Winemaker Notes
A blend of old Ports with an average of 20 years. Aged in very old wooden casks, this exquisite Port is bottled on-demand, allowing it to continue to age and become more complex through its natural evolution with time. This Port is spicy and nutty, with orange flower aromas, figgy ripeness and a silky, honey finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Light to medium amber hue with a subtle tawny edge. Subtle walnuts, dried apricots, dates, sweet papayas and blackcurrants. Mellow, round and sweet on the palate with a medium to full body and a svelte, almost unctuous palate. Rounded tannins and a lengthy, sleek finish.
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Wine & Spirits
Laden with fruit, from pear and kumquat to peach, this wine’s amber lightness offers quiet luxury. The fruit shades from gold and yellow and red, its texture both luscious and muscular, a cool impression lasting to draw you back for another taste. A Tawny to drink long into the night.
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Wine Spectator
Shows a broad, plump, almost caressing core, with dried peach and mango notes draped nicely, framed by light hazelnut, slivered almond and toasted sesame accents that lend this a subtle chiseled hint through the finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The NV 20 Years Old Tawny Port, which was only marginally darker than the 30-year-old one I tasted next to it, is a little sweeter, with 113 grams of sugar. It is substantially nuttier than other 20-year-olds I tasted next to it, and it's intensely spirity and nuanced and has a touch of varnish and a hint of volatility. It's a blend of younger and older Ports with an average age of 20 years. It has notes of youth and evolution, freshness and complexity and very good balance. It's quite elegant. Barrel Sample: (91-93)
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Wine Enthusiast
Poised between fruit and wonderful old gold wood-aging flavors, the wine is rich and relatively sweet. Its dried fruit flavors are balanced by the wine's intense spice and acidity that comes from wood aging.
Editors' Choice.
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.