Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This offers more immediate pleasures than the vintage Dow's declared in 2011—it comes across as an idealized LBV rather than a baby Vintage. Formidable in its black density and red spice, fragrant with persimmon-like scents and tannins that have the grit of stone-ground chocolate, this is compellingly drinkable and delicious. Stock up for the holidays.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Dow's Porto—these two words together make my mouth water. Dow's, one of the wine industry's most venerable houses, continues to grow in quality and with the 2011 vintage, this improvement led to some of the winery's best wines ever. The 2011 Dow's Late Bottled Vintage Port shows a dark color, loads of ripe fruit, and lush textures on the palate. The wine's sweetness makes it a nice match with even the richest desserts the pastry chef can make. (Tasted: October 25, 2016, San Francisco, CA
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Late Bottled Vintage Port is bottled with a bar top cork and 105 grams per liter of residual sugar. It has reasonable concentration, but bigger aromatics. Sappy and intensely flavorful on the finish, this shows off a bit of muscle, too, but it is fully ready to drink and it shows very well. It's made to drink now. If well stored, it can last, but it's not meant to hold.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F. To learn more, see our full Port Wine Guide
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.