Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a blend of Touriga Nacional (50%), Touriga Franca (40%) and Tinta Roriz (10%). It comes in with 88 grams of residual sugar, well on the dry side, and was bottled July 2, 2021, unfiltered and with a long cork after some 48 months of aging in wooden vats preceded by two years in stainless steel. Big and ripe, perhaps to a fault at times, this is also rather intense and powerful, even with the late release. It is a dense LBV that is darkly flavorful and well structured. With this later release and long aging regimen, it is ready to drink now, but it has some harshness at times and still seems a bit burly. It seemed a lot better balanced on Day 1 than when retasted the next day. This is often attention-getting, but it doesn't seem to be what I'd hold up for the definition of finesse. It may well be that a couple of years in the bottle will do it good. They tend to age well, so there is no rush. I'm leaning up on this for the moment because it does so much well. It does have some things to prove. There were 20,000 bottles produced from vines not quite 20 years in age (but for a small batch of Touriga Nacional from 40-year-old vines, which was added for "structure," the winery says).
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.