Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a traditional LBV, unfiltered and classic. This was mightily impressive on release a couple of years back. It still is, although the power has fallen off a bit. The rest is still quite wonderful, and it had no problem holding easily for a few days. It has become a bit more harmonious and the fruit has evolved somewhat, all of which are good things. It still has ample power for an LBV on opening. It's still delicious and expressive and long on the finish. It has plenty of life left, but let's be a bit conservative in the drinking window.
-
Wine Spectator
Juicy and fleshy in feel, with tasty plum cake, blueberry cobbler and ganache notes that are well-integrated, ending with a twinge of bramble on the finish. Approachable, but a few years will stretch this out further. 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.