95 pts Wine Advocate

The nose of the 2023 Guru is clean, precise, elegant and nuanced, very insinuating and subtle, corresponding to a cooler vintage that delivered one of the finest versions of this white, which ranks among the most elegant in Douro. It has the serious and mineral mouthfeel from the Douro schist soils, finishing dry and long, with an almost salty twist. It has a moderate 12.5% alcohol, denoting contained ripeness that translates into white flowers and wild herbs and a pH of 3.39, parameters of very good freshness. The oak is neatly integrated. 21,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2024.

Husband and wife Jorge Serdio and Sandra Tavares keep producing some of the finest whites from Douro and a collection of modern reds from over 40 hectares of vineyards. The whites were from 2023 and 2021 and the reds from 2022, cooler years for the whites and warmer for the reds.

I buy this wine every year personally and love it. While it has a real sense of white Burgundy, very Meursault-like, for me it has become a staple of the Douro Valley and the wine has made some major strides in pulling back on the oak a lot since the first vintage I had of the 2010. For me in the character of the wine’s density and minerality, as well as the clean, precise fruit profile signify it’s true terroir expression.

– One of the top white wines from the Douro
– A great lieu-dit Meursault always comes to mind when I taste this, salty, minerally, with some nut and precise citrus and orchard fruits.
– Restaurant PerSe in NYC, poured this by the glass as their answer for a White Burgundy
– Vines are 50 years old, granite and schiste soils
– 2 high elevation parcels in the northern Douro Valley mountaintops to preserve freshness and acidity
– A judicious 6 months in only 30% new French oak barrique, the rest used barrique and tonneau
– Equal parts 4 indigenous and important white grapes:
– Rabigato – Gouveio
– Viosinho – Codega do Larinho