Ferreirinha Reserva Especial
The recent release of the 18th edition of Ferreira’s Reserva Especial was accompanied by a vertical tasting of the wines back to the early 1980s.
The wine was first produced in 1960 by Fernando Nicolau de Almeida, who in the early 1950s had created the now legendary Barca Velha. Since then there have been just three wine makers. Originally from Quinta do Vale Meão in the Douro Superior, since the mid-1990s both Barca Velha and Reserva Especial have been made at Quinta da Leda near Almendra with 170 hectares under vine. I remember visiting this vineyard shortly after it was planted in 1979 when the Douro Superior was akin to the ‘wild west’ (except it is in the east)!
The 2014 mainly consists of grapes from Quinta da Leda as well as grapes from Quinta do Sairrão in the upper Torto valley. The blend is a co-fermentation of different varieties planted at low and high altitudes to give better balance and integration. Wine maker, Luis Sottomayor, describes the 2014 Reserva Especial as “a wine that stands out for its elegance, resulting from a moderate climate year with good maturation, as well as for its excellent volume, intense acidity, firm tannins, and an extremely long and complex finish."
It rather goes without saying that Reserva Especial is often thought of as the ‘second wine’ of Barca Velha. They are, as a matter of fact, the same thing. The wine starts out in exactly the same way and is only classified as either Barca Velha or Reserva Especial after spending around 6 years in bottle. Prior to classification the wines are tasted every 15 days from bottle to monitor their evolution. According to Luís Sottomayor, the wine only becomes Reserva Especial if it is felt not to have quite the same ageing potential in bottle as they are seeking in a Barca Velha. Recent Barca Velha vintages are 1983, 1985, 1991, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2011. No wines were released from 1987, 1988, 1991, 1993, 1998, 2002, 2005 and 2006. Reserva Especial is effectively a declassified Barca Velha.
Reserva Especial used to be something of bargain – I remember in years gone by trawling the supermarkets in the north of Portugal trying to find a bottle. I still have a bottle of the 1984 Reserva Especial (see below) in my cellar with the price tag of 800 escudos affixed to it! You now have to pay around €280 for a bottle of Reserva Especial, still something of a bargain when you consider that the most recent vintage of Barca Velha (2011) sells in excess of €800. It is fair to say that over the ensuing years both Barca Velha and Reserva Especial have evolved into rather more sophisticated wines than they were at the outset. One of the main changes to have taken place is that, up to 1997, the wines were aged in new Portuguese oak which undoubtedly lent what can be best described as slightly rustic, green astringency to the wines that is not there today. In fact tasting the 1984 Reserva Especial immediately evoked my heady early days of gaining an understanding of Portuguese wines when they were were a great deal lighter and more astringent than they are today. The contrast with the most recent release is really rather illuminating.
Ferreirinha Reserva Especial 2014 ****
A blend of 42% Touriga Franca, 34% Touriga Nacional, 13% Tinta Roriz and 11% Tinto Cão, aged for 18 months in 225 litre French oak barrels, 75% of new, bottled without fining and minimal filtration, released in December 2022: very deep and remarkably youthful in colour; dense to the point of being almost impenetrable at this stage on the nose, still sullen with a whiff of ripe kirsh-like black cherry fruit underlying; fine, tight-knit, structured berry fruit, restrained in style, long and linear with lovely fine-grained tannins. A youngster: decant early or better still cellar this for another ten years. Total production: 16,415 bottles. 18
Casa Ferreirinha Reserva Especial 2007 ****
Mid-deep, still with a youthful hue; restrained berry and black cherry fruit with a hint of oak (this has had spent longer in French oak than the 2014); still tight knit with firm, fresh berry fruit backed by ripe, spicy-gravelly tannins and a long, linear finish. 17.5
Casa Ferreirinha Reserva Especial 1992 (from a magnum) ****
This is 100% Touriga Nacional with 12% abv (compared to the 14% more common today): still deep and youthful in colour with lovely, mature leathery fruit on the nose and an evocative touch of eucalyptus and gum cistus; lovely rich, leathery fruit, big, bold with dry-spicy tannins and a fine streak of acidity, long but just starting to dry out on the finish. 17
Casa Ferreirinha Reserva Especial 1989 ***
Aged in Portuguese oak: not deep in colour but retaining a youthful hue; ‘wild’ on the nose with cinnamon spice and eucalypt but still fresh and tight-knit both on the nose and on the palate, firm, green pepper tannins, long and linear in style, holding together but now lacking fruit on the finish. 15.5
Casa Ferreirinha Reserva Especial 1984
Deep and surprisingly youthful in colour, thin browning rim; tremendously evocative spicy, eucalypt, gum cistus and wood smoke on the nose – this takes me right back to a rather rustic style of wine that no longer exists; firm tannins above all with high acidity (astringent), with a rather leathery, lean, green finish. Just 11.5% abv with shows how much has changed! I find it hard to give this a mark in the modern context but it is an outstanding an extraordinary wine.
