Winemaker Notes
Aromas suggesting bergamot and tea-leaf, as well as floral aromas of rockrose and violets. Substantial on the palate, showing ripe, black fruit and licorice, the seamless, peppery tannins give freshness and excellent structure.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A serious Port in the making, loaded for bear with dark currant paste, warmed fig sauce and blackberry reduction flavors pouring through. The brambly grip is deeply embedded and there are gorgeous ganache and licorice snap notes hanging on the finish. Best from 2035 through 2055
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James Suckling
This is extremely floral with dark fruit and plum character. Full-bodied, very tight and focused. It's a complete young vintage Port that is great from start to finish. Rio Torto fruit makes this great! Better in 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
Full and rich, the wine has dark tannins and dense blackberry flavors. It is generous wine—juicy, perfumed and layered with impressive tannins. This is a wine with a long-term future, drink from 2028.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Vintage Port is an equal blend of old vines and Touriga Franca, coming in with 113 grams per liter of residual sugar. Fresher, livelier and lusher than the Warre's this issue—which is the most accessible of the Symington declarations—it is also going to be approachable relatively young. This is a fine Port, but it's not truly made for greatness. If it is not quite as rich and decadent as Warre's, it is more lifted on the finish, with a sunny feel and a more aromatic beginning. I liked them about equally well, but the styles are certainly different. Neither may be the best agers.
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.