Vintage Port

Made from the lesser known local varieties of Viosinho, Rabigato, Códega do Larinho and Gouveio, and aged in French oak this refreshing citrus profiled white is full in body and rich in flavour. A great option for food matching or for those who fancy something a little different try pairing this fresh and vibrant white with grilled scallops, fresh prawns or mackerel fillets.
Oliver Barton, Wine Buyer

Low-yielding old vines have produced a full-bodied, finely structured wine. With scents of eucalyptus and mint overlaying the fruit, the 1997 is more powerful and assertive than the 1994 and would repay a longer cellaring. With oak notes and fruit harmoniously integrated, this has everything one could ask for from a Vintage Port of the highest quality.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)

Top class. Showing well at the MW tasting and then very high marks at Fells' tasting. Interesting nose, touch of tar and liquorice, whiff of honeycomb; lean yet fleshy, very good flavour and finish.
(Michael Broadbent MW - Vintage Wine)

Quarles Harris has produced a solid and well-made wine, with lively aromas of blackberries and cream and an aproachable, soft palate with agreeably chewy tannins. Although not as overwhelmingly sweet or rich as some, this wine is rounded and charming and will be excellent for early drinking. Drink now to 2018.

Most of the wines made under this name are enjoyed by the French as an apéritif – France is, after all, Port’s biggest market. The Symingtons own the brand and it is when vintages are declared that it comes into its own, as these are tight, sturdy wines that love to age. Vintage Port of this quality and at these prices is in fact among the best-value wines in the world. It really is sound advice to squirrel away stocks of their Vintage Ports for eventual pleasure.

The opaque colour of this grand-looking Port heralds a fabulous wine with an evolved oaky nose, and lashings of black fruit and chocolate, all supported by a luxurious sweetness and firm structure.

Dirk Niepoort's 1997 is a triumph. Vinified traditionally at their showpiece estate, Quinta do Passadouro, and including unusual varieties such as Tinta Amarela, the wine is intense and beautifully concentrated. Copious levels of sweet black fruits on the nose lead to a fruit-basket of flavours on the palate, supported by silky-soft tannins and an opulently sweet finish.

Unabashedly and opulently fruity, enjoy this hedonistic delight anytime from now to 2018.

Quinta da Roêda is a beautiful terraced vineyard which skirts the Douro just up-stream from Pinhão. Once described as the ‘diamond set’ in the golden ring that is Portugal, its reputation has been triumphantly restored by the Fladgate Partnership. The Croft wines of the 40s and 50s (1945 and 1955 for example) are the stuff of legend. Maybe 2011 is to join their ranks.
 
Early indications are good, with the famous Croft opulence evidenced beyond the scents of blossom and forest floor. The wine has more structural integrity than its immediate forebears, with a mid-palate honesty and harmony that is very promising indeed. 
Simon Field MW, Port Buyer


The 2011 Croft does not disappoint. Afresh and vibrant nose of black raspberry and blueberry sits alongside a beautifully alluring perfume of violets. The palate is full, yet elegant and refined, with great balance and just the right amount of sweet pepper spice on the long length.
Stuart Rae, Private Account Manager

Dirk Niepoort's 1994 is a triumph. Vinified traditionally at their showpiece estate, Quinta do Passadouro, and including unusual varieties such as Tinta Amarela, the wine is intense and beautifully concentrated. Raspberries and raisins on the nose lead to a fruit-basket of flavours on the palate, supported by silky tannins and a strong sweet finish. Drink 2004-2025

Some in the old guard might call it infanticide, but this is still youthful and  drink rather well now. Aside from its luscious sweetness, concentrated black and red berried fruit, liquorice and herbal notes, this wine is all about texture, body, and layered complexity. Perfect with Christmas pudding, a multitude of cheeses, various cakes or alone…just the two of you.
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

When tasting the 2003s for the first time, we kept going back to this wine, as we so often do with Taylor which is surely the most cerebral and complex of all the Vintage Ports. Effortlessly eschewing the excesses of the vintage, 2003 Taylor's Vintage is superb. Dense and inky, with a nose of woodsmoke, cassis, leather and meat, it is richly textured, firmly tannic, with peppery grip and a long, rewarding finish. This is, without doubt, a Vintage Port of the highest quality.

The major shareholders here are, as usual, Quinta de Vargellas and Quinta de Terra Feita. Vargellas is located in the hotter eastern sector and it is significant that the selected grapes were farmed on the higher terraces, preserving acidity and balance in addition to the traditional aromatics of violet, ripe blackberry and herbs.

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!

Nearly opaque and virtually inscrutable, this is benchmark Taylor, therefore benchmark Vintage Port. The nose is magnificently complicated already; schist, white pepper, lifted eucalypt and iodine all come to mind, all adding nuance and potential to the core of black fruit and dried flowers. Reticent and brooding at the front of the palate, the quality only becomes evident further back with definition and weight, power and precision, grace and favour, all seemingly contradictory, all effortlessly achieved.
(Simon Field MW, Berrys’ Port Buyer)

Seductive an powerful nose with fruit characters of damsons, cherries, and blackcurrants leading on to a lusciously sweet palate displaying creamy black fruits with hints of caramel. Very ripe tannins, marvellous grip and a long powerful and harmonious finish one of the finest Fonsecas of the last 25 years.

Closed and austere when young, it is only with adequate ageing that Taylors sublime qualities come to the fore. This rich, structured Port shows that they are well worth waiting for.

When last tasted in November 2010, the Fonseca impressed with both its charm, about which we knew, but also its structural power, about which we may have been less sure. The 1977s Port wines were much lauded on release, but one or two questions were asked as to whether they would indeed, as expected, last the course in the manner of the greatest vintages. Tasting, inter alia, the Fonseca, was therefore reassuring: the black fruits, cassis and morello, are still evidenced, the spirit has integrated nicely and there is gentle spice on the finish. Fonseca's famous elegance pervades, effortless and evanescent.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)

Reserved on the nose, it’s the taste that excels in this very special, single vintage tawny that has been made and matured by Graham’s from birth.  It has the depth and host of warm, enveloping flavours that conjure drinking on an autumn or winter’s evening rather than on a terrace in summer.  There are bold hints of marmalade – dark, candied chunks like a Dundee rather  than Golden Shred.  Moreish, the finish goes on and on while developing all the time too, with enough hi-toned structure to not ever cloy.  A thoroughly satisfying glass of aged port.
Tom Cave, Cellar Plan Manager With the glass sitting in front of me, I am enticed by the incredible aromas of caramelized walnuts and dried fruit leaping from the glass. Such is the concentration of the nose, one could spend much time salivating over the layers of complexity derived by 42 years of careful maturation. The palate is intensely flavoured with warming notes of dried Seville orange, allspice, effortlessly bound by a silky texture. Moving through to a savoury character towards the finish, offset by a lovely note of molasses and figs, the acidity keeps it in check, carrying the flavours through to the long and graceful finish. Perfectly balanced, full bodied yet charming, this Graham’s 1972 Tawny Port is a treat and a rarity.
Chris Lamb, Private Account Manager

The 1972 Single Harvest Tawny Port was bottled in 2015 and comes in with 125 grams per liter of residual sugar. It's a beauty. It starts slow and builds to a nice crescendo, with the acidity emerging to cut the fruit. This elegant wine has a sweet finish to go with its vibrancy and energy. It's a pretty picture overall with caramel, molasses and hints of chocolate on the end, some typical Tawny flavors. Note: This comes with a bar-top cork. Assuming a good cork, it will last indefinitely.

The three Single Quinta Ports here were bottled in 2006 and are current releases. They are released late so as to be drinkable, more or less, on release. 
93/100  Mark Squires, eRobertParker.com #221 Oct 2015

A triptych of vintages underwrite this outstanding wine, each embellishing the ensemble with its own personality, the deep colour and firm acidity of the 1935 complementing the richly honied and hedonistic 1924 and the extraordinary intensity of the 1912 crowning the edifice and ensuring that the whole is far far greater than the sum of its parts.

Poised behind its deep mahogany sheen, with aromatics of the Coffee House in St James's and the post prandial dining rooms of Pall Mall, the wine descants a rich rolling hymn to longevity and extraordinary complexity. Cloves, raisins, dates and elusive spices inform a palate which is a labyrinthine web of effortless contradiction; rich and restrained, intense and ethereal, venerable and yet incredibly fresh. To be celebrated and appreciated in equal measure, with quiet stentorian gratitude.
Simon Field MW - Port Buyer

Three exceptional and rare wines were chosen for the final Graham’s 90 blend described by the Symington family thus: Harvest 1935
The 1935 Tawny Port is a wine of remarkable elegance and beauty with fine acidity which is key to the balance of a wine of this age. This was a year of low yields in the Douro but of great quality, and classic Vintage Ports were made under perfect harvest conditions. Some Port companies declared the 1934 and some the 1935. Both years have proved to have aged superbly well.

The 1935 Vintage is considered by some to be amongst the greatest Ports of the first half of the 20th century. Andrew James Symington wrote at Quinta do Bomfim in the Alto Douro on 14th October 1935: “I am inclined to think that the quality and good colour inspires hope that the 1935 may prove good enough to make a Jubilee vintage – quantity is less than last year – but quality appears to be better.”

The three Symington brothers then working in the family business; Maurice, John and Ronald and their father Andrew James, did not declare this year, but they set aside a small quantity of 1935 Port to age in cask in view of the excellent quality of the best wines and to mark the Jubilee of King George V.

Charles has selected a small parcel of this extraordinary wine for the Graham’s 90.

Harvest 1924
The 1924 Vintage was widely declared by the leading Port houses and the wines have aged exceptionally well over the decades. An unusually cool summer resulted in wines with very good acidity, a hallmark of the year.

Gordon Cosens wrote at Quinta do Bomfim in the Alto Douro on the 10th October 1924: “Weather being fine throughout the gathering. The mostos showed good colour and life. That the '24s will turn out to be better than an ordinary vintage seems to be the general opinion.”

This 1924 Tawny Port originates from Quinta do Bom Retiro Pequeno, a very fine vineyard in the Rio Torto valley that is owned by the Symington family. Matured in cask at the estate until the mid-1960s, this Port was transported down to the Lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia where it has been kept for the last 50 years.

This wine has all the characteristics of Douro ageing, the result of very cold winters and intensely hot summers, with a powerful concentration of richness, honey and toasted coffee and is a perfect foil for the elegant 1935
Harvest 1912
A great classic year in the Douro that followed two legendary vintages, the 1904 and the immortal 1908. Widely declared by the best Port houses, the 1912 vintage Ports were bottled in the spring of 1914, just a few months before the outbreak of hostilities in August of that year. Although it’s early life was marked by the devastation of The Great War, this wine reached maturity in the late 1920s when it came to be recognised as one of the greatest ever Vintage Ports and was often served at fine dinners in the exuberant Roaring Twenties.

Amyas Warre (son of George Warre) wrote at Quinta do Bomfim in the Alto Douro on 23rd September 1912: “The grapes in all the fine vineyards were uniformly ripe and had all been gradually brought to this state of perfection.” This was an historic year for the Symington family as George Warre, whose family had been Port producers since 1729, decided to retire to England in 1912 and proposed a merger of Dow’s with the smaller Port company of Warre’s, the latter being then owned by Andrew James Symington.

Andrew accepted the proposal, initiating a partnership between the two families that was to last until the 1950s when the Warre family sold their remaining shares to the Symingtons. To mark the start of the partnership a small parcel of the 1912 Port was set aside in cask and it is a little of this wine that has been used by Charles in the Graham’s 90 Port.

The 1912 Tawny has extraordinary intensity having passed its centenary a few years ago and Charles  Symington felt that this essence of well-aged Port would complement the elegant freshness of the 1935 Tawny.

1966 was a great success in the Douro and, almost, universally declared. Some of the quality of that vintage is suggested in the strength of colour in this very lovely, sensually flavoured wine full of notes of dried figs, raisins and spices, all seamlessly integrated. Many tawny / colheita wines of this age would expect to be paler but the strong colour is mirrored in the wine’s strength and luscious persistence giving it a wholesome attitude. Now fully ready to drink, this would make the centrepiece of any imminent 50th anniversary or, simply, revel in the pleasure of drinking a very fine glass of port.
Tom Cave - Cellar Plan Manager

Quite a delicate yet complex nose of Muscavado sugar, caramel, honeyed walnuts, pine kernels and a twist of citrus all supporting a high-toned raciness. The gentle spice and zesty thread at the core really keeps this 50 year old wine bright and invigorating and perfectly contrasts the mouth-coating viscosity. Evolving as it goes, I picked up hints of coffee, gingerbread and burnt orange along with brown sugar. There was also a gentle bitterness to the finish that reminded me of fresh homemade lemonade and left me reaching for a top up.
Peter Newton - Private Account Manager

Single Harvest Ports are blended wines from a single year which have been judiciously aged in oak casks.
 
The 1966 offers a laudable opportunity to drink and enjoy a fully aged and wonderfully mature Port wine of the aged Tawny / Colheita style.  Having been aged in wood, decanting is not necessary and once the bottle is open the wine will not deteriorate for at least a week.
 
Taylor’s is the most aristocratic of Port shippers and is respected as one of the leading holders of mature Tawny Port.

Noval’s 2003 is an extraordinary effort, the altitude of its vineyards lending a freshness and linearity to the wine above and beyond the exigencies of such a hot growing season. The Touriga Nacional performed brilliantly in 2003, adding backbone and velvety depth. The fruit profile is exceptionally generous, and the tannins, while certainly ripe, bestow a magisterial grip on the back of the palate.

When we asked Charles Symington, Head Winemaker at Dow, Graham and Warre, to send in samples for our Own Selection from the superb 2011 vintage, he was happy to oblige. After extensive tasting, we concluded the wine made in the style of Graham best captured the essence of this extraordinary year with its precision, purity and power.

The blend is mainly Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz, with a small percentage of Souzão sourced from some of the best vineyards of the Douro Superior. The nose glories in notes of gum cistus and violet, and the palate is beautifully rounded, yet with finely etched tannins on the finish – making this vintage, to my mind, the best since 1994.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer