Vintage port: the long aging tradition

Douro Valley, Portugal

Vintage port is the most celebrated and longest-lived style in the port wine spectrum — declared only in exceptional years by each shipper individually, aged for 2 years in wood and then decades in bottle, where it develops a deep mahogany colour, sediment (the crust), and extraordinary complexity. A declared vintage requires unanimous confidence in the harvest quality — not every shipper declares every year, and the declarations are closely watched by collectors and critics. The great port shippers — Quinta do Noval, Fonseca, Taylor's, Graham's, Dow's — have been producing vintage port from the steep schist terraces of the Douro Valley since the 18th century. The tradition of laying down vintage port for major life events (a child's birth, a wedding) is uniquely and powerfully embedded in Anglo-Portuguese culture.

Not yet written for this entry.

Not yet written for this entry.