Vintage Port
Vintage Port accounts for only a fraction of the total Port production – which includes Tawny, Ruby, Late-Bottled Vintage and Single Quinta Vintage styles, among others – but is the finest, longest-lived and most expensive style around; the best are as good as any wine in existence. Made from a blend of wines from a producer's finest plots, it is aged for around 18 months in wooden casks, followed by at least 15 years ageing in bottle.
Vintage Port accounts for only a small percentage of the total Port production - which includes Tawny, Ruby, Late Bottled Vintage, Single Quinta Vintage styles, among others - but is the finest, longest-lived and most expensive style that is produced. The best are as good as any wine in existence.
With the exception of legendary vineyards like Quinta do Noval Nacional and Quinta do Vesuvio, Vintage Port is made from a blend of wines from a producer's finest plots. It is aged for around 18 months in wooden casks before bottling; from then on the watch-word is patience. At least 15 years ageing – and for the top wines it will be significantly longer – is required before the tannins, spirit and fruit are fully integrated. Indeed, the finest examples can last well over 50 years.
Vintage Port is only made in exceptional years (normally around three times per decade) with considerable stylistic variation between different years and shippers. However, they all share a sweet, warming, spicy richness, power and complexity. In other good but not great vintages, many shippers produce a Single Quinta Vintage Port from their finest vineyard. These are made in the same way and have the same style as Vintage Port but tend to mature faster and are less profound. All Vintage Port throws a sediment as it matures, and thus requires decanting.
Prices:
Bottle
£13.95
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle
£16.75
Bottle 6 x 75cl 3cs
Bottle
£17.50
Bottle 6 x 75cl 4cs
Bottle
£35.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle
£44.00
Bottle
£45.00
With a deep colour, the nose of this Port is a concentrated mixture of spice and fruitcake. This is a full, fat and powerful wine with a good length. A wine with great potential.
Bottle
£46.00
Bottle
£54.00
Bottle
£58.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Simon Field MW, Port Buyer
Bottle
£58.00
Bottle
£59.00
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
It is not without reason that Fonseca is described as the Margaux of the Douro; its wines have a femininity and grace that never flatter to deceive.
The 1997 is a perfect example; combining fresh aromatics and layers of berry fruit flavours with a firm but unobtrusive tannic structure. Enormously concentrated and perfectly balanced, this wine is archetypical Fonseca: proof, if proof were needed, that David Guimaraens has inherited all of his father's legendary winemaking skills. Drink now to 2050.
Bottle
£62.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 2cs
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Demetri Walters MW - Wine Buyer
Very concentrated on the palate, full bodied with layers of plum and black fruits. I would drink it now or hold onto it for another decade, if you can.
Valiant Ki, London Shop
Bottle
£66.00
Bottle
£68.00
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 17cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 12 x 75cl 1cs
Destemming was not deemed necessary; such was the quality of the vintage. The wine has an incredible dense colour and a pronounced nose of graphite, black tea and spice. Black pepper and dark fruit inform the palate, which is fresh, pure and powerful.
Simon Field MW, Port Buyer
Case price (Bottle 6 x 75cl)
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Chris Pollington, Fine Wine Account Manager
Bottle
£77.00
Bottle
£78.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 31cs
Taylor’s is always a treat for the senses and intellect alike, its synaesthetic appeal the fruits of ancient vines and traditional vinification. David Guimaraens, Head Winemaker, is delighted with the wine and praises both its grip and its overall complexity. We concur!
Bottle
£78.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 25cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 4cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
A seductive and powerful nose of damsons, cherries, and blackcurrants leads on to a lusciously sweet palate displaying creamy black fruits with hints of caramel.
Bottle
£80.00
Bottle
£81.00
Any release from Quinta do Noval is worthy of high respect, and all the more as 2015 was within a whisker of being a generally ‘declared’ vintage. They have here always followed a path of releasing a Vintage if the quality is there, which it undoubtedly is, regardless of the general trend among the other Port shippers.
"This is a very fine Vintage Port from Noval; they have crafted themselves an enviable position as one of the finest makers of beautifully finessed, stylish wines that will grace any cellar and make very rewarding drinking over the decades to come.
The quality in the 2015 vintage is undeniably very high and immediately apparent on tasting. Typically dense, yet with elegance as only to be expected from a fine Noval. Dense, dark fruits, nicely concentrated with a whiff of cinnamon that keeps it nimble; the finish is long and reassuringly elegant. Noval always has a touch of French élan about it. Drinking perhaps 2028 and well into the late 2030s."
Tom Cave - Cellar Plan Manager
Bottle
£85.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 3cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle
£88.00
Typically for Warre, this is a big, powerful wine, packed with lots of deep concentrated fruit, wrapped in a rich, rounded tannic structure.
Bottle
£95.00
Bottle
£95.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 6cs
Case price (Bottle 12 x 75cl)
Bottle 12 x 75cl 4cs
Bottle
£145.00
Bottle
£125.00
There is a potential risk that Warre, the middle sibling, may be overlooked, as all attention is focused on the Cavalier Graham and the Roundhead Dow, on Carnival and Lent…but time and time again it excels. The 2011 has classic ethereal aromas of violet and rock rose, the fruits of ancient mixed vines and traditional foot-treading. Gentle and silky in so far as Vintage Port can be thus, the wine has elegiac grace and great purity.
Simon Field MW, Port Buyer
With a lovely rich fruit cake nose with scents of violets, this is classically Warre, warm and welcoming. Perhaps the fruitiest of the classic Symington trio, it is mouth-filling with spicy, cinnamon notes. The black fruit really shines through the crisp acidity and chewy tannins whilst the superb structure (almost, but not quite, hidden by the luscious fruit) means it has the capacity to live for decades. The lion’s share of the fruit for this wine comes from old vine, mixed planting blocks, helping to add a beguiling complexity to the finished wine. It is another superb Warre for the cellar.
Chris Pollington, Private Account Manager
Magnum
£125.00
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 10cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 2cs
Bottle 6 x 75cl 1cs
Oliver Barton, Wine Buyer