Winemaker Notes
Very deep purple with a narrow magenta rim. The nose is tight, with impressive depth and background. The base of brooding dark berry fruit is laced with liquorice and dark chocolate. Fleeting balsamic, plummy notes emerge as the nose gradually opens up. On the palate, the wine has exceptional weight and volume, supported by a mesh of thick, dense tannins. Luscious blackberry jam and plum flavors surge through into a seemingly endless finish. A powerful and uncompromising Unfiltered Late Bottled Vintage retaining every ounce of aroma and flavor.
Excellent with fully flavored cheeses, especially blue cheeses such as Stilton or Roquefort. It is also delicious with desserts made with chocolate or berry fruits.
Professional Ratings
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Tasting Panel
Deep cherry color with a rich nose. Dense, sweet, and silky with blackberry and spice; luscious and long.
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Wine Enthusiast
Because it has been bottled without filtering, this Port has a chance to age. It has the opulent character of a Fonseca Port, enhanced by the fine vintage. Rich and full in the mouth, the wine's stewed blackberry and sweet plum flavors, both underlined by tannins, are sure to age well. Drink from 2021.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2014 Late Bottled Vintage Port was bottled in December 2018 with 104 grams of residual sugar and a bar-top cork. This is unfiltered. The nose predicts a sweet and enticing wine. The fruit is actually a bit more restrained than the nose suggested, but in a very difficult year, this is nonetheless a notable success that does not surrender much. It shows well, has good expression of fruit and enticing aromatics, including a bit of a cistus nuance. I loved the chocolate and toast on the finish. And there is a fair share of power leading to good grip on that finish. It may well be that the structure is a bit better than the fruit, but it does well on all fronts. It is an admirable effort in a tough year. It is ready to drink now and needs no significant development time, but it certainly has some ability to hold if you wish to hold it a few years.
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Wine Spectator
This is starting to mellow, with warm ganache, espresso and tobacco notes emerging from the core of well-steeped plum and black currant fruit flavors. A licorice snap detail streaks through on the juicy finish. Drink now through 2027.
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.