotto, Dry-aged beef steak with red wine and black pepper sauce

CELLARING
Drink now but will gain further complexity over the next 10-15 years

Suitable for Vegetarians & Vegans

VITICULTURE





Grape Varieties (%)

Touriga Nacional (67%)
Touriga Franca (27%)
Tinta Roriz (5%)
Tinta Barroca (1%)

Soil Type

Schist

Vine Age

Between 16 and 22 years old

Vines per Ha

Average 3800

Pruning Method

Single and double cordon

Altitude above sea Level

Between 250 and 500 metres asl

Yield

Average of 4.0 ton/hectare

Harvest Period

Between 30th August & 22nd September

Harvest Method

Hand picked

VINIFICATION





Winemaker

João Pires & Matt Gant

Fermentation

Wild ferments in 1ton bins and granite lagars
10-12 days on skins

Malolactic

Yes

Maturation

20 months sur lie in new French oak puncheons, hogsheads and barriques (66%) and old French oak puncheons and barriques (34%)

Fining & Filtration

No Fining | 1 micron cartridge filtration

Bottling Date

24/07/2024

Production

4501 bottles

ANALYSIS





Alcohol (%)

13,5%

Residual Sugar (g/l)

0.63g/l

pH

3.57

Total Acidity (g/l)

5.7g/l

Total SO2 (mg/l)

91mg/l

Free SO2 (mg/l)

24mg/l

Price Bracket $51 to $100
Type Red
Body Full Bodied
Variety Touriga Nacional
Country Portugal
Region Douro Valley
Critic Score 94
Alcohol 13.5%
Size 750ml
Vintage 2022
Closure Cork

Quinta da Pedra Alta

Quinta da Pedra Alta is a reinvigorated Douro label, and one of the most exciting producers in the region. This historic estate makes reds, whites and Ports from traditional local varieties, in a modern style all about freshness, balance and expression.

The property sits above the Pinhão River in the Douro’s Cima Corgo district. Its 35 hectares of terraced vineyards climb from 230 to 550 metres, with schist soils, different exposures and cooler upper slopes providing a broad range of fruit for blending.

Winemakers and great mates João Pires and Matt Gant bring local knowledge and an international perspective to the cellar. João is a highly regarded and experienced local winemaker, while Matt is an Englishman now based in Australia, where he founded First Drop Wines in the Barossa Valley and Gant & Co. in Margaret River. 

There’s serious history here, too. Three granite markers from the 18th-century demarcation of the Port region still stand on the property (the only remaining Douro producer containing three of these historic stones), while the terraces remain too steep for machine harvesting, making hand-picking a necessity.

Their focus is on the estate’s Portuguese varieties, including Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Barocca for reds, and Rabigato, Gouveio and Viosinho for whites. The whites are a particular reason to explore, with fruit from the higher vineyards bringing freshness and texture, alongside the estate’s substantial reds and traditional Ports.

Historic Douro vineyards, native grape varieties and an experienced and talented winemaking team make Quinta da Pedra Alta a must-try modern Portugese producer.

The incredible Douro Valley Quinta da Pedra Alta

Others also liked

Recently viewed

Common Questions

Delivery is free on orders of $199 or more.

For orders under this amount, delivery is calculated at checkout based on your postcode. You can order in any quantity or combination of wines you like. Straight dozens are not required.

We will dispatch your order the same or next business day.

Estimated delivery transit time varies depending on your location. Please review this page for specific estimates.

No sorry we do not have a store front and pickup is not available.

Yes, no problem. When placing your order select ‘Store at Different Drop and Delivery Later’ as your shipping method or reply to the order confirmation email after placing your order with additional instructions.

We stock three different sized gift boxes (single, three bottle and six), all are available for purchase for a flat rate of $8. They look great and make an awesome impression.

To add a gift box to your order, simply add at checkout. The special requests box is your friend, please give us as many details of what you are looking for and we will try our best, or get in contact to discuss it with you. 

If you want to bulk order gifts or if you have any trouble please email hello@differentdrop.com or call and we can try and help.

 

Our warehouse is automated so unless you tell us otherwise, we will ship your order. If you would like us to hold your order please reply to the order confirmation email after placing your order and we are happy to store your order for up to 6 months at no charge. You can review our heat policy here.

Yes, of course. We want Different Drop customers to always be getting the best price. You can see our price match policy here.

No, feel free to mix it up! There is no minimum requirement. You can order wines in any quantity or combination, 1 or 50+ bottles.

No, all prices are set at the full discounted dozen rate already.

Most wine retailers list at a single-bottle price and then discount 10–15% when you buy six or twelve. We've taken the opposite approach. Since the overwhelming majority of our orders are already 6 bottles or more, our list price is set for the case buyer from the start. There's no inflated single-bottle price to discount down from.

What that means for you:

- One price, same for everyone — no minimum to hit to unlock the best rate
- No mixed-six gymnastics to qualify for a discount
- Our single-bottle price is typically at or below a traditional retailer's by-the-dozen rate

Put simply: the box discount is already baked into the price.

**And if you find it cheaper elsewhere?** Let us know. If the same wine is available at a lower price at another retailer (including at their mixed-six or by-the-dozen rate) we're happy to match it.

If you can't add more wine to your cart it means we are low on stock of that wine. For example, if you are only able to 3 bottles and no more that means we only have 3 bottles left of that wine. If it's a must have, please contact us and we may be able to order more in for you.

Regular Enquiries

Urgent Enquiries

02 8376 8775