An outstanding Port wine from veteran producers, Graham’s.

This is a single vintage, single “Quinta” Port. Quintas operate rather like “Crus” in the Cognac world, as a means of assessing the quality of a growing area and the wines produced there. Quinta dos Malvedos is one of the finest of the Douro Valley’s historic Quintas, and has long been associated with Graham’s Port (the company first acquired the land in 1890). Malvedos was the name of the rapids that flowed in front of the estate prior to the Douro’s damming in the 1960s.

In Malvedos, the vines are planted in steep terraces, with the land largely south facing, and therefore receiving plentiful sunlight and a good level of rainfall. Many of the vines in this Quinta are still supported by hand made dry stone walls, originally constructed in the 1700s. Interestingly, some of these ancient terraces in face north-east and east-west, giving a unique character to the grapes and producing a better balanced wine.

2015 is an interesting vintage year (as declared by the Noval Port shippers), as it was followed immediately by another, 2016. It is unusual for two vintages to be “declared” one after another, as tradition states that there can only be three declared vintage years in a decade. 2015 was rather superseded by 2016, as the latter year’s harvest returned much larger yields, so there was more to sell. Nevertheless, 2015 offers superb vintage quality, particularly with single quinta offerings such as this.

This bottling is a powerful, tannic Port with notes of bright red fruits, dry spices, blackberries, red grapes, toffee, dark oak and some slightly acid blackcurrants. Drinkable now, but will keep well for ten years.

• Distillery / brand
  Graham's
• Country
  Portugal
• Bottler
  Distillery Bottling
• Distillation date
  2015
• SKU
  039637