Wine & Soul Guru 2021
Douro Valley
Regular price $41.99
2021 Guru 93+WA
Wine & Soul
Douro Valley, Portugal
$41.99
I buy this wine every year personally and love it. While it has a real sense of white Burgundy, very Meursault-like, for me it has become a staple of the Douro Valley and the wine has made some major strides in pulling back on the oak a lot since the first vintage I had of the 2010. For me in the character of the wine's density and minerality, as well as the clean, precise fruit profile signify it's true terroir expression.
- Ties a best-ever rating for this wine in 2018
- One of the top white wines from the Douro
- A great lieu-dit Meursault always comes to mind when I taste this, salty, minerally, with some nut and precise citrus and orchard fruits.
- Restaurant PerSe in NYC, poured this by the glass as their answer for a White Burgundy
- Vines are 50 years old, granite and schiste soils
- 2 high elevation parcels in the northern Douro Valley mountaintops to preserve freshness and acidity
- A judicious 6 months in only 30% new French oak barrique, the rest used barrique and tonneau
- Equal parts 4 indigenous and important white grapes:
- Rabigato - Gouveio
- Viosinho - Codega do Larinho
93+ pts Wine Advocate
The 2021 Guru is a field blend from old vines (60+ years), mostly Viosinho, Rabigato, Códega do Larinho and Gouveio, aged for eight months in 90% used French oak. It comes in very dry and at 12.3% alcohol. This has become very consistent, but I was curious to see what would happen in this 2021 vintage. The rainy harvest was less threatening to whites. Textured, silky and understated on first pour, this sensual white sits on the palate and still shows off fine fruit. In fact, it is surprisingly, if subtly, concentrated. It is by no means a fat wine (and the oak is largely irrelevant), but as it airs and warms, it still seems to show off the essence of its fruit on the finish. That said, this is still more about structure than fruit, especially today, when it is a bit monolithic. This seems very fine, with some potential for improvement. The next day it was arguably better, steelier but slightly more open. It should age very well, at least as noted, and I tend to be conservative on such things. In addition to holding, though, this will likely improve over the next few years too. It will certainly be better this time next year.
Wine & Soul
Douro Valley, Portugal
$41.99
I buy this wine every year personally and love it. While it has a real sense of white Burgundy, very Meursault-like, for me it has become a staple of the Douro Valley and the wine has made some major strides in pulling back on the oak a lot since the first vintage I had of the 2010. For me in the character of the wine's density and minerality, as well as the clean, precise fruit profile signify it's true terroir expression.
- Ties a best-ever rating for this wine in 2018
- One of the top white wines from the Douro
- A great lieu-dit Meursault always comes to mind when I taste this, salty, minerally, with some nut and precise citrus and orchard fruits.
- Restaurant PerSe in NYC, poured this by the glass as their answer for a White Burgundy
- Vines are 50 years old, granite and schiste soils
- 2 high elevation parcels in the northern Douro Valley mountaintops to preserve freshness and acidity
- A judicious 6 months in only 30% new French oak barrique, the rest used barrique and tonneau
- Equal parts 4 indigenous and important white grapes:
- Rabigato - Gouveio
- Viosinho - Codega do Larinho
93+ pts Wine Advocate
The 2021 Guru is a field blend from old vines (60+ years), mostly Viosinho, Rabigato, Códega do Larinho and Gouveio, aged for eight months in 90% used French oak. It comes in very dry and at 12.3% alcohol. This has become very consistent, but I was curious to see what would happen in this 2021 vintage. The rainy harvest was less threatening to whites. Textured, silky and understated on first pour, this sensual white sits on the palate and still shows off fine fruit. In fact, it is surprisingly, if subtly, concentrated. It is by no means a fat wine (and the oak is largely irrelevant), but as it airs and warms, it still seems to show off the essence of its fruit on the finish. That said, this is still more about structure than fruit, especially today, when it is a bit monolithic. This seems very fine, with some potential for improvement. The next day it was arguably better, steelier but slightly more open. It should age very well, at least as noted, and I tend to be conservative on such things. In addition to holding, though, this will likely improve over the next few years too. It will certainly be better this time next year.