Winemaker Notes
Golden-brown color, with reddish highlights. On the nose, it shows aromas of dried fruit and spice, with subtle hints of vanilla and jammed ripe fruit. It is refined and sophisticated on the palate, revealing good body and perfect balance between tannins and acidity. A long and appealing finish.
Served chilled, it reveals all its finesse and sophistication, especially when drunk with desserts made with caramel, dried fruit and spice, such as caramel fondant with apple and ginger jelly, tarte tatin, crème brulée and medium-strength cheeses.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A floral, elegant style, with honeysuckle, jasmine and white sesame notes leading the way, along with hints of white peach and nectarine, plus a kiss of frangipane on the finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
While still not old in aged tawny terms, this Port shows the balance between fruit and old-wood aging flavors. It is a full, ripe wine, layering dried fruits and red-fruit flavors, sweet but also with a core of dryness from the spirit.
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.