A Sample of Ramos Pinto wines

What happened?
Post Reply
User avatar
Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14879
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

A Sample of Ramos Pinto wines

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Ramos Pinto is a name we don't see often enough in the UK. The company makes some delicious wines and top quality Port. Thanks to Vintage Wine & Port (thank you Tony), I had the chance today to catch up with Ana Rato and to taste a small range of their wines.

Ana Rosas presenting the wines
Ana Rosas presenting the wines
Ramos Pinto-Ana Rosas.JPG (54.37 KiB) Viewed 1873 times

Ramos Pinto was founded in 1880 by Adriano Ramos Pinto, who was working for Sandeman at the time. Adriano felt that there was a market for Port wine in Brazil which was not really being supplied by any of the existing shippers. Starting as a traditional shipper, buying wine from farmers in the Douro and blending to a house style in Vila Nova de Gaia, the company found its feet and succeeded. In 1919, supported by the success of the company so far, Ramos Pinto purchased Quinta do Bom Retiro in the Rio Torto valley and gained a little more control over the conditions in the vineyards.

Ramos Pinto continued to be based on grapes sourced from Bom Retiro and long-standing relationships with local farmers until 1974, when Quinta da Ervamoira in the Douro Superior was acquired. In 1982 the company added Quinta dos Bons Ares to the portfolio - an important addition as it offered a different soil structure. Most of the Douro lies on schistose soil, but there is a vein of granite which runs through the valley and Bons Ares lies in the Douro Superior at the top of a mountain on the granite vein giving different soils and a higher altitude for the vines. The company also owns and operates the Urtiga vineyard, which borders Bom Retiro, a small vineyard of about 3.5 hectares of pre-phylloxera terraces and with vines with an average age over 100 years. Urtiga is farmed biodynamically and has not used herbicides since 2010 - and where experience has taught the vineyard manager not to allow the sheep used during the year to keep down the weeds to be in the vineyard when the grapes are nearly ready to harvest!

Ramos Pinto operate two wineries, which they built in 1982. One is used for table wine (at Bons Ares), the other for Port. Their main markets are Portugal (50% of sales), France, USA, Brazil, Canada, UK, Netherlands and Denmark.

The wines tasted were:
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
User avatar
JacobH
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
Posts: 3300
Joined: 16:37 Sat 03 May 2008
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: A Sample of Ramos Pinto wines

Post by JacobH »

I think Ramos Pinto are a really interesting company and agree it's a shame that they don't sell much in the UK, although I can understand why they might prefer to concentrate on their existing markets where I think they are much more dominant.

I dragged Caroline to Quinta da Ervamoira earlier in the year. It's a really interesting place since it is so unlike any of the other top-quality vineyards I've visited in the Douro. It's very high up, away from the rivers, in a bowl-shaped valley, and was planted to be able to be completely mechanised rather than with lots of terraces. It struck me that it must have been an enormous gamble to plant it, especially since the vines are probably only just starting to mature for quality Port production.

I do think it's a bit sad that some of their packaging is so bland, though, considering their wonderful back catalogue of early 20th C designs. Those stenciled "RP10" and "RP20" bottles are the worst offenders by miles.
Image
Post Reply