Jorge Serodio Borges, one of the hottest young winemakers in the Douro, used to work with Dirk Niepoort. He now makes Pintas in tandem with his winemaker wife, Sandra Tavares da Silva. The small growers of the Douro often seem connected in so many ways that I began to think of it as a Six Degrees of Separation game. Sandra is also the winemaker at Quinta do Vale D. Maria, another highly regarded estate. Pintas is relatively new. Jorge and Sandra bought an old vines vineyard, 70 years in age. Their philosophy here is to pick early to avoid jamminess. They are also very concerned with producing wines with refined, ripe tannins, something the Douro could use a little more of. Jorge, in fact, told me that it was his most important issue. My second taste of the 2003 Pintas was a far more complete experience than the quickie I had in Portugal. This is a field blend containing 30 varietals. That may not, to the typical international buyer signal a sophisticated table wine, but this wine, one of the modern faces of the Douro, in fact seems very sophisticated, not merely flashy. Oh, it has flash. It has delectably sweet fruit, an almost sappy mid-palate. It is saved from being a fruit bomb, though, by its refinement. The mid-palate is of medium weight, often seeming rather elegant, able to coat your mouth, but not thick, and the tannins are very ripe. So many producers make wine with rather ferocious tannins – here, there is some effort to tame them, to concentrate on ripe tannins. The wine is focused, with a little acidity in the back. It shows impeccable balance to go with the sweet fruit. Seductive and sexy, it seems more and more charming every time you taste it and has a certain seamless feel to it that reminded me of some Sine Qua Non bottlings. It does not, however, have a lot of verve or complexity. This new, small production bottling has quickly become a cult wine in Portugal. My biggest question with this wine is how well it will age, whether it will develop something more in the cellar. I would err on the side of drinking it fairly young.
