Winemaker Notes
Goes well with game dishes, red meat, cheese soufflé, Serra cheese or other fatty cheeses and chocolate desserts.
Blend: 62% Touriga Nacional, 28% Touriga Franca, 5% Vinhas Velhas, 3% Barroca, 2% Sousão
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a traditional LBV, unfiltered and bottled with 102 grams per liter of residual sugar and a long cork. It is a blend of Touriga Nacional (62%), Touriga Franca (28%), a field blend from old vines (5%) and dollops of other typical grapes. This was partly (38%) aged in wooden vats for eight to 12 months (depending on lot) and bottled in October of 2019. At this great price, this focused and powerful LBV is classic in every way. The structure is gorgeous and so is the fruit, although it is undeveloped just now. Its precise finish shows grip, length and flavor. This is actually not ready to drink—it's pretty tight just now. It looks like it can age a couple of decades from the vintage date. This is another super LBV from a producer who has a habit of making terrific ones.
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Wine Enthusiast
This is a beautifully perfumed wine. With its violet aromas and rich floral flavors, it has both structure and great balance. Black fruits, sultanas and a poise between richness and great fruits, the Port is still young and will benefit from a few more months. Drink from 2021.
Founded by Adriano Ramos Pinto in 1880, Casa Ramos Pinto rapidly became noted, at the time, for its innovative and enterprising strategy. Associated with quality bottled wines, it began operating on the Brazilian market in the early 20th century and quickly became responsible for half of the wine exported to South America, whilst it was still conquering generations of loyal customers in Portugal and Europe. These were the natural results of a forward thinking strategy, based on the modernisation of selection, batching and ageing circuits, and the special care which Adriano Ramos Pinto devoted to the packaging and promotion of his wines.
Aware that the quality of its wines were confined to the earth of the wine producing Douro, Casa Ramos Pinto meticulously studied this Demarcated Region, and eventually became the owners of a number of estates with very special characteristics. The objective was to ensure the control and quality of the whole production process. By perfecting its wines, Ramos Pinto created unique nectars with its own signature.
In 1990, Casa Ramos Pinto became part of the Roederer Group, whose history has identical characteristics. The qualities that gave fame to Casa Ramos Pinto now took on an international dimension.
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.