2015 Quinta do Ataide Vinho Tinto Douro Valley Portugal 750 ml

Bordeaux fans and Cabernet lovers are going to find themselves turning again and again to reds like today’s 2015 Quinta do Ataíde because in the end, if it’s structured, complex, and surprises glass after glass—not to mention is delicious—does it matter where it’s from?  

Few and far between are the New World reds this endowed with structure, power, and complexity for under $30. Compared to similar quality Bordeaux or Spanish Rioja Reserva wines, this Quinta do Ataíde is a profoundly complex, structural French lookalike priced to drink now, and often. Focused and generous on the palate, with ripe plum and black cherry notes, fine mineral cut, and Bordeaux-like tannins—this impresses through to the last drop. 

Portugal’s Douro Valley is so radically stunning that you can spend most of a trip just wondering how a place could be so beautiful, serene, and impressive. The mountain ranges rising up from the Douro River reveal precipitously terraced vineyards that “could wrap around the Earth twice, if arranged in a straight line,” we were told by Quinta do Ataíde owner Rupert Symington. No wonder the place was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site—imagine all that manpower and all that was accomplished here before electricity was a household norm.

Five generations of the Symington family have been responsible for producing some of the finest Douro wines—both of Port (Dow’s, Graham’s, Warre’s, Cockburn’s,) and dry red and white table wines (Quinta do Vesuvio, Prats + Symington, Ataíde and more). 

At the family’s Quinta do Ataíde estate in the Upper Douro, 30-year-old vines planted on schist soils flecked with alluvial clay deposits were flanked with beautifully ripe, elegant and tight-fisted clusters of berries so concentrated that pinching one between your thumb and forefinger resulted in a cascade of inky black juice coating your fingers. The organically-farmed vineyard was originally purchased by Cockburn’s as a source for Port, but the dry wine was such a standout that the grapes are now used for this incredible vinho tinto, the local labeling term for dry red wine.

Wine Enthusiast delivered a 92 point score for the 2015, calling it “full, spicy,” and applauding the wine’s “richness and its dense texture,” which it notes is “lightened by acidity.” If that sounds like a value-driven Bordeaux red, you wouldn’t be far off. It’s why Bordeaux’s decision to approve the cultivation of Portugal’s Touriga Nacional grape makes sense. The staple red variety, which drives the blend of Ataíde, produces wines so unbelievably Bordeaux-like that we’ve confused 5-year-old Touriga Nacional with 10-year-old Bordeaux in more blind tastings than we care to admit.

On a closing note, we last offered the “Vinha do Arco,” big brother to today’s red, and for those Wine Access members who immediately popped corks, it has earned piles of top ratings. This delectable Ataíde will unquestionably match, if not, surpass it. 

We’d give it 5 out of 5 stars, and we think you will too.