2000 Quinta do Fojo Douro Fojo

The 2000 Fojo (Quinta do Fojo) is simply a great Portuguese red. I thought so when I first saw it many moons ago. I think so today, too. This (happily, for me) is not a modern wine. It is not sweet, polished and soft. It’s certainly not straightforward and it sure isn’t shy about tannins. That said, it puts everything together beautifully. Showing fine concentration and depth, the wine has some tertiary hints around the edges, but still seems fresh and youthful in most ways. While certainly fascinating and very complex, it is not merely intellectually interesting, though. The fine fruit and the intensity make it clear that this is not a gentle antique, but a vibrant, prime-time wine. Tight on the finish, it becomes ever more interesting with each sip, the fruit lifted, the finish crisp and the wine developed, but still developing. Looking at my notes, I seem to have written “brilliant” several times after every couple of sentences. Sums it up. Should have stopped there and saved space. My drinking windows are deliberately conservative. This one now needs expanding. It may still be on the conservative side. Drink now-2030. Sometime ago it was announced (and reported here as well) that the Fojo brand was being revived by owner Margarida Serodio Borges in partnership with Rita Marques of Conceito. The new wines, beginning with the 2013, will appear (so I’m told – although they didn’t sound positive!) under “F Partners” as a producer name in the future. In the meanwhile, some older inventory is being re-released from the era when they were made with the assistance of David Baverstock (Esporao) and Dominic Morris (who consulted for Crasto as well). There is no importer as yet for either the new releases to come or the old inventory, but hopefully there will be one soon as a search was under way. As to the older bottles, note that these weren’t exactly cheap some 10 years back ($80, SRP for the 2000 Fojo) and limited-inventory library wines (about 600 bottles of the Fojo 2000 will be sold and a bit less than 7,000 bottles of the Vinha do Fojo 2001) no doubt won’t be cheap now. In any event, buy ‘em if you can. As it was the Quinta for some of the first high-scoring Portuguese wines I formally reviewed, it will be a pleasure to welcome new Fojo releases, no matter the producer name, not to mention these oldies. I would add that their performance in tastings I held in Portugal recently fully justified everything I first loved about them – and then some. Remember that for Fojo the practice would be either to release the Estate wine (Fojo) or the second wine Vinha do Fojo – but not both in the same vintage.