Winemaker Notes
Deep purple with a red rim and magenta highlights, this wine offers elegance and finesse. The nose features bright raspberry and cherry fruit with subtle herbal and floral notes. The palate is compact and racy with vibrant acidity and fine tannins. Vargellas’ distinctive fruit quality is evident, combining focus, definition, and seductive complexity.
Pair with walnuts, blue veined and other richly flavored cheeses are excellent accompaniments to Vintage Port, along with dried fruits such as apricots or figs. Simply savor the rich and complex flavors of the wine on their own in a generously proportioned glass with good company.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
This shows notes of walnuts and hazelnut shells, combined with blueberries, mulberries and plums, as well as floral notes and hints of graphite and spices. Full-bodied but not heavy. Firm but with a smoother, rather more delicate approach, showing fine tannins that are compact and potent. Lots of vivid fruit, together with some blue flowers and crushed stones. Very attractive with a long, linear finish
-
Wine Enthusiast
This historic estate in the Douro Superior has produced a beautifully silky Port. Under the tannins and dark black fruits, the balance of sweetness and the Vargellas signature violet flavors give a wine with great longevity and concentration. Drink from 2029.
Cellar Selection -
Wine Spectator
Very friendly and expressive in feel, with lush waves of boysenberry, blackberry and açai berry fruit rolling through, flanked by light applewood and licorice root notes that assert themselves a bit more on the finish. There's ample structure in reserve and plenty of length; just needs time to meld fully. To be released 2030 to 2032. Best from 2040 through 2060.
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.