2011 Vintage Port Offer

“The 2011 Vintage Ports are characterised by an unusual combination of elegance with power and structure. Whereas “elegant” usually implies lighter-bodied, the 2011s have fantastic aromas and great elegance but are big wines – not an easy balance to achieve”. Thus Charles Symington perfectly sums up the 2011 vintage.

It seems to me that nowadays there is no such thing as a poor vintage port, admittedly I only get the opportunity to taste the Premier League port houses offerings, but advances in wine making technology and hygiene seem to have banished the irregularity of vintage ports from days gone by. It also appears that each subsequently declared vintage is more exciting than the last, although I would place the 2011’s on a equal footing with the superb 2007’s for top vintage of the decade. I must admit I dislike scoring and rankings, especially when it comes to vintage ports as each vintage has its own character and where the 2007’s had a lovely freshness and vitality, the 2011’s show a shocking depth and purity of fruit. Altogether completely different animals!

So to recap on my decade plus of tasting young vintage port, how can I contextualize these wines? Well if you cast your mind back to the first declared vintage of the new millennium, those wines were all about the concentration and the structure of the tannins, the 2003’s were all about power and alcohol, the 2007’s, like I said were all about freshness and vitality, the 2009’s (although not uniformly declared) were about depth, concentration and to a certain extent one-dimensional fruit, although there were exceptions to that one-imensionality. And 2011? To me they are about the purity and elegance of fruit combined with a superb structure.

The standout wine of the vintage, you won’t be surprised to learn was the Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas ‘Vinha Velha’ which showed a frightening purity, complexity and elegance. The wines of the Quinta de Vargellas traditionally form the ‘backbone’ of the Taylors vintage port blend. The 2007 will be only the 7th release, following on from the stunning 2007 and 2009. It is made from a selection of grapes taken from the very oldest vines on the estate (80-120 years of age). These five plots – Poverinho, Renova do Deposito, Renova do Armazem, Grincha and Vinha Grande are harvested individually and account for around 1% of the total production of the property. In a sense the Vinha Velha represents a piece of viticultural history, its idiosyncratic and seemingly random mix of different indigenous vine types contrasting with the ordered and controlled character of modern vineyards. Not far behind in quality is the 2011 Taylors. Typically masculine and dense in character it melds the fine aromas and distinctive floral character of the grapes from the Quinta de Vargellas with the dense, dark, woodland fruit and herbal scents of the Terra Feita and the density, concentration and structure of the grapes from the Quinta do Junco.

So what of the other Fladgate Partnership wines? The Fonseca was a dense, dark and brooding wine, still very elegant but less perfumed than the 2007, but it still retained a touch of femininity. Thankfully it was a million miles away from the somewhat clunky 2009. The grapes from Quinta do Cruzerio provides the blend with the dense core of black fruits which is enveloped by the succulent notes and velvety texture of the wines from the Quinta do Panascal and overlaid by the exotic, heavy scents of the wines from the Quinta de Santo António.

I probably shouldn’t be surprised by the quality of the wine bottled under the Croft label anymore. In 2009 they produced an excellent, if early drinking wine, which put many of the other ‘bigger’ houses wines to shame. David Guimaraens, the Fladgate Partnership’s wine maker said of the 2011 “The old historic vineyard plots at Quinta da Roêda performed particularly well in 2011 and this has given the Croft vintage port an additional layer of density and depth of flavour”. Indeed the finished wine displays an elegance and a femininity that I have never found in Croft before, with soft silky, well integrated tannins held by a serious fruit purity. Personally I feel this is a wine definitely worth having in your cellar.

Dirk Niepoort has released two vintage ports in 2011. The first is the Niepoort Bioma ‘Vinha Velha’, which is a single vineyard vintage port, rather than a single Quinta. The ‘concept’ behind this wine is apparently to create or re-create a style of vintage port, which is more akin to the very best English-bottled vintage ports of 1970 and before. To this end grapes are selected from the Vinha da Pisca vineyard and trodden entirely by foot with 100% stems. After fortification with brandy, the Port is left to settle over the winter and in the following spring it is transferred to a very cool part of the winery at Quinta de Nápoles and racked into pipes. They believe that maturing this Port in barrel, in the Douro, rather than in large tanks at Vila Nova de Gaia along with bottling it in the third year after the harvest, produces a wine which harks back to the golden age of Port, when wines were shipped to England in pipes, and bottled later. Whether this has achieved that it is difficult for me to say but the wine in my glass is very deep and chunky, maybe a little forsquare in character, but displaying a very earthy dénouement. However what I can say is that the ‘standard’ vintage Niepoort is a beautiful wine. Lighter and more elegant than the Bioma, it has the characteristic 2011 purity of fruit along with a slight, perfumed femininity. On to the Symington Estates vintage ports. The biggest surprise of all was the 2011 Cockburn’s. Primarily thought of as a division 1 level port house, it has excelled in this vintage. Why? Mainly down to the investment lavished upon it by Symington’s. Although the vineyards, cellar and wine stocks were acquired by them in 2006, it has taken a further 4 years for them to take full ownership of the brand an implement the many changes they had planned. Their aim was to rediscover the style of the legendary Cockburn’s vintages of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the 2011 is testament to all their hard work. It is deep, dense and packed with ripe fruit, which is almost drinkable now, but give it 3 to 5 years and you will definitely be rewarded with a lovely vintage port.

The last declared vintage of Graham’s was the stunning 2007, and they have followed it up with a fleshy, elegant and perfumed 2011. Charles Symington carefully selected the very best wines from their five quinta’s to produce this masterpiece. The Quinta dos Malvedos forms the basis of the blend giving floral characteristics with soft violet notes. The wines from the Quinta do Tua add concentration and texture along with black cherry notes, the intense purple-black wines of the Quinta da Vila Velha add dark chocolate notes, the Quinta das Lages brings elegant complexity and augments the violet notes and finally the wines of the Quinta do Vale Malhadas brings with it sinewy tannins and coffee flavours which contributes to the longevity of this bottling.

Many people often comment that the Warre’s vintage ports are quite aromatic and feminine; conversely I often find them quite masculine in style. However in 2011 both masculinity and femininity have fused wonderfully to produce a wine of real class and elegance. Just over 50% of the blend comes from the Quinta da Cavadinha, with its relatively high elevation combined with the cooler climate of the Pinhão valley it gives the wine elegance and freshness. The vines at the Quinta do Retiro are some of the oldest in the Douro valley and produce tiny yields of around 600 grams per vine, which as you would expect lends itself to producing very concentrated musts of enormous colour and depth. The final component of the blend is made up of wines from the Quinta da Telhada, which was acquired by the family in 2006. Here the Touriga Nacional brings an excellent tannic structure along with pronounced blackcurrant aromas and dark chocolate notes, the Touriga Franca adds strong berry and floral aromas. All these components have combined to create a vintage port that speaks very much of its terroir and probably more so than any of the others displays an intense minerality and persistence.

And finally the Dows. Personally I believe that their magnificent 2011 will definitely be a candidate for wine of the vintage. As usual it is quite masculine in character and a little austere at this moment in time, but the complexity is stunning. Just over 40% of the blend comes from the Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira. The Quinta is situated on the north bank of the river Douro, close to an ancient (pre-Roman) and strategic river crossing, guarded by two 12th century hilltop castles, the Numão and Lavandeira, which are situated on either side of the Douro. Travelers would stop at the Quinta's small chapel to pray to the Senhora da Ribeira (The Lady of the River) for a safe crossing and onward journey, which is where the property got its name from. 45% of the Quinta’s vines are over 25 years old, thus they are incredibly low yielding, in most years producing less than 1 Kg of grapes each. They produce intense and concentrated musts as well as bringing a floral and aromatic quality to the finished blend.

Wines from the Quinta do Bomfin add structure along with typical aromas of figs and chocolate. It is only in very exceptional years, such as 2011 that grapes from their other two quinta’s, the Quinta do Santinho and the Quinta da Cerdeira are used in the finished blend. Here the Touriga Franca thrives in the heat of the Douro Superior and adds dense, aromatic fruit quality to the final blend.

So there you have it, the 2011 vintage ports are of an exceptional quality and should be expected to age superbly well over the coming decades. Thus if you love vintage port, I suggest that you have a rummage in your cellar and clear a little space!