This wine was recommended to me by a local merchant who claimed that "this is my favorite Portuguese wine in the store right now; it's awesome, you guys are really gonna love this."
First nose:
Plums and sweet cherries, red licorice, some vanilla, milk chocolate with some nice chalk dust, a hint of ginger, oak, sweet saddle-leather, Nag Champa incense, hints of earth, just under the leaves in the forest. Not a very big nose; nice, perhaps a little too fruity (almost like a Zinfandel), but with some balance behind it. Not noteworthy yet, a little one-dimensional, but this only upon popping the bottle without allowing time for breathing.
First palate:
Nice, A hint of rhubarb. Pretty well balanced, much like a Merlot, but a little hot on the finish. A medium-body mouthfeel but still an OK grip which is satisfying.
After 4 hours:
This wine opens up to distinct black pepper on a red licorice stick on top of cherry-pie filling, all couched inside a container of laundry detergent (well, yes, I admit we were doing laundry at the time, so ...) or perhaps cilantro. Overall the vanilla and sweet-cherry predominate with some pepper and spice overtones. The mouthfeel got a bit bolder, which we liked as time went on. Tannins are very nice but a bit overshadowed by the immediate acidity, which is somewhat out of balance and lingers too long, affecting the finish. Quality wine, though, never exhibiting any "cheap" wine taste.
(Click here for an explanation of our ratings ...)
Our Rating: 89
Would we drink it again? 
Yes, this was a very enjoyable wine with some nice things to offer.
Would we buy it again?
Yes, we might want to buy this guy again, especially because we now know it and if, on some Saturday evening, we wanted to buy something we absolutely knew was good, this would be on the list of local fare.
About the grape varieties
Touriga Nacionale
The high-end grape for whipping up supreme Ports, the Touriga Nacional has low yields making it often times rather costly. Its rich-colored wines are intensely fruity and tannic with velvety textures and great talents for aging.
Tinta Roriz
Called the Tempranillo in Spain, the Tinta Roriz is a must-have in most Port blends. From light-bodied wines to full-bodied, highly tannic wines, this grape enriches many with its black fruit overtones.
Touriga Francesa
I believe this is what the bottle meant by "Franca," but I might be wrong! In any case the Touriga Francesa is another Port blender grape; the Touriga Francesca brings accents of floral and red fruit to many Port wines.
Tinta Barroca
Tinta Barroca adores a cooler climate and brings larger yields and a soft touch of fragrance and cherry and plum overtones to Port blends.
About the Winery: Quinta de la Rosa
Quinta de La Rosa is owned and operated by the Bergqvist family: Tim, his wife Patricia, son Philip and his two daughters, Sophia and Olivia. The Quinta and its vineyards were given to Tim's mother as a Christening present by her parents, the Feurheerds, who established the property in 1815. It remains one of the few "Single Quintas" where the vineyards start at the bank of the Douro and rise 450 meters to the towering top of the mountain. From the river's edge to the top, one passes through 11 different microclimates. This gives La Rosa great flexibility to add variety and complexity to its Port.
Quinta de la Rosa was one of the pioneers of making and selling table wines and olive oil in addition to port directly from the estate. These products are produced, matured and bottled on the Quinta and not in Vila Nova da Gaia as is the case with other shippers. It can be argued that this helps give our ports a dry and stylish nutty flavour. A combination of the best of the old with the new, treading in granite lagares and using stainless steel and temperature controlled technology, together with careful handling of natural materials (such as oak casks for the table wine and large old tonels for the port), ensures that wines of the highest quality are made. As everything is grown, made and bottled on the estate, Quinta de la Rosa is one of the few true "Single Quintas"; it is not a second brand used by most large shippers for their "off Vintage" port years.
About the Region
The Douro
In a relatively short period of time the Douro has established itself as Portugal’s premium wine region. It’s hard to overstate the scale and pace of change that is currently taking place in this most spectacular of wine regions. The steeply terraced vineyards contain some wonderful terroirs, but because of the economic dominance of the Port trade it is only recently that these have been widely exploited to produce premium wines. Table wine has always been made here but, with a couple of notable exceptions (the legendary Barca Velha and more recently Duas Quintas Reserva and Quinta do Côtto Grande Eschola), it has been grim stuff, usually badly made from low quality grapes that were surplus to the requirements of Port producers.
Various factors have conspired to change this situation. Most importantly, a critical mass of like-minded winemakers has emerged, passionate about making the very best wines that these remarkable terroirs are capable of.
In particular, Dirk Niepoort has been a key player in recent developments in the region. As well as producing some brilliantly expressive Douro wines himself, he’s been acting as a catalyst by encouraging the leading wine producers to get together and spur each other on to greater things. There’s still very much of a pioneering air here, with many of the new premium wines in only their first or second vintage. One encouraging trend is that while the quality is uniformly pretty high, there are a variety of different styles emerging, all of which still hold true to their Douro origins. Significant names here include Niepoort’s Redoma, Batuta and Charme, newcomers Poeira and Pintas, Vallado, Vale D. Maria, Vale Meão, Gouvyas, Crasto, and Chryseia.
The momentum generated by the Douro table wine revolution has led some of the Port shippers to start taking a greater interest in table wines. This is leading to improvements across the board, even with some of the more commercial wines. Having said this, the Douro is unlikely to ever be a plentiful source of cheap wine: with its high labour costs and low yields, this is an expensive place to work, and its future almost certainly lies at the top end of the market.
The Douro is not known for its white wine. The one notable exception is Dirk Niepoort’s stunning Redoma Branco (which comes in both regular and reserva bottlings), fashioned from ancient vines in cooler microclimates at the top of the slopes.
