Quinto da Carolina 2021 "Elemento" Vinho Tinto, Douro Portugal

Rarely will you meet such a young talent in the wine industry as Luis Candido da Silva, the young winegrower (vintage 1988) in full control of his family’s Douro estate, Quinta da Carolina. It’s easy to recognize his drive, intelligence, and tasting prowess, as Dirk Niepoort, the globe-trotting wine empire builder based in Douro and most famous for his Port wines, did during Luis’ first harvest with him as an intern in 2013. In 2018 after the famous winemaker Luis Seabra left Niepoort to focus on his own projects, he was asked to not only man the post, but to build on it and take it to the next level, which he has.

Luis’ wines are the embodiment of intention realized. All four are very different, though clearly crafted by the same technical mind and capable hands. They reflect many facets of the European winescape, though all grown in Portugal’s Douro, in the subzone of Cima Corgo, the middle of this vast appellation, and all on schist/slate soils of varying colors—gray, blue, yellow.

The project of Luis and Carmelo Peña Santana, a Spaniard who used to work with Luis at Niepoort, is called El3mento, a beautiful and progressive contemporary Douro wine raised in amphora on skins for eight months, then pressed and aged further in steel until its second spring. It’s wonderfully sculpted and framed by all the sun, the earth, the river, the 600m altitude, and a multitude of grapes harvested from 100-year-old vines, with an array of red, purple and slightly and pleasantly brown nuances of classic Douro wines (minus the oak), like chestnut and fall foods.