Winemaker Notes
Dow's 2004 Quinta do Bomfim is a fabulous way to end a lunch or dinner. It pairs wonderfully with chocolate desserts, but can also be enjoyed on its own.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2004 Quinta do Bomfim comes in at 100 grams per liter of residual sugar. This is put together nicely. It is a more intellectual Single Quinta than its siblings this issue, but its best features should pay dividends over the long haul in the cellar. Dry and muscular, rather intense and focused, this is not actually quite ready to drink and will certainly benefit more from some cellaring or decanting. The precision and structure here should allow this to age gracefully and acquire more complexity, even if it is "sort of" approachable now. It should continue to improve over the next decade, at the least.
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Wine Spectator
Lots of peppery notes linger alongside the concentrated dark plum and mocha flavors. The supple finish is filled with cocoa powder accents. Drink now through 2022.
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.