NV Quinta da Pedra Alta No. 10 Ten-Year-Old Tawny Port 500ml

94 pts DD Import
Quinta da Pedra Alta |Douro Valley
Traditional Douro Tawny with a fresh finish, blending mature richness and forty-year-old parcels into a ready-to-drink after-dinner bottle.

Price:
Sale price$59.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship
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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)

Quinta da Pedra Alta’s No. 10 is a Tawny for anyone who loves the richness of aged Port but perhaps a little more freshness, which this delivers in spades. It’s the estate’s first Ten-Year-Old, created as a tribute to winemaker João Pires and his work here since 2009.

The making is traditional: hand-picked grapes, foot treading in granite vats and long ageing in old Port casks. The blending is where João and Matt Gant bring their judgement, combining parcels of different ages, sweetness and acidity, including a small amount aged for at least forty years.

Expect dried fruit, toffee and nuts, with a little gingerbread spice. It’s rich and velvety, but the acidity keeps the sweetness in balance and gives the finish a refreshing lift. It has all that familiar delicious Port character that we love, but it remains light on its feet at the same time.

Serve it lightly chilled with sticky toffee pudding, a strong cheese or simply on its own after dinner. Mature Port character with Quinta da Pedra Alta’s emphasis on freshness, ready to enjoy without years of waiting. Great stuff.

94 points
”Rich, warm and sweet with cherries and strawberries, and a nice woody spiciness… Fresh and fine with nice layers.”
- James Goode (Wine Anorak)

"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 - "Rich, warm and sweet with cherries and strawberries, and a nice woody spiciness. There’s a touch of dried herb and raisin, too. Fresh and fine with nice layers, finishing with nuts and gingerbread." - Jamie Goode (Wine Anorak)

93 points - "Subtle dried red fruit, caramel, dried flowers, leather. The palate is full bodied, expresive, with integrated sweetness not cloying with an elegant finish." - Jacobo García Andrade (James Suckling)

ELEGANT / LUSCIOUS / COMPLEX

Alta No. 10 is an elegant, luscious, complex Tawny Port, made in our traditional granite lagars, aged in old casks and ready to drink now. Serve lightly chilled as a perfect accompaniment to chocolate desserts, strong cheese or delicious on its own.

VINIFICATION:

The grapes are handpicked, hand sorted and destemmed into granite lagars, where they are foot-stomped for up to four hours. The must is then fermented by wild yeasts at temperatures ranging from 20-25°C, and spirit is then added at the appropriate time to stop fermentation. At the end of the maceration the ferments are drained, pressed, and transferred to old port casks to undergo maturation, before eventual blending and bottling. As with all ports, blending is the key and we use a variety of aged parcels, with different levels of sweetness and acidity including a small proportion of some really old barrels (at least 40 years old). The aim is to deliver an elegant, complex Ten-Year-Old Tawny style where the sweetness takes a back seat and the Pedra Alta acidity provides the focus. This is the first Ten-Year-Old produced on the estate and is a fitting tribute to the positive impact João has had on the estate since he started in 2009.

Batch: 25080

COLOUR:
Tawny

AROMA:
Very complex aroma, showing lots of dried fruits, toffee, caramel and cask notes

PALATE:
Luscious, complex tawny with a velvety texture and a refreshing finish

SERVING TEMPERATURE:
Serve at 12 to 14 degrees centigrade

FOOD SUGGESTIONS:
Chocolate delice, sticky toffee pudding, strong sheep’s milk cheese

CELLARING
Drink now, but will gain further complexity over the next 20+ years

Suitable for Vegetarians & Vegans

VITICULTURE





Grape Varieties (%)

Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca

Soil Type

Schist

Vine Age

Between 25 and 29 years old

Vines per Ha

4000

Pruning Method

Single and double cordon

Altitude above sea Level

Between 250 and 400 metres asl

Yield

Average of 6 ton/hectare

Harvest Period

Various years

Harvest Method

Hand picked

VINIFICATION





Winemaker

João Pires & Matt Gant

Fermentation

In traditional granite lagars with foot stomping

Malolactic

None

Maturation

Old Port casks

Bottling Date

March 2025

ANALYSIS


Alcohol (%)

19%

Residual Sugar (g/l)

100g/l

pH

3.55

Total Acidity (g/l)

4.5g/l

Total SO2 (mg/l)

52mg/l

Price Bracket $51 to $100
Type Fortified
Country Portugal
Region Douro Valley
Reviewed By James Suckling
Critic Score 94
Alcohol 19%
Size 750ml
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

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