Quinta Maria Izabel 2017

As soon as I have opened this M.I., I found myself diving in its deep and dark colour.

 Its initial aromas of ripe berries became stronger as I have let it breathe for a while.

The presence of wood has involved it in what I would consider to be the typical expression of the Douro terroir with some sort of Autumn notes.

This at a time that the temperatures in Hamburg have fallen drastically, making me forget of the evident signs Spring leaves all around. A perfect wine for these strange days that have taken over the city, I would say.

I would also like to call attention to the joint work of Quinta Maria Izabel and Dirk Niepoort that has resulted in this elegant and dense wine making it a perfect day-to-day wine

With it I would recommend some of the north american Alberto Rios poetry, such as this A  House called Tomorrow, which I have found myself reading over and over in the last days.

You are not fifteen, or twelve, or seventeen—
You are a hundred wild centuries

And fifteen, bringing with you
In every breath and in every step

Everyone who has come before you,
All the yous that you have been,

The mothers of your mother,
The fathers of your father.

If someone in your family tree was trouble,
A hundred were not:

The bad do not win—not finally,
No matter how loud they are.

We simply would not be here
If that were so.

You are made, fundamentally, from the good.
With this knowledge, you never march alone.

You are the breaking news of the century.
You are the good who has come forward

Through it all, even if so many days
Feel otherwise.  But think:

When you as a child learned to speak,
It’s not that you didn’t know words—

It’s that, from the centuries, you knew so many,
And it’s hard to choose the words that will be your own.

From those centuries we human beings bring with us
The simple solutions and songs,

The river bridges and star charts and song harmonies
All in service to a simple idea:

That we can make a house called tomorrow.
What we bring, finally, into the new day, every day,

Is ourselves.  And that’s all we need
To start.  That’s everything we require to keep going. 

Look back only for as long as you must,
Then go forward into the history you will make.

Be good, then better.  Write books.  Cure disease.
Make us proud.  Make yourself proud.

And those who came before you?  When you hear thunder,
Hear it as their applause.

17/20
Country: Portugal
Region: Douro
Grapes: Tinta Roriz - Cruz, Tinto Cao, Touriga Nacional - Carrascal
13%
Winemaker: Dirk Niepoort
Website: http://www.quintamariaizabel.pt/public/wax_wines/MI_Tinto2015.pdf