Winemaker Notes
A blend of old Ports with an average age of 30 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. With exotic layers of honeyed fruit, spices, dry apricots and nuts, this Port is lush, silky and seductive.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A pretty version, with a high pitch to its mix of white sesame, jasmine oil, white nectarine and blanched almond notes. The long, refined finish shows a pinpoint feel. Lovely.
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James Suckling
Attractive notes of walnut and toffee, with dried figs and orange blossom. Toasted almonds, too. Very polished, almost creamy. Clean and fresh with moderate sweetness and a linear finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I tasted an unbottled sample of the NV 30 Years Very Old Tawny Port, which, like the majority of Ports here, is only bottled to order. It aged throughout its life in very old oak casks and was blended with an average age of 30 years and 104 grams of sugar. Despite the similarities in color with the 20-year-old, the nose is higher pitched, nuttier and a little more volatile, open and expressive. The wine very polished and sleek, integrated, with bittersweet notes and a long and clean finish. Barrel Sample: (92-94)
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Wine Enthusiast
The superlative wood and dried fruit flavors have coalesced to yield an intense wine. Its sweet sultana flavors and generous richness go with the spice and pepper edge from the wood aging. It is a great wine that is ready to drink.
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.