Fortified wines get forgotten in the summer. As temperatures rise, we instinctively reach for crisp whites, rosé, or beer, while bottles of Port, Sherry, and Madeira remain firmly associated with winter indulgence.

Yet this broad and diverse category extends far beyond rich, sweet after-dinner wines.

Many of its finest expressions are dry, savoury, and refreshingly high in acidity, making them ideal aperitifs and remarkably versatile partners at the table.

Unsurprisingly, most originate in some of Europe's hottest wine-growing regions, where locals have long enjoyed them alongside simple seasonal dishes.

Here's where to start.

White Port, Portugal

Cocktail lovers would do well to rediscover White Port. Produced in Portugal's Douro Valley from indigenous grape varieties such as Gouveio and Malvasia Fina, fermentation is stopped by the addition of aguardente, a neutral grape spirit, preserving natural grape sugar and raising the alcohol to around 20%.

The result is a wine with ripe stone fruit flavours, dried herbs, and subtle nutty complexity from barrel ageing.

Served chilled, it makes an excellent aperitif in its own right.

Better still, try the Porto Tónico, Portugal's favourite summer serve.

Mix one part White Port with two parts tonic water over plenty of ice, then garnish with a wedge of citrus, a slice of peach, and a sprig of mint.

Refreshing, aromatic, and effortlessly elegant.

Sercial Madeira, Portugal

Madeira deserves serious attention in the warmer months.

Produced on the subtropical Atlantic island of the same name, these fortified wines are renowned for their complex, oxidative character and remarkable acidity.

Sercial is the driest of Madeira's styles and is particularly refreshing in warm weather. Served cold, it offers flavours of lemon peel, toasted nuts, and dried herbs, balanced by a searing acidity that keeps you coming back.

Pair it with salted pistachios, charcuterie, and tangy goat's cheese, and it becomes the ultimate sundowner.

Fino & Manzanilla Sherry, Spain

Head to Jerez in southern Spain and you'll find Fino and Manzanilla, summer drinking at its finest.

Made from Palomino and aged beneath a layer of living yeast known as flor, they develop wonderfully savoury flavours of bread dough, almonds, sea spray, and a briny quality reminiscent of a dirty martini.

At just 15% ABV, Fino is among the lightest fortified wines available. Serve it ice cold and drink it fresh, as this is not a wine to keep in the cellar.

Lay your table with olives, anchovies, salty crisps, and a free-poured Fino, and you'll be transported straight to a balmy evening in Andalucia.

Marsala Vergine, Sicily

Sicily's famous fortified wine is too often dismissed as a cooking ingredient. In reality, the wines are incredibly complex and age-worthy.

The finest dry examples, such as Marsala Vergine, are serious yet refreshing wines. Serve chilled alongside bottarga pasta or grilled fish with spiced couscous.

The combination of nutty depth, bright acidity, and savoury character makes it an unexpected and sophisticated dinner companion.

The golden rule for summer fortified: go dry, serve cold, pair with something salty, and drink in the sun.

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When five of the Douro’s leading producers came together in 2003, imbued by the same maverick energy as the Barolo Boys, the group that stirred a revolution in Piedmont, they were equally determined to bring about change and mischief to another classical region in need of a shake-up.

The five founding members – Quinta do Crasto, Niepoort, Quinta do Vale Meão, Quinta do Vallado and Van Zellers & Co – embarked on a globetrotting whirlwind of presentations, tastings and auctions that helped position the Douro as one of the world’s leading fine wine regions and travel destinations.

Covid-19’s hard stop led to an extended pause that dovetailed with inevitable generational changes.

A window of opportunity opened for necessary stocktaking and recalibration in light of changes within the members’ businesses, the Douro’s viticulture and the wine world at large.

In 2024, Cristiano Van Zeller decided to step back to focus on Van Zeller & Co’s XIX Rare Port Collection.

Meanwhile, the remaining four members are finding their own inner and collective dynamics anew, facing different but equally challenging obstacles to those that first motivated the creation of their shared brand.

Dramatic evolution

The Douro’s visibility and reputation as a source of both Port and table wines has evolved dramatically in the intervening years, not least thanks to the group’s efforts.

But if showing the singularity of the Douro’s dramatic meanders and the quality of the wines it produces is no longer a primary preoccupation, the struggles are no less meaningful.

Volatile markets, labour shortages, climate change and changes in consumer behaviour serve as a fluid, complex background to the ongoing (and much-needed) restructuring of the Douro and Port production ecosystems.

So what’s ahead for the four storied and intrepid producers?

They share a past full of larger-than-life characters whose legacy they’ve been tasked with preserving – albeit with their own strong, very distinct identities.

And they are doing just that, spurred by the desire to leave a mark of their own and build a sustainable, thriving future for their estates, all the while dealing with the opportunities and frictions of running a family-owned company.

After spending time with each of the Douro Boys/Girls it became clear that, at this particularly turbulent crossroads of past and future, they share two key goals: rediscovering the essence of the Douro – a sometimes elusive balance between elegance and rusticity – through the lenses of both its fortified and table wines; and reclaiming a clear voice in a very crowded and loud world.

Miguel & Tomás Roquette - Quinta do Crasto

Like many a febrile architecture student, I first heard of Quinta do Crasto as the place for which star architect Eduardo Souto de Moura designed, in a simple if puzzling exercise, an infinity-pool perched over the Douro.

The seemingly random commission somehow captures the essence of Quinta do Crasto: assertive gestures justified by the landscape they serve.

It’s easy to understand this ‘landscape first’ philosophy: the promontory-like outline of the estate, with vineyards crawling along the northern bank of the Douro up to 650m, is enthralling and self-evidently promising of great wines.

It was to bear out that promise that Jorge Roquette set out to restructure the vineyards upon taking control of the estate, alongside his wife (and third-generation owner) Leonor, in 1981.

‘My father was a visionary. He believed that this is a special place,’ says their son, Miguel.

‘Our major investment and focus is, and has always been, the vineyard; my brother and I simply carried on the path my father set.’

Indeed, the technical programme at Crasto remains paramount.

The core, longstanding technical team – director of winemaking Cátia Barbeta, director of viticulture Tiago Nogueira and consultant Manuel Lobo – oversees rigorous management and research.

Their work is spearheaded by the PatGenVineyard project, which is painstakingly propagating, and compiling geo-referenced genetic profiles of, the vines in Crasto’s two renowned centenary plots, Vinha Maria Teresa and Vinha da Ponte.

‘The genetic erosion that happened in the Douro Valley – as in most European wine regions – throughout the 20th century is heartbreaking,’ explains Barbeta. ‘This is our humble but deliberate effort to counter that.’

Preserving old vines and vineyards

A replica of the Maria Teresa vineyard – with 48 of the grape varieties identified in the storied parcel – has already been planted and the team’s excitement is palpable.

‘We can’t wait to make wine from that vineyard. Hopefully it will motivate others to follow suit [in preserving their old vineyards] so that our unique genetic heritage is not lost,’ says Nogueira.

Alongside the ambitious R&D projects, the Roquette brothers are also preparing to invest significantly, for the first time, in wine tourism.

‘So far – perhaps a bit arrogantly – our main focus has been the vineyards,’ says Miguel.

‘But we need to explore [the wine tourism side of the business] as well; there’s demand and we acknowledge the need to do it properly.’

Another priority is opening new markets, especially in these troubled times.

‘There’s a lot of volatility. But it’s also a matter of potential; we all [the Douro Boys] make great wines – and we need to make noise about it,’ he concludes.

Daniel Niepoort - Niepoort Wines

If there are big shoes to fill, they are definitely those of Dirk Niepoort, the charismatic 2023 Decanter Hall of Fame recipient who completely transformed his family’s eponymous Port house, questioning all assumptions – refreshingly rustling many feathers along the way.

Having known both Dirk and his son Daniel for many years, I often wondered how what sometimes felt like an impossible handover would be handled. I shouldn’t have worried.

Although personal circumstances precipitated a more brusque transition than both would have wished for, Daniel is easing into the leadership of Niepoort Wines with the blooming confidence of someone who is also finding himself along the way – and crucially avoiding a self-destructive emulation of his father.

Aware of, but unburdened by, an incredible, colourful legacy, Daniel’s approach is informed by his own openness, gregariousness and generosity.

Indeed, the shift from singular to plural is one of his main priorities.

‘Until now there was, inevitably, a big focus on my father. Now I want to open it more to the team,’ he explains.

‘Niepoort went through a period of spectacular growth and expansion. I believe we need to enter a period of consolidation and focus.’

In practical terms this means that he’s not seeking to expand the large number of projects and wines his father restlessly developed across Portugal.

Instead, he wants to develop the teams and the growers behind them, and take a deeper, holistic look at estate management.

He’s introducing biodynamic and soft-pruning practices at scale and considering how to bring back a certain ‘Douro edge’ to a range of wines that has long been defined by worldly sophistication.

Ultimately, however, it’s people that matter: ‘The relationships, the sense of community [among the team and local growers] are very important. It’s a source of confidence and joy for everyone.’

Jaime, Francisco (Xito) and Luísa Olazabal - Quinta do Vale Meão

Located in a secluded corner of Douro Superior, Quinta do Vale Meão is remote even within the Douro – a beautiful one-hour train ride away from Pinhão in the region’s heart.

As one approaches from the opposite bank of the river, the first building to emerge, tentatively, from the sculpted hills is the old, original Barca Velha warehouse, where Douro’s first premium table wine (still without a DOC stamp) was first produced and stored in 1952.

If there’s such a thing as ‘sense of place’, this is a quintessential example: an easily forgotten patch of landscape, cradled by a cursive meander, given a name and identity by Dona Antónia Ferreira, who first bought the land in 1877.

The estate was partitioned, over the years, with each generation’s passing, the grapes sold to Casa Ferreira, where Francisco ‘Vito’ Olazabal, a direct descendant of the matriarch, was president.

Vito’s umbilical relationship with Vale do Meão led him to painstakingly purchase the patchwork of parcels from his relatives.

In 1998, he left his gilded role to produce wines, alongside son Francisco ‘Xito’ at Vale do Meão.

A family affair

His daughter Luísa joined the project in 2005 to oversee marketing and exports; son Jaime followed in 2018 and is now responsible for national sales.

Following Vito’s passing in September 2025, the siblings are now adapting to a joint leadership without their father’s advice.

‘It hasn’t been easy. He was such an important reference point for us,’ says Luísa.

All three have a palpable, emotional connection with the estate; the setting for some of their most treasured memories, from childhood mischiefs to weddings.

On the other hand, their deep knowledge of its intricacies – not least its peculiar geology.

Unlike the heart of the Douro, which is almost exclusively schist, the soils at Vale do Meão are a mix of schist and granite, with alluvial sandy deposits close to the river – is allowing them to fine tune both vineyard management and wine production with confidence.

Under Xito’s technical direction, the wines have gained definition and poise and he’s increasingly leaning into the singular potential of each parcel. (Xito also consults at Vallado.)

The siblings are candid about the challenges of working together and for the family company; the emotional aspect is inescapable.

At the same time, this gives them a ruthless motivation and laser focus.

‘Our job – at Vale do Meão and with the Douro Boys – is to make the best wines so that people understand how special this place is,’ concludes Xito.

João Roquette and Francisco Ferreira - Quinta do Vallado

Another thread of Dona Antónia’s outstanding heritage, Quinta do Vallado has remained in the hands of the Ferreira family since the matriarch's uncle and father-in-law, António Bernardo Ferreira, bought it in 1818.

It started bottling its own wines in 1993, under the leadership of Guilherme Alvares Ribeiro and his wife (and fifth-generation) Maria Antónia Ferreira, following Sogrape’s acquisition of Casa Ferreira in 1987.

After the recent (reluctant) retirement of sixth-generation João Ferreira Alvares Ribeiro, his son João Roquette (related to the owners of Quinta do Crasto through his mother’s side of the family) has taken the helm alongside cousin Francisco Ferreira.

The two complement each other in both expertise and demeanour: Roquette overseeing marketing and exports, animated by a preppy entrepreneurial verve; Ferreira in charge of vineyard and cellar management, with a calm, listening energy running through his words.

Quinta do Vallado stands out – among the Douro Boys and most of the region’s producers – by having invested early and purposefully in wine tourism. Its on-site hotel opened in 2005 and has since been expanded.

Mindfully designed – as is the new cellar built in 2009 – to follow the character of the original estate and the outline of the terraced slopes, it embodies the relaxed sophistication also found in the estate’s wines.

But defining the style of a Vallado Douro DOC wine is an ongoing process.

A long journey of discovery

‘The Douro is a very old region; but also a very new one if you consider that we’ve only had a DOC for unfortified wines since 1979,’ says Roquette.

‘And we’re still discovering how best to do things.’

Ferreira echoes this exploration while describing the work he oversees in the vineyards and winery.

‘We’re only now truly understanding the best way to grow the best grapes for unfortified wines after centuries focusing on power and ripeness [for Port production],’ he explains.

‘It’s a change in paradigm and also an opportunity to reassess the value of our old vineyards and grape varieties,’ which his team has been genetically profiling across their older plots, echoing the efforts at Crasto.

A fundamental guiding principle at Vallado is to not follow trends and stay true to the quinta’s history and identity.

‘It’s perhaps the most important thing we can learn from Dona Antónia. And it’s also one of the core principles shared by all Douro Boys,’ Roquette concludes.

Leading lights of the Douro: Nine must-try wines

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For Luis Duarte, surfing isn’t just a passion, it’s a way of life.

His connection to the swells of the Atlantic has guided both his professional and personal choices from an early age, leading him to where he is now: making ocean-kissed wines in the small village of Cortesia (Colares, Lisboa, Portugal), tending to vineyards overlooking the coast where he surfs almost daily.

Growing up with the beach of Praia de São Julião as his playground, Duarte developed an umbilical relationship with his surf board.

‘There was something exciting and forbidden about it,’ he says. ‘We would hide our boards from our parents – as if we were doing something secret and dangerous.’

As a teenager, this evolved into a whole way of thinking, looking and behaving, complete with dress code and jargon.

He surfed competitively for a while before settling into a more relaxed pursuit, still travelling extensively but surfing only for pleasure.

Tradition and soul

Duarte started out as the owner of an architecture office, but the bureaucratic intricacies weren’t for him.

‘At some point, we had the opportunity to buy a plot in Ribeira d’Ilhas, where the World Surf League Challenger Series event takes place.’

Together with fellow surfer Tiago Oliveira, he set up one of Portugal’s first surf camps. Before that he had run a surf school for local kids near São Julião beach.

Following the creation of the World Surfing Reserve of Ericeira in 2011, Duarte and wife Teresa Soares opened a surf-themed hostel in the village, as well as a restaurant, but the ruthless demands of hospitality took a toll on Duarte’s passion.

‘I then started contemplating coming back to my father’s vineyards, which he originally planted [in Cortesia, less than 2km from the coast] – about 1.5ha, from which we now produce our vinhas velhas (‘old vines’) wine.’

He eventually partnered with winemaker Mauro Azóia, and planted another 4ha. In 2016, Duarte and Soares left their hospitality endeavours to dedicate themselves fully to Haja Cortezia Wines, producing under the motto Tradição e alma à beira-mar (‘Tradition and soul by the coast’).

The change has allowed Duarte to rediscover his rhythm, attuned to both vines and waves.

From father to son

Duarte now supports his son, Santiago, a successful semi-professional surfer (his daughter Matilde, is a semi-professional acrobatic gymnast).

‘I travel with Santiago, film and photograph him, and introduce him to the waves I know,’ he says.

‘As surfers, we have our secret spots. That’s part of the magic. Although social media is somewhat destroying that…’

He’s also working on a parallel project, Ocean Wine, to create a community of winemakers and vineyards situated less than 2km from the coast, where surfing is also part of the local culture.

‘I’d like to create a new concept, a new way of presenting and experiencing wine,’ he says.

Travelling, surfing, passing on his knowledge to Santiago, ‘it’s all part of a lifestyle’. Haja Cortezia gives Duarte a degree of freedom, allowing him to travel over winter and escape almost daily to catch a few quick waves.

Above all, he now feels a seamless connection with the landscape.

‘I can always see the sea when I’m working in the vineyard.’

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History fills your eyes at Seppeltsfield. Barrels storing 147 continuous vintages of Seppeltsfield Para tawny fill the Centenary Cellar. It’s a collection that’s unrivalled in the world of wine, all housed under one old tin roof in the Barossa, Australia.

History fills your nose, too. An incredibly rich melange of heady aromas permeates the cellar, leaching slowly from the oak barrels as an estimated 3% of their contents evaporate into the atmosphere each year.

But history’s most delicious secrets are revealed once you taste the unctuous, concentrated nectar that remains within these old casks. The wines show impossible layers of complexity, compressed within interlocking and sometimes contradictory sweet and tart flavours that unfurl and adhere to your palate.

They are truly unique.

Tasting a legacy

To celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Seppelt family establishing Seppeltsfield in the western Barossa ranges, Decanter was invited with selected media and winemakers to taste all of the Para Centenary tawnies – a continuous line of 48 wines, stretching from 1878 to this year’s new release, the 1926 vintage.

It’s a remarkable legacy handed down by Oscar ‘Benno’ Seppelt, who had the foresight to lay down a single 500-litre puncheon of his finest fortified from the 1878 vintage, with instructions that it not be issued for 100 years.

This gesture marked the launch of the magnificent Seppeltsfield bluestone cellar in 1878, a sturdy three-level monument designed and built in 1866 by Benno’s father, Joseph Seppelt, who had brought the family from Silesia in 1849 and established the vineyards in 1851.

Vintage snapshots

Highlights within the historic tawny collection are extraordinary – none more dazzling than the inaugural 1878 Para. This is the rarest of vinous marvels, retaining freshness and vitality but with extraordinary layered complexity in subtle flavours and bewitching nuances.

Also sitting within the top tier of Para Centenary examples is the new release – 1926 Para – showing such vibrancy and intensity with its high, sweet perfume yet deepest baritone notes in the flavour profile.

Rather than provide a narrative about an evolution of a style, the historical tasting highlighted significant outliers – such as the impossibly thick and viscous 1918 Para as almost a parody of the super-concentrated style, or the 1907 Para with especially sharp acidity, and the outrageously dense 1894 Para.

It proved that ancient fortified wines do not settle into a homogenised sameness, but instead show distinctive historical vintage snapshots.

Old vines & historic homestead

History is writ large at Seppeltsfield. It speaks through the estate’s original buildings – from the three-bedroom Seppelt family homestead around which the winery was constructed, to the gravity-fed cellar constructed in 1888.

This was decommissioned in the 1980s but reinstated for winemaking from the 2010 vintage.

It is also evident in the vineyards – especially the Grenache bush vines. First planted in 1855, these were replanted in 1958 as contoured rows that hug the western side of Seppeltsfield estate.

They form the backbone of Seppeltsfield fortified wine production, along with old Shiraz and Mourvèdre vines, although precise percentages of each variety in Para tawny was not recorded until the 1980s.

The creation of Seppeltsfield Para in 1878 is also tied to the historical foundation of Australian wine, which thrived on the success of fortified wine production from the colony’s earliest years.

When Joseph Seppelt arrived in the Barossa, he planned to continue farming tobacco, which had made him prosperous in Silesia, but instead he found growing grapes more favourable and soon set about ambitious expansion that made Seppeltsfield a key Barossa producer.

Legacy of success

Seppeltsfield Para was produced as a statement of the family’s success, a gesture continued on an annual basis through successive winemakers – and eventually different owners.

The Seppelt family sold their shares in 1984 and the winery passed through several corporate ownerships until the Randall Wine Group took control of the estate and its cellars in 2009.

Para Centenary tawny is still nurtured by many hands. Three Seppeltsfield winemakers were present at the tasting – including original family descendent Charlie Seppelt – yet modestly play down their role.

‘These are not my wines,’ says James Godfrey, who joined Seppeltsfield in 1978 and became chief fortified winemaker until Foster’s Group sold Seppeltsfield in 2007. ‘I was fortunate enough to watch them develop and protect them – and for that, I feel enormously privileged.’

For Godfrey, a key to the consistency of Para tawny quality is the spirit chosen to fortify the wine – a grape spirit produced from Seppeltsfield’s own still from 1878 to 1978, when Godfrey closed down its production.

He then oversaw the selection of a complementary spirit from Barossa distillery Tarac, which continues to provide the same spirit to Seppeltsfield.

Preserving the past

The need for consistency and honouring traditional methods is not lost on Seppeltsfield chief winemaker Fiona Donald.

‘We are only custodians.’ she says. ‘Every vintage tells its own significant story, and it’s our duty to ensure that this is preserved – and that the historic Para Centennial Collection will remain relevant to fine wine collectors of the future.’

Most Para Centenary tawnies comprise a single puncheon, and many now contain only about 150 litres of highly concentrated wine.

Donald examines their condition during annual inventories, and decants some into 300-litre hogshead casks to help preserve their freshness.

However, this brings its own set of challenges, with key older vintages at such tiny volumes they can no longer be preserved safely in large-format oak barrels.

Several of the most popular old releases – some down to 40 litres or less, including the Para vintages from 1885, 1884, 1881, 1880, 1879 and 1878 – are now stored in glass air-tight vessels, which has fundamentally changed the wines.

While they still show remarkable agility and focused clarity, much of the dense viscosity and deepest flavour layers have been removed with the complex molecules that drop and settle in a dark sediment layer at the bottom of each barrel.

The absence of continued interaction with oxygen from the oak barrel also affects colour and texture.

‘Tawnies are aerobic beasts, and if they don’t interact with oxygen, they change,’ explains Godfrey.

Fortifying the future

Examining these glass-stored wines raised important discussion points for the Seppeltsfield winemaking team about how best to preserve Para wines beyond 100 years.

One thought is to contain the remaining volumes in small oak casks and store them in a temperature-controlled space, which would prevent further heat evaporation but not remove complex flavour compounds from the solution.

No decision has yet been made.

The previous complete comparative tasting of Para was led by Godfrey in 2003, to mark the 25th anniversary of the first Para Centenary release.

The recent tasting went further, also providing a rare view of future Para centenary releases in progress, showing decade-by-decade development from the 1926 vintage through to the juvenile 2016 vintage.

It reinforced Benno Seppelt’s genius decision to hold this wine in barrel for 100 years, to achieve perfect balance between concentration, complexity and vitality that cannot be contrived in younger fortified wines.

175th anniversary tasting: top wines

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A lot of freedom (and, as Charles Dickens taught us, a lot of happiness) can come from an absence of expectations. What you do with that freedom – and joy – is another matter.

Winemakers across Lisboa have used it to transform the region from a sleepy source of unremarkable wine dotted with cult-worthy gems to a hotspot of creativity, sustainability and experimentation that has greatly influenced the evolution of Portuguese wine as a whole.

As an ageing millennial born and raised in Lisbon, I’m the first to feel both pride and awe at the speed at which Lisboa wine has become ‘a thing’ – perhaps even a ‘movement’.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 18 of Lisboa’s finest wines

A slice of the Atlantic

When I was a kid, our parents would frown upon drinking local plonk…

Romain Gonitel, one of the founding partners at UK importer Portuguese Story, has witnessed this transformation first hand: ‘Many [leading] projects started in the early and mid-2010s, and created such momentum. We’re talking about producers that were truly pioneers of the natural wine movement in Portugal and continue to set the agenda.’

Stretching 160km north of the Portuguese capital, along the country’s rugged western Atlantic coast, Lisboa includes nine designations of origin – Alenquer, Arruda, Bucelas, Carcavelos, Colares, Encostas d’Aire, Lourinhã, Obidos and Torres Vedras – in addition to the all-encompassing Lisboa PGI (Protected Geographical Indication).

Most of the wine produced in the region is – almost inevitably – bottled under the generic PGI, allowing for grapes to be blended across the sometimes minuscule appellations, some of which have notably strict requirements.

The boutique Colares, for example, requires local clones of Malvasia de Colares and Ramisco to be planted ungrafted on sandy soils within its small perimeter.

Some notable producers – not least several of the leading figures of the region’s ‘new wave’ – also label some or all of their wines simply as Vinho de Portugal, a sign both of restless experimentation and political dissent.

Working together

One of the greatest assets of the region is the extraordinary sense of community – which includes winemakers but also wine bar owners, restaurateurs and sommeliers – and its dynamic of mutual challenge and support.

The synergic proximity to the capital has been crucial.

‘It’s a very important interaction,’ confirms Gonitel, who splits his time between London and Lisbon. ‘It’s created a joint culture that is very aware of what happens elsewhere and of what makes the region special. And people help each other.’

Mutual support has allowed producers to validate their stylistic choices and pioneering efforts on sustainability and low-intervention winemaking.

But it has also given them energy to recover and preserve winemaking traditions and grape varieties that might otherwise be lost – not least under the pressure of tourism and real estate.

‘What we’re doing is inherently political,’ says winemaker Tiago Teles. ‘Our work shows that the land has a different [symbolic] value and that we must treasure our history and resources.’

Tradition 2.0

The quality, expressiveness and diversity delivered by the region is truly staggering.

I’ve used the selection that follows to try to capture excellence across the exciting spectrum of very different styles and grape varieties.

From ‘unicorn’ classics – such as the Malvasias and Ramiscos of Colares – to crisp takes on Castelão, saline expressions of Arinto and elegant bottlings of the very underestimated Vital, each wine is a nod to Lisboa’s kaleidoscopic wine heritage.

The common denominators? Sophistication, soulfulness, salinity and drinkability.

These are wines from a nearly-lost past that are shaping the future of Portuguese wine while resting their eyes on the Atlantic.

See Ines’s pick of Lisboa wines:

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Rioja

This was the year to fall in love with Rioja all over again. The DOCa marked its 100th anniversary – a momentous celebration that served as a reminder, on the one hand, of the region’s long winemaking tradition (going much further back than these 100 years) and, on the other, of its capacity to evolve and remain not merely relevant but firmly at the forefront of contemporary wine.

Serendipitously coinciding with the centenary, the inaugural Decanter Rioja report (in the May issue’s annual Rioja supplement) allowed us to experience, first hand and in great depth, the vibrancy, diversity and sheer quality of the region’s output.

Our extensive tasting exceeded our best expectations. Among the top scorers were established icons but also ‘young guns’; in tandem, these are expanding the region’s already impressive canon, across colours and styles, well beyond the obvious and expected.

The rise of Rioja’s whites is particularly of note, with all-time classics – not least CVNE’s inimitable Monopole Clásico Gran Reserva – rubbing shoulders with modern jewels such as El Pacto’s Jesús Acha.

There was of course no shortage of gems on the red front; we were blown away by the transparency and nuance of Carlos Sánchez’s La Bendecida and Miguel Merino’s La Quinta Cruz (which also makes the strongest of cases for the potential of the Mazuelo variety).

Rioja also shone closer to home, at Decanter’s tasting suite in London. We hosted producer Remírez de Ganuza at one of our ‘Decanter Presents…’ events, and bodeguero José Urtasun brought an outstanding lineup that included UV, a truly fresh (all puns intended) take on the Tempranillo variety.

We’re already looking forward to our 2026 report! And here’s to 100 years more.

Portugal & Spain (beyond Rioja)

How hard – and painfully unfair – to select only five wines for this broad section. And in a year that has delivered a memorable array of standout bottles from across the Iberian peninsula, where producers big and small are leveraging today’s many challenges to refine and assert their sense of identity.

The tough trading times have validated the efforts of those who eschew trends and remain true to themselves, reinventing tradition without losing sight of it – elements fundamental to producing wines at once timeless and excitingly modern.

The latter could definitely be said of Kopke’s 80 Year Old Tawny Port and Alves de Sousa’s Memórias; both pay tribute, in different but equally compelling ways, to the heritage of the Douro.

Tradition reinvented and classic modernity were also running themes across our inaugural Ribera del Duero report (see October 2025 issue). Among the top-scoring wines was Francisco Barona’s Finca Las Dueñas – a Reserva like no other, of robust, nuanced elegance, as charismatic as Barona himself.

Much further south, in Jerez, a new generation of equally talented vignerons is producing some of Spain’s most exciting bottles: Vinos de Pasto are the unfortified wines being produced from the same grape (Palomino Fino) and terroirs as Sherry.

I was blown away by Raúl Moreno’s (pictured above) perfect encapsulations of technical precision and maverick questioning of stylistic assumptions. Meanwhile, Juvé & Camps brought Spain’s sparkling excellence to our tasting suite for our first ‘Decanter Presents…’ event (in late October at our London W2 offices).

And the producer didn’t disappoint: during the session we tasted the standout Cava La Capella – produced exclusively from Xarel.lo, it was another affirmation of Spain’s indigenous varieties.

The best wines are, more than drinks, unforgettable experiences; these five, and many others, will linger long in my memory.

Wines of the year 2025: Spain & Portugal

Wines from Rioja are listed first then the rest of the peninsula

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For many, the Douro’s fortified wines are synonymous with red grapes. The region’s viticulture, however, has a more complex history, with field blends dotted with white varieties.

Mostly harvested together, they played a balancing role in red Port and contributed to its complexity and ageworthiness. White grapes-only vineyards, and hence white grapes-only Port, accounted for a minimal share of production.

Beyond viticulture and tradition, another factor was at play: with many Port shippers also trading in Sherry, the latter made up the ‘white’ share of their portfolio. Focusing on red Port meant a clear commercial message and a neat split.

Houses with a historical specialism in white Port – notably Kopke – remained curious outliers. Then, the turn of the third millennium brought a new generation of winemakers and blenders to the fore.

Both Tiago Alves de Sousa, the fifth generation at the helm of his family’s winery, and Carlos Alves, director of viticulture and oenology at Kopke, agree that this influx of new blood was a decisive factor in white Port’s recent rise.

For Alves, the white category’s rapid evolution is woven into the similarly impressive development of Douro still wines. ‘It meant a greater understanding of the potential of different varieties and of how they perform in specific terroirs. And a major realisation has been that the Douro is a region of great whites,’ he says.

Alves de Sousa agrees: ‘This exploration, through the lens of Douro [still, unfortified] wines, meant greater awareness of the potential of each variety, some being more aromatic, others more structured, and so on.’

‘The incredible evolution of the white category is the best thing that happened in Port in the 21st century’

Tiago Alves de Sousa

Necessary changes

Technical precision, stylistic focus, curiosity about the potential of old, often overlooked, stocks of white Port and a desire to experiment and test Port’s limits have all seen white Port grow in both quality and diversity.

The IVDP (Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto), which regulates wine production in the region, took notice and, in 2007, introduced a much-needed update to the regulations by creating age-indication categories for white Port (similar to those for red tawny).

‘It was a necessary change that also created more interest, among both producers and consumers,’ Alves says. ‘The incredible evolution of the white category is the best thing that happened [in Port] in the 21st century,’ says Alves de Sousa, whose family also has a long, maverick tradition of producing the style.

It reflects, he says, an overall increase in quality and a reconnection with the region’s traditions – while also revealing a fresher side of Port.

Indeed, white Port has developed along two parallel paths: expressively aromatic, fruit-driven styles, with little to no maceration, produced as ideal ingredients for Port & Tonic, Portugal’s favourite aperitif; and more structured, complex iterations, often with some skin-contact during fermentation, designed as components for age-indicated blends or, less frequently, colheita (single-harvest) bottlings.

The following selection showcases this exciting diversity. For those of us for whom a bottle of white Port is a fridge-door staple, it’s exciting to see the category truly coming to life.

18 delicious white Ports:

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The Port industry is experiencing a quick and exciting transformation. While many producers are producing ever-more characterful and balanced wines, they remain fearlessly committed to history and tradition – in the cellar as well as on the table.

Nothing is more evocative of the endurance of traditions than Christmas celebrations. And the festive season is the time of year when Port is allowed to shine brightly on the dinner table – and under the Christmas tree. Port makes for such a stylish and thoughtful gift – mostly as a companion to the season’s luscious cheese spreads.

However, making the most out of this flagship coupling is not as straightforward as it may seem.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Port wine is its complex diversity; the multiple styles, the intricate terroirs along the meandering banks of the Douro and the identity of each Port house which is translated into an incredible array of wines.

This in turn means that there isn’t a glass of Port suitable for all cheeses – if you want to enjoy the full gamut of flavours and textures in both or either, you’ll need to embark on a pairing journey.

In other cheese and wine pairing articles we’ve explained why one of the main enemies of milk-based foods is tannins (hence why we suggest that a full-bodied, aged white, in lieu of red, is a much better go-to pairing for cheese platters). It follows that a Vintage Port, with its luscious fruit and assertive tannins, will easily overpower the delicate aromatics of a brie or the creaminess of a Camembert.

So does one need to forego that special bottle of Port saved for Christmas dinner? Absolutely not. It’s all about embracing complexity and enjoying the fun of exploring both Ports and cheeses. Use it as an excuse to open more bottles and expand your festive cheese spread!

Happy endings, better beginnings

The first myth worth debunking is that you need to save your Port for the end of the meal. Some Port styles are best suited for other parts of your festive meals. Not least as a stage setting aperitif; nothing more refreshing and delicious than a white Port & Tonic. Experiment with different white Ports, mixers and toppings served alongside canapés.

Substantial starters can also benefit from a Port companion. A starter of foie gras with pickled walnuts paired with an old Vintage Port is the stuff of dreams. It cuts right through the fatty richness of the dish while joining in an harmonious dialogue of earthy flavours.

And onto the pièce de résistance: the acidity and subtle nuttiness of slightly aged Tawny (ten or 20 years old) will enhance your goose and turkey, especially if served with a rich gravy or cranberry sauce.

Further aged Tawnys and aged Whites, on the other hand, are perfect alongside chocolate or caramel-based desserts.

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Battle of equals

Festive moments are often punctuated by Vintage Ports from meaningful years. However, as mentioned above, when it comes to food pairing you’ll need to tread carefully due to the aromatic and tannic power of these wines.

Creamy, soft, mild cheeses will see its fat bind unpleasantly with the tannins. What you need is a powerful cheese to match. Aged, hard and spicy cheeses – such as aged pecorino, aged Cheddar, Lincolnshire Poacher, aged Comté or Parmigiano-Reggiano – will offer the perfect counterpoint in both flavour and texture. ‘[Vintage] is a favourite style, and one that people often resolve for special occasions,’ says Filipe Wang, sommelier of the JNcQUOI group (multiple locations in Portugal). ‘What we’re considering here is matching strengths.’

Intense – non-creamy – blue cheeses, such as thievery Christmassy, much-loved Stilton or matured Roquefort, will also have a great match in the deep juicy fruit and balsamic nuances of Vintage Port.

The key, common denominator in all these cheeses is salt, ‘I would favour young Vintages which have really strong tannins – strong, salty cheeses will balance them perfectly,’ Says Wang. ‘The saltiness [of the cheeses] is important; it’s the perfect counterpoint to the tannins.’

Add some dried cranberries, glazed orange peel, prunes or walnuts to the mix to take the pairing to the next level.

Here comes the White

One of the most exciting and fast-evolving styles of Port comes in multiple hues of amber. White Port (of which we explored an exciting selection in our December 2025 issue) can deliver both the fruity allure and zesty twist needed for a perfect Port & Tonic as well as – in the aged categories – incredible complexity, luscious nuttiness, intense orchard fruit (both fresh and dried) and a long finish with lingering honey and spice.

White Ports make for perfect companions for softer, creamier cheeses. ‘A young Extra Dry with goat’s cheeses – which tend to have more acidity and a fresher, sometimes citric, finish – will be a really good combination,’ says Wang. ‘The wine’s acidity and fruity profile will match the delicate profile of the cheese.’ Brie, Camembert, Wigmore or young Crotin will also have a good match in a young White Port. More intense counterparts – such as St Jude, Reblochon or St Marcellin – will be best alongside a White Colheita.

Tawny – the sweet spot

One of Port’s finest styles, Tawny, covers a quite wide array of profiles depending on how long the wines have aged in barrel. ‘I personally like to match cheeses, especially those with a nutty, slightly sweet finish – 18-month Gryere for example – with ten and 20 year old Tawnys,’ says Wang. ‘30 [year olds] and above are too concentrated. I wouldn’t recommend having them with cheese at all – I think they’re best enjoyed with a dessert or, better even, a cigar.’

Some fresh grapes, membrillo (quince paste) and roasted winter nuts are perfect add-ons to a Tawny and cheese combination.

Creative versatility

If you’re on a budget (aren’t we all!?) and/or don’t want to open more than one bottle of Port there are reliable all-rounders you can rely on. The absence of tannins and fine acidity of a White Port and the filigree nuttiness of a 20 year old Tawny makes them the best bets for ideal all-rounders, that will cope with the different palate tension of cheeses (fat, salt, acidity, umami).

The ultimate rule is, however, that you drink your favourite Port, surrounded by your favourite people. And you might want to make Port a source of comfort and a welcome treat all year round – Port surely deserves a place at the table beyond the festive period.

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Perched over the dunes on Portugal’s northwestern Atlantic coast, an hour’s drive from Lisbon, is Areias do Seixo, a boutique hotel and 23 villas marrying eco-mindulfulness and sophistication; an Atlantic soul with cosmopolitan flair. The aesthetic is quiet luxury meets India by way of Marrakech, with surfaces of glazed concrete, polished wood and warm lighting creating an atmosphere of elegant rusticity.

Owners Marta Fonseca and Gonçalo Alves have a solid background in hospitality and this comes through in the attention to detail, cohesiveness of the concept and proactive politeness of the staff. The quietness, luminosity and sea-kissed air define the location and, to a great extent, Areias do Seixo, a project strongly anchored in its surroundings.

A pool of one’s own

Guests staying at private villas have their own heated swimming pools, while activities and services available to all include yoga, sound baths, a woodfired hot tub, on-site spa and tours of the permaculture vegetable garden that supplies the onsite restaurants. No surprise then that the latter rely heavily on seasonal, local produce, through contemporary interpretations of Portuguese traditional cuisine. The wine list covers interesting producers across Portugal’s many regions but it’s particularly worth exploring the local wines.

Local wine gems

Indeed, Areias do Seixo is an ideal base for exploring the Lisboa wine region and its singular DOCs and grape varieties. Within a 20- to 30-minute drive you can visit some of Portugal’s smallest and most intriguing appellations, including Torres Vedras, Bucelas, Colares and Carcavelos.

The local viticultural wealth is, in itself, reason enough to set up camp at Areias do Seixo. The region of Lisboa has become a hotspot of sustainable, winemaker-led projects and it’s well worth making your way across the winding roads and rolling hills and visit producers such as Haja Cortezia (37km to the south), Vale da Capucha (20km, southeast), AdegaMãe (16.6km, southeast) or Quinta da Boa Esperança (24.7km, southeast), to name but a few.

A great opportunity to meet the producers and taste the region’s saline Arintos, refreshing reds (mostly from the very underestimated yet supremely delicious Castelão) or mouthwatering takes on Sercial.

The region’s producers are creative and experimental and you’ll find delicious, unexpected pét-nats, moreish rosés and orange wines alongside benchmark classics such as the singular Malvasias de Colares.

After the visits and tastings it won’t be hard to find places to eat – although you might be tempted to simply stock up on the region’s fresh vegetables and seafood and cook back at your villa.

Hungry for adventure

For all the activities, services and easily accessible food & wine, the true appeal of Areias do Seixo is the ocean. The beach is just a 5-10-minute walk away across soft, pristine dunes. You’ll arrive at the top of a dramatic escarpment where steps, nestled in the rock, take you down to the sand and sea.

Early risers might want to work for their lunch and go mussel-hunting – a fun activity that is also great exercise and a way to be fully immersed in the smells, sounds and textures of the Atlantic.

Once your bucket is full, make your way back and Gonçalo and his team will happily cook your catch at the outdoor kitchen, with a glass of a crisp Lisboa Arinto in hand.

Back at the beach, the more adventurous can book surf lessons guided by certified instructors – or simply rent a board and show off surfing skills. Areias do Seixo is at the epicentre of one of the world’s surfing hotspots; Praia de Santa Cruz – where Areias do Seixo has a sister project, Noah’s Surf House – just a few kilometres away. Meanwhile, the iconic Nazaré, of ‘Big Wave’ and Garrett McNamara fame, is 75km to the north.

After your surfing session, warm up in the hot tub back or around the fire pit at Areias do Seixo. This is a place to truly slow down, embrace the landscape and enjoy the many experiences both nature and luxury accommodation afford.

Getting there: You can easily fly to Lisbon. From the airport you can either arrange a transfer or rent a car. We advise you to do the latter as you’ll need it to explore the surroundings more freely.

For more information check the Areias do Seixo website.

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As evenings draw in, it’s easy to look primarily at bold reds – of which Portugal doesn’t have shortage of – as your go-to wine. But this might be a disservice: to the season, the country, and yourself.

The cold months call for creative thinking and, if anything, provide a great opportunity to explore different styles in different ways. An oak-aged rosé? A rich, full-bodied white Vinho Verde? An amphora-aged Douro red? Why not.

It’s precisely in the unexpected and overlooked that you’ll find Portugal’s true gems, making the most of the Atlantic-facing country’s terroirs, indigenous grapes and winemaking talent.

Freshness and diversity

Although the sun-drenched, cork-tree lined vineyards of Alentejo or the undulating slopes of the Douro might be the images most easily conjured when thinking of Portuguese wine, the country’s essence is more complex. At its core is an Atlantic coast battered by winds and waves, rough granite mountains and moody valleys, where winters are as inclement as the summers.

The selection below highlights that perhaps unexpected common denominator across Portugal’s best wines, from north to south by way of the islands: inherent freshness, expressed in different forms – vivid acid, saline minerality, crunchy fruit – but always present to make each bottle, first and foremost, a pleasure to drink.

With freshness comes a structural balance and aromatic nuance that delivers both drinkability and cellaring potential. Nothing better for winter drinking, when what you need are wines that, ideally, deliver on both fronts – and can either be opened spontaneously for festive guests or saved for later, to cure those January blues.

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Diversity is key and Portugal delivers, across styles and price points. Below you’ll find a juicy, fun pet-nat made from the versatile Fernão Pires variety, as well as poised Douro reds and a classical White Port. All of them offer interpretations on tradition and modernity, at the intersection of which the Portuguese wine scene is thriving.

Covering a wide spectrum of prices – from below £10 to almost £100 – this line up also challenges you to rethink the value-for-money proposition that has long headlined (plagued?) the sales of Portuguese wine.

The proposition is still there, no doubt, but is perhaps more appealing at the top, rather than lower, shelves. There are plenty of fine wines – collection-, investment- and gift-worthy – worth discovering and spending more on.

Although perhaps more expensive than the Portuguese wines you usually buy, they offer highly competitive quality and character (and even appreciation value, if that’s what you’re going for) when compared to their European counterparts.

Prefacing our 2026 features

By featuring some of the most exciting Portuguese regions and producers, this winter selection also works as a prelude to what’s coming up, chez Decanter, in the new year.

We’ll be looking more closely at the wines of Lisboa and Tejo, the dynamic regions north of the country’s capital city; assessing the outstanding transformation (and differentiation) of sprawling Alentejo; and analysing Douro’s ongoing trajectory of change coupled with soul-searching – a fascinating if tough period that ultimates benefits us all with an ever improving still wine production.

From the sea-sprayed vineyards of Lisboa, to the slate soils of Douro and Portalegre, and the rediscovered indigenous grapes of Madeira this is a winter selection that defies assumptions and will transport you to dramatic landscapes, one sip at a time.

20 Portuguese wines for winter

 All bottle prices are correct at time of publication and do not reflect special or multi-buy offers.

Wines are grouped by style and ordered by score, in descending order.

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• Expert’s Choice: 18 diverse and delicious Portuguese rosés

Pink might not be the colour most associated with Portuguese wine, yet the country is a source of a perhaps surprising diversity of rosés, of very different hues and styles.

Produced in all of the country’s regions, from Vinho Verde in the north to Algarve in the south, by way of the Madeira and Azores archipelagos, the wealth of terroirs, mesoclimates, indigenous grape varieties and viticultural tradition is reflected in a particularly vibrant rosé category, setting it firmly apart from France’s arguably rather monotonal Provençal offering.

A blossoming category

The success of Provence no doubt played a key role in the resurgence of rosé as a whole, but Atlantic-cradled Portugal has a pink lineage very much of its own.

It’s along the parallel lines of international influence and traditional revival that Portuguese rosé has arrived at a newfound maturity in the last few years. While still enjoying, with some ambivalence, the ever-growing success of Mateus Rosé.

The unapologetically pink, softly sweet (15g/L of residual sugar), and relatively low-alcohol (11%) wine in its characteristic flask-shaped bottle, was, in many ways, a revolutionary product.

Now in its 80th year, it appealed to an expanding ‘global audience’ (owner Sogrape says it still sees yearly double-digit growth). This success, however, might lie at the root of the fact that many Portuguese producers still look suspiciously at the rosé category.

A broader palette

‘With the exception of Mateus Rosé, the category was somewhat dormant until the beginning of the 21st century,’ says Diogo Sepúlveda, who, as Sogrape’s head winemaker in charge of all but its Douro wines, oversees the production of the rosé colossus.

‘The success of Provence sparked a new interest. Now we are really looking at it from the point of view of our regions and varieties,’ explains Sepúlveda, referring to the other (premium) rosés he now produces at Sogrape’s estates.

A simultaneous reassessment of the appeal of traditional, rustic styles of lighter reds and palhetes (co-fermentions of red with up to 15% white grapes), opened new possibilities for Portuguese rosés with deeper colour, deeper fruit and more assertive tannic structure.

This explains why the beginning of the 21st century saw the category develop along two main axes: Provence doppelgangers; and natural-leaning oddities.

The category has since come a long way, recalibrating itself and finding its own identity at the crossroads of tradition and contemporary classicism.

The country’s wealth of grape varieties is a major factor driving the singularity of Portugal’s pinks. The multiple showings in this selection of Touriga Nacional – notably relevant in a wider, ongoing reassessment of the variety’s potential – are well worth exploring and comparing.

But lesser-known grapes such as Padeiro in Vinho Verde, Alfrocheiro and Jaen in the Dão, Negra Mole in the Algarve, Tinta Negra in Madeira or Moreto and Castelão in Tejo, make for a characterful palette of pinks, each with particular aromatic nuances and structural framework.

Rosé with a different accent

With greater confidence (and a sense of fun!) among producers, Portuguese rosé has become more itself, but also more ambitious.

Stainless steel is now one fermentation vessel of choice, though not the default, with clay, concrete and wood also skilfully used to tease out varietal character and sense of place.

And firmly contradicting those who argue that rosé must be drunk simple and young, some wines are released having spent time in the bottle – such as the unexpected, and brave, 2017 from Quinta do Montalto (see recommendations); or in the cellar, as in Niepoort’s Redoma Reserva 2019, bottled in 2024 after four and a half years in barrel.

Simplistic is something that Portuguese rosé certainly isn’t. The selection that follows is full of delicious, unexpected and idiosyncratic examples that tell a bigger story of rediscovery and authenticity.

See notes and scores for 18 charming Portuguese rosés

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As we wade through the sticky, sultry dog days of summer, the allure of cool and refreshing drinks becomes not just more tantalising, but necessary.

And perhaps you’re currently feeling a little jaded by just the one style of wine you’ve been drinking over the past few weeks, too hot and bothered to muster up the brain power to try anything else.

A long, hot summer can be an awfully long time to constantly drink just the one rosé after all.

So if you’re stuck in a summer rut, here are three top tips to find something else to shake up your summer evenings and languid days by the pool.

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1. Wines made by the sea

It sounds obvious or perhaps rather silly, but wines made from coastal regions really do seem to have the juice when it comes to the best styles of wines for summer sipping.

Is it the varieties’ intrinsic nature? Does proximity to the sea really give them a salty tang?

Are winemakers in these areas just more clued-in to the style of wines that work best with your feet in the sand and the roar of the surf in your ears?

Maybe a mix of it all?

Either way, there’s no doubt that if you want a great wine for the summer, think of places beside the sea as a good starting place.

There are loads of wines which just scream summer and beach holidays, accompanied by fresh seafood.

There’s Vinho Verde from northern Portugal, Txakoli from Spain’s Basque country, Muscadet from the Loire.

Heading into the Mediterranean we have the refreshing salty lick of Manzanilla Sherry, the herbal freshness of Xarel-lo in Catalonia, brisk Picpoul de Pinet and pale rosé from the southern French coast, stony Vermentino from Sardinia and Tuscany and the kaleidoscope of varieties from the Greek islands.

2. The faraway Mediterranean

And that’s just Europe we’ve been talking about. But don’t forget that much of the winemaking world operates on the same principals and proximity to the ocean in the warmer climes of the Americas, Africa and Antipodes is often essential to help moderate the temperature.

As such, a great many non-European regions are also seaside wines par excellence.

This is particularly true when many of these Mediterranean-esque regions are also producing wines made from grape varieties you’d expect to find in Europe, such as Albariño – which has seen an increase in worldwide plantings in recent years.

Large chunks of California, the Chilean littoral, the Cape in South Africa, Western and South Australia and the islands of New Zealand are great places for crisp and refreshing whites made from Sauvignon Blanc, Albariño, Semillon and so forth.

3. Beyond Provence

Finally, a word on rosé. Provence set the bar years ago with its brilliantly pale and limpid pinks.

These boosted rosé from being one of the has-been afterthoughts of global viticulture to a runaway hype-train of luxury labels and copycats.

But popularity comes at a price and Provence is now at a premium. However, you don’t have to look far to find wines that are essentially identical.

Both the nearby Languedoc and Roussillon produce extremely delicious rosés in much the same style as Provence and with the same grapes but for a fraction of the price.

Indeed, such has been the impact of pale Provence rosé, that around Europe and the world, you can now find your desire for chillable pink fulfilled by pretty much every country and region mentioned above.

Remember that Liz Gabay MW gives us a rundown each year not only of her pick of the latest Provence rosé releases, but her selection of the best rosés from around the world.

Below is a selection perfect summer white and rosé wines that have been tasted recently by the Decanter team or one of our esteemed experts.

With any luck it’ll give you some extra inspiration for something new to put in the fridge before the summer is through.

Decanter Cellar: 25 white and rosé wines for summer

Wines are listed white then rosé in score order

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The hotel is a masterclass in heritage repurposed for the modern aesthete. Set within the storied walls of a centuries-old wine warehouse, this 149-room five-star retreat offers more than just luxurious repose – it’s a deeply layered encounter with the soul of northern Portugal.

The location could not be more poetic. Vila Nova de Gaia, historically the heart of Port wine maturation, has in recent years evolved into Porto’s sophisticated twin – a place where culinary ambition meets riverside charm. At the Tivoli Kopke, guests are placed right at the beating heart of this transformation.

The hotel overlooks the Douro’s slow, shimmering current, and from many of its rooms – each blending architectural heft with crisp modernity – one can gaze across to Porto’s UNESCO-listed historic centre. It’s a panorama that tells a thousand stories, each sip of aged tawny or Douro still (non-fortified) wines from the lounge bar only adding to the narrative.

The Kopke legacy

What sets this hotel apart, though, is the intimacy of its connection with the Kopke legacy. You don’t just read about the region’s vinous history here – you walk through it. The original Kopke Port wine cellars have been meticulously restored, providing a backdrop for immersive tasting journeys led by passionate sommeliers. These aren’t your standard wine experiences; they’re sensory rituals conducted among barrels that have breathed in centuries of Atlantic air.

The interiors, meanwhile, are a dialogue between past and present. There’s a weight to the stone and timber bones of the place, softened by bespoke textiles, sculptural lighting and curated art from the private collection of billionaire owner Juan Carlos Escotet. Every corridor feels considered, every corner a vignette, indulgent yes, but with intention.

Gastronomic vision

Dining at the Tivoli Kopke is as transportive as the wine. Spearheading the gastronomic vision is chef Nacho Manzano, whose menus interpret the modern Iberian palate with flair – think reinvented classics served with views over the river with evocative menu titles such as ‘Fog’, ‘Childhood’ and ‘Home’.

Beyond the cellar and the table lies a wellness offering that feels like a sanctuary. The spa is a study in calm – hammam, sauna, indoor and outdoor pools, and a gym that looks more art gallery than fitness centre. After a day of exploring nearby landmarks like Serra do Pilar or visiting the recently refurbished Kopke tasting house (the latter boasting an eye-wateringly wonderful back catalogue of Colheita Ports and non-fortified wines of the region); the warm embrace of the Tivoli Kopke beckons once again. The bright white neon light signage that adorns the hotel’s roof calls you back to its sumptuous surroundings.

And it’s not just about grandeur or polish. It’s about the considered details: a bespoke pillow menu, for instance, that ensures your sleep matches the quality of your vintage Port nightcap. Or the unfussy, quietly expert service that Tivoli has spent decades perfecting. This is hospitality with a memory.

Porto may be one of Europe’s oldest cities, but its newest hotel gives it a bold, beautiful reason to look forward. Whether you’re a connoisseur of wine, design or simply moments that linger, the Tivoli Kopke invites you to cross the bridge – and stay a while in its historic surroundings.

For more details, see the hotel’s website.

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London fine wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd (BBR) announced last Friday (1 August) the appointment of Rob Symington, of Symington Family Estates (SFE) as its new UK managing director, effective from September.

He will step down from his current position as co-CEO of the family company – which he held since February 2025 alongside production director Charles Symington – while remaining non-executive director at SFE and the family’s majority-owned UK importer, Fells.

Rob Symington’s appointment consolidates the de facto partnership between SFE and BBR following the joint acquisition – with equal shares – of Hambledon Wine Estate in 2023. Symington already served as chair of Hambledon, a position that he will also retain.

Symington will report directly to CEO Emma Fox and will oversee sales, customer strategy and marketing in the UK. The new hire builds on BBR’s expansion to the US, announced in June, with Jamie Ritchie, formerly of Sotheby’s, appointed managing director of international and auctions, with oversight of business in the US and Asia.

Read tasting notes and scores for Symington Family Estate’s latest fine wine releases here

Continuity in change

Rob Symington’s departure, seven months after his appointment as co-CEO, brings the number of family members involved in SFE’ daily operations down to eight. They divide winemaking, operational and commercial responsibilities across four Port houses (Graham’s, Cockburn’s, Dow’s and Warre’s), five Douro wine brands – Quinta do Vesúvio, Quinta do Ataíde, Altano, Prats & Symington (of Chryseia fame), and Vértice (one of Portugal’s leading sparkling wines) – and their UK import business Fells. SFE also produces wine at Quinta da Fonte Souto in the Alto Alentejo, Casa de Rodas in Monção & Melgaço, and holds a 50% stake in Hambledon, in partnership with BBR.

Fourth generation Rupert Symington will add co-CEO responsibilities to his chairman position, while Charles remains as production director and co-CEO. Meanwhile, five other members of the fifth generation – Charlotte, Harry, Anthony, Vicky and Teresa – will step into new leadership roles within their respective areas across marketing, sales and wine tourism, both at SFE and Fells. (The eighth family representative, Hugh Symington, leads the family’s USA importer, Premium Port Wines, in San Francisco.)

‘Few family-owned companies in the world have the level of family involvement that we are so fortunate to have,’ said Rupert Symington, following the announcement of Rob’s departure. ‘I am very proud that nine members of our family work alongside our exceptional colleagues, all of whom play a vital role in delivering our long-term vision.’

Millennial shift

The last decade has been one of significant transformation and intriguing expansion for SFE – to which Rob Symington was himself instrumental. After joining SFE in 2017, he spearheaded the consolidation of the company’s sustainability strategy, leading to SFE’s attainment of the B-Corp stamp in 2019 (the first wine company in Portugal to obtain the certification) and the release, in 2024, of the company’s first comprehensive sustainability report. These are anchored by focused initiatives such as the launch of Altano Rewilding, a Douro blend whose sales finance the nature conservation non-profit Rewilding Portugal.

Non-fortified wine production has gathered pace and recognition, both through the development of the Douro brands and the successful foray into other regions. As part of a move to attract a new generation to Port, SFE also revamped its fortified range with products such as Graham’s Blend Series and Cockburn’s White Heights and Ruby Soho (as part of a relaunch and rebranding of Cockburn’s whole collection) launched with more casual drinking and mixology in mind.

Tourism and hospitality have been other key areas of development. Quinta do Bomfim saw the opening of two restaurants – Casa dos Ecos and Bomfim 1896, opened in 2020 and 2022 respectively – overseen by Michelin-starred chef Pedro Lemos; Quinta da Fonte Souto opened a new visitor centre in 2021. And in June 2025, the private members club Matriarca opened its doors at a three-storey townhouse in the heart of Porto. The space is an extension of the online club launched in 2023 and houses a restaurant, wine bar, cellar shop, cocktail bar and wine academy.

‘It has been a privilege to help lead our family business and work with my family and colleagues during this exciting chapter for Symington Family Estates,’ said Symington in an official statement released by SFE. ‘Since I joined, we’ve expanded into three new wine regions [Alentejo, Vinho Verde and Hampshire], implemented a widespread innovation programme across our port brands, made big strides in wine tourism, and significantly raised sustainability standards.’

His efforts – along with other fifth generation representatives – have been instrumental in bringing SFE to the 21st century with a fresh, dynamic appeal, capable of transcending the company’s storied lineage. It’ll be interesting to see what Rob brings to BBR while his fellow fifth generation Symingtons will hopefully build on the momentum at SFE.

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The Global AVA is designed to help the wineries in each region overcome challenges, share best practices and improve the quality of their wines.

They will hold quarterly Zoom meetings and annual in-person conferences, focusing on topics such as agri-tourism, social media marketing and sustainable winemaking.

David Haubert, the District 1 Supervisor of Alameda County in California, came up with the idea. His district includes the Livermore Valley wine region, and he wanted to connect local winemakers with their global counterparts.

He said: ‘Our vision is to create a network of global wine region partners who share the same ideals and values, and who share the same struggles that we all endure, but coming together to trade ideas, tips and tricks, secrets of how we do our business, sharing with our sister wine regions.

‘This alliance will bring great value and innovation, and I’m excited to be part of this trailblazing group of industry leaders.’

Alameda County is home to 1.7 million people in the San Francisco Bay area. It is one of the largest counties in the US, covering the cities of Oakland, Fremont, Hayward and Berkeley in the East Bay.

The county boasts huge tech companies, a renowned hospital and University of California Berkeley, but Haubert calls Livermore Valley ‘the darling of the industries’ in Alameda County.

He said that the first in-person meeting of the Global AVA will take place in the Bay Area in June this year.

‘We’re going to rotate throughout the homes of our partners,’ he said. ‘My hope is that we even encourage cross-border collaboration, maybe visiting winemakers spending a month or two in each other’s regions, or sending staff to learn how winemaking occurs in other parts of the world. We have a great opportunity to share best practices.’

These are the Global AVA’s founding wine regions:

• Livermore Valley Wine Community, California
• Texas Hill Country Wineries, Texas
• Chilecito, Argentina
• Dalmatia, Croatia
• Chinon, France
• Alentejo, Portugal
• Vale dos Vinhedos, Brazil
• Badacsony, Hungary
• Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico

Brandi Lombardi, executive director for the Livermore Valley Wine Community, added: ‘As one of the oldest wine regions in California, Livermore Valley has a rich history of winemaking tradition side by side with new winemakers and new techniques.

‘This alliance will allow all partner regions to work together and expand opportunities for their winemakers and wineries as well as enhance tourism to their respective parts of the globe.

‘It makes sense to work together. David’s dream was to connect us across borders, to have Zoom calls and in-person meetings, to share best practices, and to share the challenges and triumphs that we are each having in our respective wine regions.

‘We have had an initial Zoom meeting. It was so informative, and we all gleaned so much from it.’

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The world’s longest continuing library of vintage fortified wine has issued its latest chapter, with Australia’s Seppeltsfield launching a 1925 Para Vintage Tawny.

Following a tradition established by pioneer Barossa Valley winemaker Oscar ‘Benno’ Seppelt, who first laid down a barrel of vintage fortified in 1878 with instructions not to issue it for 100 years, the 1925 Para Vintage Tawny is released on 20 February 2025.

The 48th consecutive annual release of Seppeltsfield’s 100-year-old vintage tawny coincides with the anniversary of the Seppelt family taking residence in their western Barossa homestead at Seppeltsfield in 1851, having migrated from Silesia earlier that year.

Seppeltsfield remains the home of the Seppeltsfield Centennial Collection – the world’s only unbroken lineage of single vintage tawny. Each wine has spent a minimum of 100 years in oak barrels, within the Centennial Cellar at Seppeltsfield,

before being released to the market.

Historic wines

The first Para Tawny laid down by Benno Seppelt in 1878 comprised a single 500-litre puncheon. In the late 1970s, Para Tawny stocks were increased to four puncheons for each vintage. Since Warren Randal took over as proprietor of Seppeltsfield in 2009, eight puncheons of tawny from each vintage are reserved.

However, the 1925 vintage comprised only a single puncheon, and about 150 litres of this wine remains, due to around 3% volume being lost each year to evaporation.

Seppeltsfield chief winemaker, Fiona Donald, examines many of these historic wines during annual inventories to check their condition. She often decants them into smaller 300-litre hogshead casks to help preserve their freshness. It was during this process 18 months ago that she was struck by the quality and arresting personality of the 1925 vintage.

The 1925 vintage

‘It’s a wow wine,’ she said. ‘When I first started working with Para Vintage Tawny 16 years ago, I assumed that all wines of such profound age would look the same – and this is completely incorrect. The personality of each wine is framed by each different vintage, which is very accurately captured in this incredible fortified time capsule.’

The 1925 vintage is powerfully defined, with an assertive, confident personality: opening with bold notes of coffee and molasses, drizzled with a film of wild honey. The palate entry is electric – surprisingly sharp and alert for a 100-year-old wine, filling the palate with technicolour complexity that is uplifted and propelled by an undercurrent of acidity. Its richness is measured and tempered by clean, sweet notes – but it’s the deep strata of layers that intrigue.

An expansive mid-palate has dense fruitcake intensity, showing brandied raisin character over a bed of dark nutty notes: walnut, roasted hazelnut and scorched almond. A bite of Seville orange peel adds tension, introducing a hint of tight bitterness at counterpoint to the generosity of the wine’s ample, sweet belly and lively pinch of nutmeg.

The seamless meld of luscious Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvedre components (percentages of each grape variety used in the blend were not recorded at vintage) have darkened with age, showing a rich mahogany tone in the glass, framed by a vibrant amber rim.

Vintage variation

This new release stands in stark difference to recent Para Vintage Tawny releases. The 1922 vintage shows darker, savoury flavour tones with sharp green hazelnut liqueur framed by the bite of dried wild herbs. While the 1923 vintage had ample fruitiness that mirrored the comforting generosity of luscious Christmas pudding.

Such striking contrasts confirm Donald’s belief that vintage variation plays a significant role in each 100-year-old fortified wine.

‘Every vintage tells its own significant story, and it’s our duty to ensure that this is preserved – and that the historic Centennial Collection will remain relevant to fine wine collectors of the future,’ she explained.

The scarcity of Para Vintage Tawny amplifies the value of the treasure contained within each 100ml glass flask, which looks more like an exotic perfume vessel than a wine bottle. Each flask is hand-filled to order, then numbered and authenticated for collectors, bearing the signatures of Seppeltsfield proprietor and MD Randall and friend of the winery Bill Seppelt, the great-great-grandson of winery founders Joseph and Johanna Seppelt.

The wine is packaged in a latched black timber box that’s lined with black velvet and has information printed inside the lid that includes its bottling date. Its specific bottle number is attached to a neck tag on the bottle, while a QR code provides a link to tasting notes.

Seppeltsfield 1925 100-Year-Old Para Vintage Tawny is also available online from seppeltsfield.com.au for AU$1,800, with shipping possible worldwide. In the US it is available via Legend Australian Wine Imports ($1,800).

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Naturally, it’s aimed at wine producers, importers, exporters, retailers and wholesalers. I’m none of those, but I read it anyway, because as a wine drinker, I also have a strong interest in the container that gets this precious liquid cargo safely from the winery into my hands. I care what it looks like, how it’s presented, but I also know that its environmental impact can be significant. So here are my key takeaways from the report, as well as some packaging trends we might see in the near future…

• A shift towards reusable bottles and deposit return systems, with packaging designed with reuse and recycling in mind from the outset. It will take consumer participation and efficient systems to get these off the ground.

• Recycling infrastructure varies, not just globally or nationally but between towns and cities. In order to achieve their full environmental potential, reusable glass, rPET and aluminium require the right infrastructure to be in place. Just because something is recyclable doesn’t mean it’s recycled. Take corks. I’ve been merrily popping my corks into my recycling bin – natural cork is, after all, fully recyclable. In fact, the UK doesn’t offer efficient recycling options for cork. Unless dropped at, or sent to, official cork collection points, it’s landfill or incineration – but they can be chopped up and added to your compost as they’re biodegradable!

• Expect to see more bag-in-boxes, ‘paper’ bottles, rPET bottles, cans and kegs (wines on tap) on the market. I welcome the increase of high quality wines in these formats, although unless the use of bio-based alternatives to plastic increases and more efficient regional plastic recycling develops, these formats may not be that long-lived. Look out for innovative, low-impact design solutions, too, such as biodegradable and wash-off labels, and inks made from vegetables or algae.

• Packaging regulations will become stricter globally, with measures that focus on recyclability, reuse and reducing waste. Negative-impact packaging – heavy glass bottles and single-use plastics – will incur higher taxes; producers will need to move to recyclable and low-impact materials to avoid higher costs, meaning for us, buying wines in low-impact packaging should become the cheaper option. Win. It needs to be made economically unviable for producers to use heavy bottles and regulation is the fastest way to make that happen. But we can make an impact ourselves, too. Our buying decisions make ripples in the vast pond of wine production.

Producers can use the Porto Protocol guide, with the most up-to-date analysis of packaging and materials at every stage in their life, to find ways to change and improve their packaging to minimise their environmental impact. All it needs is for us wine drinkers to keep an open mind and embrace the innovation that follows.

PET and rPET

PET is a type of plastic – polyethylene terephthalate – typically produced from crude oil and commonly used for food and drink containers; rPET is made from recycled PET products. Wine bottles can be made from both materials, making them very lightweight, meaning lower carbon emissions during transportation. Both are technically 100% recyclable, although not infinitely. What’s more, the raw material is still ultimately fossil fuel-derived, and if not disposed of correctly, can lead to microplastic pollution.

Sip to make a difference

Thirsty Birds, Pinot Gris, Sussex, England 2023

Score: 88

£19-£28/75cl Babylon Eco Centre, Borough Wines, Camber Wines, Palate Bottle Shop, Spy Wines, Tenaya Wine, Thirsty Birds

This is a crisp, zesty, tart and zingy Pinot Gris sourced from a single vineyard in Sussex. It’s available in 1.5L pouches (£36 thirsty-birds.com), kegs and reusable, lightweight, capsuleless bottles, keeping transport emissions as low as possible and packaging waste to an absolute minimum. Drink 2025-2027 Alcohol 12%

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When, in mid-July 2022, the highest temperature ever recorded in Portugal (47ºC) was measured in Pinhāo, in the heart of the Douro Valley, few thought the year would yield wines of note. However, the harvest brought in healthy, small berries, showing remarkable flavour definition and a surprising freshness.

After two years in the cellar, some of the Douro’s leading Port houses acknowledged the singularity of their best plots by announcing the release of several Vintage single-quinta and special vineyard selections from the troubled year.

Although not a classic, widely-declared Vintage, the 2022 bottlings show an incredible sense of place, notable aromatic nuance and refined tannic frameworks.

With insights from head winemakers and master blenders, the extended overview of the growing season and its intriguing, perhaps surprising, outcome raises interesting questions about the ongoing shifts within the Port trade, the challenges of climate change and the sometimes competing priorities behind Vintage declarations.

Above all, it delves into the remarkable wines produced in the scorching year. Quinta do Noval’s Nacional confidently stands out; the storied plot produced a beautiful wine, with depth and concentration offset by mineral precision. Its drinkability upon release is outstanding but the wine will surely improve in decades to come.

Other wines of note include the fifth edition of Capela do Vesúvio – hailing from three small plots within the Vesúvio estate and truly evocative of schist soils, wild herbs and summer rains – and the inaugural release of Taylor’s Sentinels.

For those sceptical about the dynamism of the Port industry, the 2022 Vintage is a good rebuttal.

Producers were able to assert the singularity of their best vineyards and celebrate the resilience of both vines and men through wines that despite – or rather, while – swerving the paradigm of a ‘classic’ Vintage display the specific allure of their parent micro-terroirs.

Read the full overview, scores and tasting notes for Vintage Port 2022 – now on Decanter Premium

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It’s now a worn cliché to say that good winemakers are those able to produce a good wine from a bad vintage.

Perhaps it could be added that a superior vineyard is able to withstand severe climatic conditions and still deliver outstanding fruit.

Both statements seem validated by the Vintage Ports from the troubled 2022 growing season; few but characterful, with some outstanding examples showing off some of the Douro Valley’s best sites.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for the key Vintage Port 2022 releases

Delicious imperfection

Although overall lacking the concentration and robust structure of a so-called classic vintage, there is an aromatic nuance and vibrancy to the 2022 releases that make them particularly expressive.

‘Imperfect [Vintage] Ports make perfect Tawnys,’ said David Guimaraens, technical director and head winemaker at The Fladgate Partnership (Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft) at the London tasting that marked the release of the 2022 Vargellas, Sentinels and Guimaraens.

Imperfect growing seasons, on the other hand, can yield seductively quirky Vintage expressions that speak vividly of their place. It’s therefore good to see that albeit not a ‘classic’ vintage, producers allowed some 2022 offspring to become Vintage rather than future Tawny elements.

If blending a Tawny is the art of correcting complementary imperfections, the decision to release a Vintage is the acknowledgement of a potential that deserves not to be interfered with.

This potential is usually measured as a function of cellaring longevity; perhaps early-drinking pleasure should also be part of the equation. The hallmark of the best wines tasted below is their energy and approachability, with stand outs showing equal amounts of depth and structure, filigree aromas and concentration, muscle and elegance.

Future considerations

Declarations always involve complex decisions not only about the potential quality and longevity of the wines but also on market conditions and stock management – the role of the Port blender is as much about ‘management of futures’ as it is about technical expertise and alchemic intuition.

So I wonder if the limited declaration was not a product of caution and long-term planning, as much as of the admittedly challenging cards dealt by the 2022 growing season.

Especially in the face of increasing demand for old Tawny (for context, according to Guimaraens Taylor’s sold 20,000 litres of 20 Year Old Tawny in 1990; last October 2024 figures were already at 160,000 litres) and the wholesome Vintage offering following back-to-back declarations from 2015-2018.

Challenging conditions

The hot, dry year had growers and winemakers on the edge of their seats until harvest.

‘The 2022 growth cycle was one of the most challenging in the Douro,’ reads the report of Symington Family Estates (SFE), ‘with the three months before the harvest being among the hottest and driest ever recorded.’

Christian Seely, managing director of Quinta do Noval, also reported on the testing conditions: ‘2022 was a year of extremes, both very hot and very dry. Rainfall was only 364 mm during the growing season, 27 mm below the 1970-2000 average.

‘We experienced recurrent heatwaves, in early July and in early August, with prolonged periods of temperatures over 40°C, with a peak of 45,5°C in mid-July.’

Fighting fit

On the other hand, record temperatures and drought meant that disease pressure was virtually absent. Although smaller and fewer, the berries were healthy and, added Seely, ‘remarkably, the vines remained surprisingly green and free from water stress’.

Likewise, the team at SFE, ‘were astonished by how well the vines performed under such unprecedented conditions. While the grape bunches and berries were smaller than usual, they delivered concentrated wines with lifted aromas and remarkable purity of fruit.’

The challenging season allowed the best sites to show their greater resilience and consistent ability to deliver quality and complexity. Virtually all the releases are therefore either single quintas or exclusive vineyard selections – not least of Noval’s Nacional plot and Vesúvio’s Capela.

The freshness and aromatic profile delivered by these vineyards in such a hot vintage is indeed remarkable. Whether the plants will struggle in the subsequent vintages remains to be seen – the 2024 harvest seems to indicate they are successfully coping, with Guimaraens anticipating a possible wide declaration in 2026.

Sculpted by terroir

Sense of place and purity were the common denominators across Vintage 2022 declarations.

‘At harvest, the red wines had a very clean aroma and very bright, rich colours,’ explained Carlos Alves, head winemaker and master blender at Sogevinus (Kopke, Burmester, Barros and Cálem).

‘After gaining further vividness in the cellar, the group declared ‘a vintage for all four of these single Quintas [Sāo Luis, Arnozelo, Cálem and Barros], each exhibiting individual differences and representing a sense of place.’

This is indeed a Vintage collection where the uniqueness and resilience of specific terroirs really came into focus.

Taylor’s Vargellas displays its trademark florality with vividness and allure; Burmester’s Arnozelo has a perfectly outlined herbaceous savouriness; Dow’s Senhora da Ribeira displays a distinct powdery minerality with its tannins covered in graphite; Sandeman’s Seixo is easily spotted for the elegant smoky veil cloaking the dark fruit.

Vintage Port 2022 at a glance

Growing season: Extremely dry with a succession of heatwaves in July and August. Throughout June, July, and August, 58% of the days saw temperatures exceed 35ºC, with 23 days recording temperatures above 39ºC. A record temperature of 47ºC was measured in Pinhāo on 15 July.

Overall character of the wines: Great aromatic nuance and sense of plaice, with the wines reflecting the characters that make their parent vineyards distinct. Refined tannic frameworks, purity of fruit and floral/herbal details. Recurring sense of freshness, both as a product of the fruit definition and lively acid.

Stand-out releases: Quinta do Noval Nacional; Capela da Quinta do Vesúvio; Taylor’s Sentinels.

Drinking window: The Vintage 2022 Ports will benefit from some years in bottle and will surely be at their best 10 to 20 years from now. The best expressions, however, show an incredible vividness and aromatic nuance that deserve to be appreciated immediately.

Pick of the bunch

Among the Vintage 2022 releases, Quinta do Noval’s Nacional confidently stands out. The unique, dramatic plot produced a remarkable wine, with depth and concentration offset by mineral precision.

It shows an alluring freshness and drinkability while also having the power and concentration to improve in decades to come – a great accomplishment that reflects the singular, and somewhat mystifying, character of the ungrafted vineyard.

But there is no shortage of intriguing, limited-production labels for Port collectors to seek out.

A collector’s bounty

SFE released the fifth edition of Capela do Vesúvio (following 2007, 2011, 2016 and 2017), hailing from three small plots within the Vesúvio estate: Capela, Escola and Vale da Teja. A truly beautiful wine that couldn’t be more evocative of schist soils, wild herbs and summer rains.

From The Fladgate Partnership, the inaugural bottling of Taylor’s Sentinels did not disappoint. It’s produced with fruit from selected vineyards in the Pinhāo Valley, planted across four estates (Terra Feita, Junco, Casa Nova, and Eira Velha).

Located within the original 1756 demarcation, its name references the granite pillars (‘marcos de feitoria‘) once used to delineate the perimeter of ‘highest-quality Port’ areas.

The shipper plans to release Sentinels in non-classical Vintages, allowing those best-performing sites to stand out, very much like a single quinta.

Meanwhile, as SFE is yet to release half of its 2022 single quintas; the vintage will surely unveil other pleasant surprises. With Capela da Quinta do Vesúvio, Quinta do Vesúvio, Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira (all tasted and scored below) and Graham’s Quinta do Tua Vinhas Velhas (exclusive for the brand’s Matriarca club members and at the Graham’s Lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia) already on the market, SFE have held back four other bottlings.

Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos, Dow’s Quinta do Bomfim, Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha and Cockburn’s Quinta dos Canais will remain in their respective cellars for future release.

For those sceptical about the dynamism of the Port industry, the 2022 Vintage is a good rebuttal.

As the Douro region goes through important challenges – both climatic and socioeconomic – and significant shifts in the structure of the wine trade, it’s encouraging to see producers asserting the singularity of vineyards and celebrating the resilience of both vines and men.

Vintage Port 2022 – key releases scored and tasted:

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Mourinho famously described himself as ‘The Special One’ after he was appointed Chelsea manager in 2004.

The Portuguese coach had just led Porto to the Champions League title, and he vowed to bring success to his new club.

Mourinho lived up to his self-styled nickname, as the Blues won back-to-back Premier League titles. The moniker stuck, so it seemed an obvious choice when he decided to launch a wine brand.

‘The Special One’ is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca and Sousão and is selling for €144 per bottle.

Mourinho said: ‘As someone who values precision, quality and excellence in every endeavour, I am proud to present my very own wine, “The Special One”.

‘Handpicked from one of my favourite regions in Portugal, this wine reflects the spirit of my homeland and my relentless desire to enjoy every moment in life.’

Rival manager Sir Alex Ferguson was scathing of Mourinho’s taste in wine after they had a post-match drink in 2004. ‘He was certainly full of it, calling me boss and big man,’ said Ferguson. ‘But it would help if his greetings were accompanied by a decent glass of wine. What he gave me was paint-stripper.’

Mourinho admitted he is not ‘one of the bottle’, but he brought a high-end Barca-Velha to their next meeting.

Chelsea eventually sacked Mourinho following a poor run of results, but he went on to enjoy great success at Inter Milan and Real Madrid.

He then won another Premier League title during a second stint at Chelsea, but his reputation has since been dented after disappointing spells at Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Roma.

Mourinho is now at Fenerbahçe in Turkey, but he still refers to himself as ‘The Special One’, and he believes his wine is special too. ‘Whether you’re celebrating a victory or spending time with people you care about, this wine is meant to be shared with someone truly special,’ he said.

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Decanter’s expert writers and contributors awarded 95-points or more to almost 3,000 wines in the 12 months to October 2024.

While they have all appeared in the pages of Decanter magazine and online on Decanter Premium and in our decanter.com database, there were too many to reproduce here for a seasonal wrap-up.

So, in a somewhat unfair and very challenging task, we asked each of our Regional Editors to select just five wines from each of their key areas of expertise to highlight the bounty and diversity on offer across the world wine map.

Scroll down for notes and scores of the Spanish and Portuguese Wines of the Year 2024

Rioja

I’m sometimes asked whether Rioja still deserves all the attention it gets. My reply is that it does – and perhaps more than ever.

Producers in Rioja are leveraging tensions and challenges to their creative advantage, rethinking tradition and reconsidering what makes Rioja what it is – all of which have allowed it to become a stage for evolution, experimentation and adaptation.

Ultimately, this means that Rioja is producing wines with more character, more terroir expressiveness and – importantly – a greater sense of fun.

The increasing diversity and quality of white and rosé wines is perhaps the most obvious outcome of this interesting (maybe pivotal) moment in Rioja’s history.

That only two of the five wines selected here are reds might come as a surprise for many – although not to those who have followed the region (and Decanter) throughout 2024.

Abel Mendoza’s Viura and Remírez de Ganuza’s Olagar show why white Rioja is carving out its place alongside white Burgundy, while López de Haro’s Rosado shows that it’s possible for a wine to be elegant while also being utterly delicious.

But there’s also a lot happening on the red front in Rioja, with ever more character in site-specific wines (Artuke’s La Condenada) and daring explorations of fruit purity, as found in Ramón Bilbao’s concrete-fermented and long-aged (100 months) Garnacha.

Portugal and Spain beyond Rioja

With one of the world’s highest concentrations of indigenous grape varieties and some of the longest uninterrupted winemaking traditions, Spain and Portugal share a viticultural and oenological wealth that has come to the forefront in recent decades, stirred by vibrant communities of winemakers.

It’s therefore both difficult and unfair to single out only five wines from the Iberian peninsula beyond Rioja…

But there’s something all the wines here have in common: a relaxed classicism that marries winemaking skill with a focus on the underlying quality of the grapes. That’s what will always make the delightful florality of Quinta de Vargellas so recognisable upon the first sniff.

There’s also another common thread: a quiet yet assertive militantism. These are wines and producers that stand their ground, daring to set new benchmarks for sometimes overlooked, misunderstood regions, grapes and styles.

This explains why Anselmo Mendes’ red Vinho Verde is as relevant as it is elegant; why Filipa Pato and William Wouters are rewriting the textbook entries for Baga and Bical; why Magna Vides will force you to reconsider Ribera del Duero; and why Recaredo continues to fly the flag for the superb quality and sense of place of Spain’s traditional-method sparkling.

Here’s to another year of Spanish and Portuguese wines that defy expectations and reshape the geography of Europe’s best wines.

Quick links:

See further analysis and top-scoring wines of the following areas:

Bordeaux & Burgundy | Champagne, Rhône and regional France | Italy | The US | South America | Australia, New Zealand & South Africa | Rest of the World

Wines of the Year 2024: Spain & Portugal

Wines are listed sparkling, white, red then fortified, in score order

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Starting one’s journey in the world of Port can be as daunting as it quickly becomes captivating. The variety of styles across producers and categories, as well as the identity of each vintage and estate – reflecting the nuances of the Douro river meanders and valley slopes – places it among the world’s most fascinating wine appellations.

But it can be difficult to decide where to start one’s discovery – or how to properly explore the diversity of producers without breaking the bank.

It’s often recommended that Port neophytes and explorers seek out the 20 Year Old Tawny category…

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 18 delectable 20 Year Old Tawny Ports

Blended from different lots aged in cask for an average of two decades, 20 Year Olds capture the quality of the underlying fruit and the ageing conditions in a particular cellar, as well as the decisions of winemakers and blenders.

‘If Vintage Port is the ultimate expression of a particular year, the 20 Year Old Tawny is the skill of the blender in marrying components from different years to produce a perfectly balanced aged tawny,’ explains David Guimaraens, technical director of the Fladgate Partnership, overseeing the production for the Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft labels.

Sweet spot

While 10 Year Old Tawny retain more primary fruit, and do not so vividly yet reflect style and development, it’s after two decades that the identity of the cellar comes into perfect focus.

‘During this period, the wine acquires the profile of the house, under unique conditions, in the cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia [across the river estuary from Porto] and/or Douro,’ says Carlos Alves, winemaker and master blender at Sogevinus (Kopke, Burmester, Barros and Cálem).

‘A 20 Year Old Port already reflects in its essence all the complexity of a tawny wine that has aged in wood – it has already entered the “adulthood” of an aged Port.’

Guimaraens adds: ‘The 20 Year Old is old enough to capture the expression of the location in which the Ports age, and the choices blenders make as to how they age and how they blend the component Ports.’ On the other hand, ‘it is also young enough to still express the origin of the Ports set aside for a particular house style’.

Planning ahead

Tawny Ports are also a testament to the blender’s ability to preserve stock for future blends, ensuring not just contemporary but also future quality and consistency. Achieving the balance, continuity and sustainability of a desired style relies on a complex set of complementary skills – logistical as much as oenological.

Crafting a 20 Year Old Tawny today requires the ability to create the conditions to carry on producing them in decades to come. ‘It is certainly quite stressful – but that’s the magic of being a Port winemaker,’ concludes Guimaraens.

‘We work with what others left us while being mindful of what we leave behind for others to carry on this beautiful craft.’

A democratic style

The selection below reflects the variety that 20 Year Old Tawny – and Port as a whole – offers, from mellower, honeyed examples to brighter iterations with citrus and spice at the forefront. (Don’t forget to chill them appropriately to enjoy their full complexity and vibrancy.)

These are wines that do not follow the logic or timescale of trends. Alves explains that the main goal is to ‘preserve the quality and [character of the] blend, as these are the elements that hold the house’s identity’, adding that ‘it is this identity that makes Port wines unique’.

There is, however, an interesting consistency of price and many excellent 20 Year Olds, as shown here, are available for less than £50. As the appetite for aged tawny increases – with 40- and 50 Year Old releases quickly snapped up in the collecting and investment markets – the 20 Year Old is an affordable way to enter the category, while exploring a particularly representative expression of a house’s production.

‘20 Year Old Tawny is the most democratic style of Port,’ concludes Guimaraens. ‘It offers an entry point to enjoy the finest Ports at approachable prices.’

The magic of 20 Year Old Tawny: Indulge the senses

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Created a mere two years ago, in 2022, the 50 Year Old Tawny category is the youngest of all legally approved styles of Port. It’s perhaps a surprise for many lovers of the storied fortified wine and it was a decision producers and shippers lobbied intensely for.

The IVDP – Intituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto eventually conceded to their calls for a way to value the unique stocks of old wines and the investment and skills that goes into maintaining them.

The evolution of the Port trade – with key markets, not least the UK, shrinking in volume but steadily increasing in value – further justified this stance.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for Quinta da Noval’s 50 Year Old Tawny

Appetite for premium

The reception of the 50 Year Old expressions released so far has been enthusiastic, both in the primary and secondary markets. The category’s creation – and the perseverance of producers – has certainly been vindicated.

Given the appetite for these premium releases it was therefore unsurprising to witness the excitement and anticipation following Quinta do Noval’s announcement that its first 50 Year Old Tawny was in the works. The first batch, released in October, has nearly sold out.

Carlos Agrellos, technical director at the iconic quinta – best known for its dramatic, ungrafted Nacional plot – says that the creation of the category fit perfectly with the programme to revitalise old stocks that he was tasked with upon joining Noval in 2017.

Still, the decision to create a 50 Year Old Tawny required careful consideration.

Consistent excellence

‘When the category was created we looked at our stocks to understand whether we could create a quality 50 Year Old that we could maintain as part of Noval’s portfolio,’ Agrellos explains, highlighting the complexity of Port winemaking – not merely a matter of oenological and blending skill but also, and crucially, of stock management.

He continues: ‘The goal would never be to release a one-off, one-hit wonder. We needed to be sure that it could become a [permanent] part of our range – and that we could produce a wine that would be consistently and objectively distinct from and superior to our 40 Year Old.’

Having tasted the new creation – alongside Noval’s other aged tawnies – upon bottling of the first-released lot, I am witness to the fact that Agrellos and his team have succeeded. The 50 Year Old is markedly distinct from its younger counterparts, with a definition and depth that makes it stand out with assertive ease.

When asked to explain the decisions behind the blending of the 50 Year Old, Agrellos says that the team ‘wanted the personality of a true “old tawny” to express itself.’

Youthfulness and freshness (hallmarks of Noval’s most prized Vintage Ports and younger tawnies) were not front of mind.

‘We needed to allow the complexity developed in barrel to be clear. By now we know very well which barrels impart this special personality. The beautiful umami and citrus flavours that develop with time.’

This reflects another of the greatest skills of master blenders: knowledge of the ‘cellar’s terroir’ and the ability to create a stylistic lineage by developing an understanding of the barrel stock akin to that of vineyards.

‘As the wine concentrates flavours, acidity, sweetness and alcohol they need to be “corrected” – this exercise, seeking balance, is the essence of blending a tawny.’

‘The creation of this category is extremely important for Port in general – it truly communicates the uniqueness and skill behind each bottle,’ Agrellos concludes.

Quinta do Noval 50 Year Old Tawny

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There is a Port for all seasons if you know where to look. Often thought of as an after-dinner, fireside drink, Port can be enjoyed in multiple ways depending on the character of the wine.

There is a pyramid of different Port styles, from vibrant youthful ruby to venerable aged-tawny and vintage. Port is often thought of as a heavy winter drink, but aged tawnies, colheitas and mature vintage Ports can be supremely elegant and refined.

White Port and tonic (also known as Portonic) and tawnies (served slightly chilled) are just as well-suited for warm summer days as a ruby or a full-bodied LBV is for the winter months. Such wines have never been more in demand.

This style guide climbs the Port pyramid, surveying the latest trends and points you to the right Port for any occasion, winter or summer.

Ruby

Named after its youthful colour, a ruby Port will be a blend of wines from more than one year. It is aged in bulk for up to three years and bottled young to capture its strong, fiery personality.

Reserve

A blend of premium-quality wines often aged for slightly longer than a basic ruby before bottling: giving a rich, satisfying Port. A reserve tawny is a blended wine that has spent about seven years in wood. It can be excellent value compared to wines bottled with an indication of age.

Crusted

So-called because of the deposit (or ‘crust’) that the wine throws in bottle. Crusted Ports are a blend of wines from two or three harvests aged in large oak vats for two to four years (though surprisingly there is nothing in the regulations on this). Like a vintage Port, they are bottled without any fining or filtration. The only significant date on the label is the year of bottling. Most crusted Ports are ready to drink with five or six years of bottle age and will last for another decade. The British houses make a speciality of this style. Excellent value: crusted is poor man’s vintage Port!

White

Made from white grapes. Most are bottled young but some whites are capable of wood age. Those wines may now be bottled with the same age indications as tawny Ports or as a colheita (see below). White Port and tonic is a revitalsing summer drink, served with a twist of lemon and a sprig of mint. If you use an older wood-aged wine, your Portonic takes on the bitter-sweet character of a Negroni.

Pink

This style of Port was pioneered by Croft and has been adopted, not without controversy, by most shippers. It is made by cooling fermenting grape must, which has had minimal skin contact. Serve pink Port over ice or use as a mixer.

Cheese and Port matching guide

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV)

Late Bottled Vintage means just what it says on the label: wwine from a single year that’s bottled between four and six years after the vintage. It’s produced in much larger volumes than either classic vintage or single-quinta vintage (see below). Two different styles of LBV Port have emerged.

The modern style of LBV was founded by Taylor’s in the mid-1960s and quickly became a commercial success. These wines are aged in large vats and are subject to fining and filtration prior to bottling. This prevents the formation of a crust or sediment in bottle, which removes the need to decant.

During the 1990s there was a counter-trend towards so-called ‘traditional’ or unfiltered LBV. These wines are aged in the same way but bottled without any filtration. Unfiltered wines are more structured and full-bodied than LBVs that have been filtered. They have the capacity to age for five to 10 years in bottle. They are bottled with a driven cork – as opposed to the stopper cork for LBVs that are bottled for immediate drinking.

An LBV may also be sold as ‘bottle matured’: aged in bottle for a minimum of three years before their release. Warre’s and Smith Woodhouse have made a specialty of this style. The wines share something of the depth and character and maturity of a true vintage Port at a fraction of the price.

Vintage Port

Seen by many as the pinnacle of the Port pyramid. Many shippers have built (and occasionally destroyed) their international reputation on the back of vintage Port. The skill in making a great vintage Port comes from the strict selection of small lotes (parcels) of wine from the very finest locations made from grapes picked at optimum ripeness after an outstanding growing season. These grapes need to be very well worked during vinification, either foot-trodden in traditional stone lagares or increasingly subject to careful piston extraction or robotic treading. Graham’s 2000 was the first classic vintage Port to be partially made by robotic feet.

After the harvest these wines are monitored for a potential vintage. The decision to ‘declare’ a vintage is made independently by the shipper and it is not one that is taken lightly. There is no law about the regularity of Port vintages but there are usually three or four a decade. However, over the past decade there has been a string of fully or partially declared years including 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Port vintage guide: 2000-2022

Port vintage guide: 1960-1999

Quantities are limited and a major shipper may declare anything from a few hundred cases to 15,000 cases depending on the year and circumstances. Sometimes the quantity declared is much less.

There is a recent trend towards declaring super-premium wines from a site-specific plot in a particular vineyard (often alongside a classic declaration). Quinta do Noval Nacional, from a tiny plot of ungrafted vines, is the historic prototype for this sub-category of wines. It now includes Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha, Graham’s Stone Terraces and Quinta de la Rosa’s Vale do Inferno. The total quantity declared of each wine is usually no more than 250 cases, and prices are commensurate. These are the ultimate collector’s wines!

Before a Port can be bottled as a vintage it must be submitted to the IVDP (Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto) for approval. This can happen anytime between 1 January and 30 September in the second year after the harvest. Once the wine has been bottled it continues to evolve slowly over a period of at least 15 to 20 years or more, before it is considered ready to drink.

Rather like the seven ages of man, vintage Port enjoys a short, fragrant bloom of youth before it shuts down and goes through 10 to 20 years of surly adolescence. Then it slowly emerges as an adult gaining in gravitas until it reaches its peak, often between 20 and 40 years of age.

For the finest wines the peak becomes a long plateau and old age may not be reached for 80 years or more. Anyone born in one of the great post-war vintages of 1945, 1955, 1963, 1966 and 1970 has a wine to accompany them for life!

Since the early 2000s, a dramatic improvement in the quality of the fortifying spirit (which, it is easy to forget, makes up 20% of the wine) has altered the flavour profile of vintage Port. The spirit being used to fortify vintage and single-quinta vintage Port has a much more vinous character than in the past.

This means that it interferes much less with the fruit in a young wine than the coarse, rather oily spirit used previously. Certainly recent declared vintages such as 2007 and 2011 are notable for the purity and clear expression of fruit, even at this early stage. David Guimaraens, head winemaker for The Fladgate Partnership, maintains that the transition from youth to maturity will be much smoother in future, with less of that awkward adolescent stage. This should make vintage Port easier to broach at an earlier stage but the best wines should still age for a lifetime.

Vintage port 2000 and 2003: Panel tasting results

Single-Quinta Vintage Port

With huge improvements in winemaking from the 1980s onwards, the production of a good vintage Port is much less of a hit-and-miss affair. Unless the year is a total washout (eg 1993 and 2002), wines of potential vintage quality can be made every year. Consequently wines from good years (in between declared vintages) are bottled by the major shippers as single-quinta vintage Port (SQVP). The same rules apply as to vintage Ports, the only difference being that the wines come from a single quinta or estate with the recommendation that they may be drunk earlier, after 10 rather than 20 years.

Without the collector’s cachet of a vintage Port, these wines are excellent value and by building up a vertical collection you can follow a specific Douro terroir. A handful of independent quintas are now producing their own SQVP nearly every year, along the lines of a Bordeaux château. Although this is a relatively new category, look out for properties that already have a good track record: Quinta do Vesúvio, Quinta de la Rosa, Quinta de Roriz, Quinta do Crasto, Quinta do Passadouro and Quinta do Vale Meão.

Aged Tawny

Sharing the pinnacle with vintage Port, it has been said that whereas vintage is the ‘king’ of Ports, tawny is the ‘queen’. The ageing process is of vital importance. While a vintage Port will mature for a short time in large wooden vats and then in bottle; tawnies will age for much longer in small casks before bottling. These casks, known as lodge pipes, have 600- to 640-litre capacity.

The wines undergo a steady process of controlled oxidation and esterification as the colour fades from deep, opaque ruby to orange-amber-tawny. The tasting and blending of an aged tawny is a continual process. Wines set aside initially are often marked with the year of the harvest (‘colheita’). But as the shipper makes up new blends followed by blends of blends, the characteristics of individual wines gradually meld into the house style.

Tawnies may be bottled with an indication of age: 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years old. Even older wines may be designated ‘Very Very Old Tawny’. The age designations are obviously approximations and all wines have to be submitted for tasting by the IVDP for approval.

I adore the intricacy and delicacy of a well-aged tawny. A 20 Year Old is my preference, for its complexity offset by freshness. But there are some increasingly good 30, 40 and 50 year old wines as well, that don’t seem to have sacrificed their balance with age.

Port shippers often opt to drink a gently chilled tawny after lunch in the heat of the Douro. Think of aged tawny as a summer alternative to a fireside glass of vintage or LBV.

Colheita

Meaning ‘harvest’ in Portuguese, colheita is a wine from a single year, aged in wood for a minimum of seven years before bottling. By this time the wine begins to take on the characteristics of a tawny. Most colheitas are aged for much longer and, with careful nurture, may be bottled after 50 or 100 years.

Two dates appear on the label: the year of harvest and the year of bottling. The latter is significant as the wine won’t generally improve in bottle – although after prolonged ageing in wood it won’t deteriorate quickly either.

Once the preserve of a select group of so called ‘Portuguese shippers’ (Barros, Burmester Cálem, Kopke, Krohn) colheitas have been taken up enthusiastically by the British shippers, sometimes bottled under the name ‘single harvest’. Serve colheitas cellar-cool, like a tawny.

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The undulating 20-mile stretch between Lisbon and Cascais – known as Estoril Coast (after the coastal town of the same name) and dubbed ‘the Portuguese Riviera’ – is fêted for having 18 sandy beaches and one of Europe’s highest concentration of world-class surf.

However, during the 18th and 19th centuries, Cascais, Carvavelos and Oeiras, three of the coastline’s then rural villages, were mostly celebrated for the latter’s eponymous fortified wine.

When production peaked in the late 18th century, Carcavelos was shipped to England – with pride of place at Christie’s auctions – Brazil and the USA and, more controversially, sold to Douro producers for blending with Port.

Sarah Ahmed’s notes and scores for an exclusive selection of Carcavelos wines below

‘A wine to die for’

With a mere 22 hectares authorised for DOC Carcavelos production today, six estates bear stubborn witness to this tradition which, said the 19th century agronomist Antonio Augusto de Aguiar, produced ‘a wine to die for… that kings and vassals worship’.

The best known of all, Quinta do Marqués, belonged to Oeiras’ most famous and industrious exponent, the Marquês de Pombal (1699-1782), who dominated Portuguese politics during the reign of King José I (1750-1777). The estate is now owned by the local municipality.

In the 1980s, Pombal’s estate became the seat of the Portuguese Agronomical Institute’s research about Carcavelos wine. It planted a new 5.5ha vineyard in 1983 and subsequently partnered up with the municipality of Oeiras, which created the Villa Oeiras (formerly Conde de Oeiras) brand in 2009 to re-commence the production of Carcavelos on a commercial scale.

By far and away the biggest, most sophisticated producer, this remarkable public project sparked a revival.

Established in 1994, DOC Carcavelos is book-ended by the municipality of Sintra in the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south; it encompasses Cascais and Oeiras (the village of Carcavelos itself is now part of the municipality of Cascais), excluding urban areas.

In 2021, the region was extended to northern Oeiras to include Quinta da Corrieira, paving the way for the 2024 launch of Quinta da Corrieira Colheita 2012, the first Carcavelos wine in more than 20 years to have been produced by a private estate, such is its rarity.

According to Rodolfo Tristão, the distinguished sommelier who presided over the launch and tasting of older wines from other producers, most of which were sourced from collectors, ‘20 years ago, not even Portuguese people had tasted Carcavelos, even if some could see vineyards from their houses.’

A wine that nearly died

The reversal of fortune that plunged Carcavelos into obscurity began with an outbreak of powdery mildew in 1852. Remarking ‘oidium drank it all,’ de Aguiar’s stark comparison of pre- and post-outbreak production (3,000 barrels versus 12 in 1867) reveals the impact of this hammer blow.

By the 1880s, phylloxera was rife and the return of oidium and mildew in 1881 brought Carcavelos to its knees.

As lesser regions took up the slack, selling poor imitation Carcavelos, surviving producers struggled to protect the Carcavelos’ brand, despite demarcating the region in 1908 and introducing industry bodies to regulate and promote it.

By the 1950s, when Pedro Martins de Lima – Portugal’s ‘father of surfing’ – discovered the Estoril coast, the writing was on the wall.

Having become, throughout the two world wars, a stylish refuge for European aristocrats, in the 1950s it turned firmly into a playground for the rich. Villas, hotels and Lisbon’s suburban sprawl progressively ‘drank it all’, with few vineyards left by the end of the 1980s.

Sweet, with a dry sensation

Ironically, drinkability has long been a Carcavelos trait. It combines harmonious acidity with the ‘velvety and smooth taste’ which, wrote agronomist and academic Bernardo Cincinato da Costa in 1900, enjoyed ‘great notoriety in England and Brazil.’

Alexandre Eurico Lisboa, Villa Oeiras’ technical co-ordinator contends, ‘with high but well-balanced alcohol, sugar, acidity and saltiness, Carcavelos should always be elegant – a sweet wine with a dry sensation in the mouth.’

For Tristão, ‘acidity and saltiness are what makes Carcavelos special. The aromas and flavours of dried fruits and salty caramel, along with salinity and smooth sugar work well for desserts, cheeses or even main dishes, such as game or steak.”

Emphasising the singularity of the terroir behind this profile, Lisboa points out the vineyards’ privileged position on a rare stretch of south-facing, sheltered coastline by the Tagus estuary and Estoril Bay.

Well-exposed to the sun and protected by Sintra mountain range, vines are gently cooled by mild offshore north/north-western breezes and hydrated by night-time ocean mists.

In contrast, on Portugal’s predominantly west-facing coastline and over the other side of Sintra mountain range, neighbouring DOC Colares is directly exposed to humid, salty, Atlantic winds.

While, like Port and Madeira, Carcavelos is made by arresting fermentations with wine spirit at the desired level of sweetness (typically medium-sweet), Carcavelos’ grape varieties (see box below) set it apart. White Carcavelos made with white grapes currently predominates, but red examples – which were made in the past – are reappearing.

Older wines shown at the tasting hosted by Tristão included white and red blends, however Lisboa believes that this mix only came about because production was tiny during the 20th century. He calls it ‘the worst century to taste Carcavelos because it was in ruins and producers lost interest.’

A reality, not a ghost

As for the 21st century, Lisboa is thrilled by the arrival of other producers because it means ‘nowadays Carcavelos is a reality, not a ghost from the past.’

Some are winemaker-led projects, which have acquired then blended mature stock (Howards Folly) or sourced grapes to make wines from scratch, like Adega Belém and Vitor Claro & Rita Ferreira, whose grapes come from Quinta da Ribeira de Caparide, a historic farm owned by the Catholic church.

Bringing fresh perspectives to the genre, Adega Belém’s early release batch of 2021 Castelão firmly departs from tradition in style and substance with its caricature label and youthfully vinous, edgy profile.

It underwent post-fermentation skin contact and spent the minimum period in barrel (24 months, versus several years for typical examples).

Claro and Ferreira’s relatively delicate 2021 Trincadeira (which did not undergo post-fermentation skin contact) spent the same period in barrel but is now ageing in glass demi-johns, where it will remain for at least another two years.

In the pipeline

The 2021 vintage will see the first releases from Cascais Ambiente, a new public project by Cascais Municipality which acquired the Santa Maria do Mar Monastery in 2017 and replanted its vineyards in 2019.

Both red and white varieties are undergoing skin contact in pursuit of a ‘more sober wine profile, close to 60/80 grams of sugar’ said its CEO Luís Almeida Capão.

He expects the first wines to launch in 2026 and to plant at least another 4ha of vineyards in the short/medium term.

Taking into account Villa Oeiras’ intention to plant additional vines, new private projects planted from scratch (Quinta Vale Verde and Quinta da Boiça) and efforts to revive existing estates (Quinta da Samarra), Lisboa reckons the actual (not necessarily authorised) area for Carcavelos production will increase to 38ha by 2025.

‘Considering that when we started in the 1980s, there were less than 13ha, it’s a fantastic growth,’ he said. Carcavelos may remain niche but, with active and nascent projects, it’s becoming a magnet for true winelovers rather than the preserve of collectors.

Carcavelos: Key facts

Vineyard area: 22ha

Production (2023): 57,000 litres

Climate: Temperate maritime

Soils: Clay/limestone

White grape varieties (minimum 75%): Galego-Dourado, Ratinho, Arinto, Boal Branco

White varieties (maximum 25%): Rabo-de-Ovelha, Seara-Nova

Red grape varieties: Castelão, Amostrinha a.k.a. Preto Martinho, Trincadeira (reds)

The wines

Style: licoroso (fortified with wine spirit)

Minimum Ageing: 24 months (in wood) + 6 months (in bottle)

Minimum total alcoholic strength by volume: 17.5%

Residual sugar:

Seco (dry): < 65g/l

Meio-doce (medium-dry): 65 -130g/l

Doce (sweet): > 130g/l (maximum of 280g/l)

Carcavelos producers:

Villa Oeiras

With an impeccable pedigree, Villa Oeiras wines are sourced from and vinified at estates that belonged to the Marquês de Pombal and complete their ageing in the splendour of his palatial Baroque cellar, which is open to the public by appointment. Now with 19ha of vineyard, Villa Oeiras is easily Carcavelos’ biggest player.

With Port-veteran Pedro Sá and Alexandre Lisboa at the helm, the sophisticated range is ultra-smooth and beautifully balanced, from the core offer of 7-Year-Old and 15-Year-Old blends to white and red colheitas (single harvest Carcavelos).

Outstanding limited edition wines such as the Mahogany Guitar Barrel Project and Bugio Lighthouse 1924 Pharoes 100 Years reflect an ongoing commitment to the research and trials upon which this innovative public sector partnership between the Portuguese Agronomical Institute and Municipality of Oeiras was founded in 1997.

Quinta da Corrieira

Lured by the surf-culture, Jörg Lewerenz and his wife Katrin gave up careers in finance and bought the property in 2018. Located in northern Oeiras atop a windy (150m) hill, it came with a 0.4ha vineyard and ‘garage’ winery.

Since the 1980s, the vendor, a full-time doctor, had been making Carcavelos and, having promised to keep making it, Lewerenz hired Tiago Correia (formerly of Villa Oeiras) to advise on bottling the elegant maiden 2012 Colheita. The German national has planted another 0.8ha of vines and is building a new winery/tasting room.

Howards Folly

Co-founded in 2002 by British businessman Howard Bilton and Australian winemaker David Baverstock, a long-term resident of Portugal, the pair started out making Alentejo wines. A Vinho Verde followed and, in 2015, Baverstock stumbled across a stash of Carcavelos in the ramshackle barn of Quinta dos Pesos, a former producer.

After three years, Bilton persuaded the owners to sell him barrels from several vintages (the last being 2004). Thus far Howards Folly have released a 1991 and 1995 Colheita, in each case back-blending a splash of wine from the following year.

Stored on ullage, these releases are complex and intensely concentrated in flavour and acidity, with noticeable (but attractive) volatile acidity.

Adega Belém

Having studied winemaking together in Lisbon in 2013, second careerists Catarina Moreira (an evolutionary biologist) and David Picard (an anthropologist) decided to make wine together.

Following stints working at other wineries in Portugal and abroad, they founded a funky urban winery in Lisbon, making their first Lisboa wines there in 2020. In 2021 the couple entered into a vineyard management contract with Quinta da Ribeira de Caparide, near their home, which is planted to red Carcavelos grapes.

Keen to explore different styles of Carcavelos, Adega Belém’s early 500-bottle release aged for the minimum period. The balance from 2021 continues to age in a three-tiered four-barrel solera together with wines from 2022 and 2023.

Quinta da Bela Vista

Progressively swallowed up by real estate, by 1969 – its last vintage – Quinta da Bela Vista’s remaining hectare yielded just 400l of wine. In 1989 its owners asked Sanguinhal, a producer from another Lisboa region to bottle and sell the wine.

Sanguinhal blended the 2,500-litre Portuguese oak tonéis (foudres) at its cellar, bottling 16,200 bottles in 1991. The company annually releases 600 numbered bottles onto the market and retains reasonable stock.

See Sarah Ahmed’s notes and scores for Carcavelos wines

Wines in descending score order

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Fortunato Garcia has come a long way from trawling Pico island’s restaurants for empty bottles to refill with Czar, the passado wine originally made by his father who, like him, made wine on the side while holding on to a full-time teaching job.

Garcia commissioned luxury Portuguese glassmakers Vista Alegre to create bespoke 20.6-carat gold-engraved crystal decanters for Czar’s latest release, a rare 86-bottle back-vintage priced at €7,500.

It launches hot on the heels of Czar Single Harvest Reserve Seco 2014 which, trouncing industry giants David-and-Goliath-style, was proclaimed Wine of the Year 2023 by the leading Portuguese wine magazine Revista de Vinhos.

Notes and scores for five Czar wines below

Last man standing

Although firmly rooted in history, Adega Czar’s rise to prominence owes much to the recent revolution on this 48-km-long volcanic Atlantic island, 1,600km to the west of Lisbon and 1,200km north-west of Madeira.

Until recently, Pico’s 500-year-old heritage and culture of wine growing had virtually disappeared from view, much like its dry-stone-walled vineyards, most lying ruined under a thick carpet of forest and scrub.

However, the 2004 inscription of the ‘Landscape of Pico Island Vineyards Culture’ in UNESCO’S World Heritage sites list sparked a remarkable vineyard renaissance and winemaking revolution on the island.

Newcomers, notably Azores Wine Company, re-deployed Pico’s traditional varieties Verdelho, Arinto dos Açores and Terrantez do Pico for the production of light dry whites, shifting away from the licoroso and passado wines which dominated production for centuries, competing with their Madeira counterparts (see box below).

Surfing a wave of interest in volcanic wines and native grape varieties, today’s thrillingly fresh, salty cutting edge whites have catapulted Pico back into the limelight. With fresh eyes on Pico, Czar saw its fortune reversed, winning newfound respect for Garcia, the last man standing making passado wines.

A rich heritage

Vines were first planted on Pico in the 15th century, when the Azores was claimed by Portuguese navigators en route to the Americas; the archipelago soon became an important staging post for trans-Atlantic trade.

Shipping wines around the world without spoilage required high alcohol and high acidity, hence the tradition for the dry to sweet licoroso and passado styles that developed in the archipelago.

Contemporaneous documents evidence a roaring trade in Pico’s wines in the Americas (even US President Thomas Jefferson was a fan), Europe and Russia during the 18th and 19th centuries. Between 1800 and 1820, Pico exported 24 million litres of wine, including 33,000 litres of passado.

Of the latter 23,250 litres were shipped to St Petersburg, explaining why it was reputedly discovered in the Imperial Cellar after the Russian Revolution.

In 1962, when Fortunato’s father José Duarte Garcia paid 1,000 Escudos (about five Euros today) for a two-hectare old field-blend vineyard in Criação Velha, the ship had long sailed on Pico’s wine industry. Oidium (1852) then phylloxera (1873) had decimated vineyards across the Azores.

Unlike Madeira, Pico’s wine industry did not recover and, save for some in Criação Velha, most vineyards were abandoned. Insofar as vineyards were replanted, American grapes prevailed, yielding the raw material for ‘vinho de consumo’ (rustic table wines) for home consumption.

Pico – Historical wine styles to know

Two important styles of wine evolved in Pico: licoroso and passado.

Licoroso (fortified)

Like Madeira wines, Pico’s licorosos are fortified, oxidative wines, produced from a blend of indigenous white grape varieties – in Pico’s case, Verdelho, Arinto dos Açores and Terrantez do Pico.

Passado (unfortified)

Passado is produced from the same indigenous varieties as licoroso, in the same high-alcohol, oxidative (wood-aged) style – but it is not fortified. The grapes, either late-harvested or sun-dried on the island’s ‘lagidos’ (black, heat-retentive lava-beds) – achieve a natural alcohol of 18%.

The Czar’s choice

Although José had promised the vineyard’s previous owner he would continue the passado tradition, there was little demand for this unfashionable curio and his production was consumed exclusively by family and friends.

But José’s ambition was piqued upon reading about Czar Nicolas II’s stash of Pico wines; he decided to launch to market in 1970, aptly naming his wine Czar.

‘Dad used to say “one day my wines will go back to Russia”,’ says Fortunato who, joining the project in 1989, was determined to raise Czar’s profile. After winning a gold medal at the first Azores wine competition in 1999, the wines consistently sold out within months.

This encouraged Fortunato to fulfil his father’s dream. In 2011, Czar 2006 won a gold medal at the brand’s first international outing at Moscow International Wine Fair and made national headlines and broadcast news; it sold out within a week.

Nowadays, the critics beating a path to this charmingly humble islander’s door have reinforced to Garcia the quality and uniqueness of Czar.

The unicorn of unicorns

Along with the emergence of still dry wines, Pico’s wine renaissance has encouraged Azores Wine Company and Insula to make licoroso styles, and its acclaimed Co-operative to introduce higher tier 10-Year Old and 20-Year Old licorosos.

Czar remains the only producer of passado, which relies on harvesting late (after 15th September) to attain the high sugars that produce 18% or more alcohol, without fortification.

Equally critical are the preternaturally robust ambient yeast strains in Garcia’s vineyards and pocket-sized winery which can convert high grape sugars into high alcohol.

Unlike the previous vineyard owner, he is careful not to reduce this yeast population by sun-drying harvested grapes which Garcia noticed had produced sweeter, less balanced wines than those from grapes picked and pressed the same day.

Playing roulette

Describing Garcia as ‘brave’ to harvest so late, Insula’s Paul Machado observes ‘the passado process is expensive and unpredictable because rain is such a big risk… You need the perfect vineyard.’

Garcia has indeed sought and courted perfection. He has a high proportion of Verdelho because it produces higher sugars than Pico’s predominant variety, Arinto dos Açores, or Terrantez do Pico.

His vineyards are located by the ocean, in sunny Criação Velha – away from the shadow of the 2,531-metres-high volcano that dominates the island – on extremely low-fertility, heat-retentive lagido ‘soil’ that scythes yields and drives up sugars.

This location’s downside is the exposure to salt-burning ocean winds, rot-inducing humidity and, worst case scenario, total wipeout. In 2001, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2018, the grapes were insufficiently ripe to make Czar.

In 2019, Storm Lorenzo destroyed 0.2ha of Czar’s original vineyard. Even in a good year yields are ultra-low, averaging 300-400kg/ha.

The attrition rate is even higher when you take into account the ‘angel’s share’ (wine lost by evaporation) which, says Garcia, has been ‘an insane 45%’ since 2013, when the wines have aged longer (for eight years, up from six) in barrel.

It is, he believes, ‘the perfect moment’ to bottle Czar which has become more concentrated, without detracting from the exceptional harmony which impressed on a vertical tasting in 2017, right back to the maiden 1970 release.

The lissom, highly digestible quality of these high alcohol unfortified wines was beautifully captured by Antonio Cordeyro in a History of Portuguese Islands in the Western Ocean, published in 1717.

The priest contrasted ‘a small amount of Madeira that can take a man off senses’ with Pico’s passado wine ‘that releases you of bad humours, comforts your stomach, lights up and lifts your heart and does not let you lose your senses or your reason.’

Czar – At a glance:

Founded: 1970, by José Duarte Garcia

Current owner and winemaker: Fortunato Garcia (José’s son)

Area under vine: Four parcels in Criação Velha totalling 3.8ha

Varieties: Verdelho, Arinto dos Açores and Terrantez do Pico

Vine age: 14–100-years old

Soils: lajido (volcanic lava bed)

Average annual production (2007-2023): 648.75L

Wines produced:

Czar The last Czar of the 20th century 1999 – 86-bottle edition offered in 20.6-carat gold-engraved Vista Alegre crystal decanters

Czar Single Harvest Reserve is an unfortified (passado) wine, only made in the right vintages. (Eagle-eyed oenophiles will spot that some earlier vintages were labelled licoroso – Garcia explains that bureaucratic difficulties made the accurate categorisation and labelling of the wines impossible…)

Czarina NV a fortified (licoroso) blend, due to be launched December 2025.

High stakes, high price

Conversely, the stratospheric leap in Czar’s price might cause hearts to plummet. Being so small, Fortunato reflects that he and his father ‘didn’t know how to think big’.

If José baulked at his son increasing Czar 2003’s price to 30€, the boot was on the other foot in 2017 when the leading Portuguese wine critic João Paulo Martins urged Garcia to charge at least €500 instead of €120 for Czar 2013, which had just been released.

This sliding doors moment prompted Garcia not only to rethink the pricing, but also to further refine his wines. Decanting his remaining bottles of 2013 stock into barrel to age for an extra two years, Czar’s dearer, more sophisticated second 2013 release also benefits from another first, namely a drop of the outstanding 1999 vintage which José (who died in 2007) had retained and decanted from barrel into five litre glass jugs in 2005.

As Garcia observes, ‘it changed the wine completely’, sowing another seed. Knowing that there would be no Czar from 2016, 2017 or 2018, Garcia decided to produce a historic back-vintage – ‘The Last Czar of the 20th Century’ – from the remaining 65 litres of the 1999.

This 86-bottle edition may be priced at €7,500 but, for Garcia, making Czar is not money-driven. Czar turned a profit for the first time in 2022 and he still teaches.

‘I won’t make enough to retire, but I do want to leave a legacy,’ says Garcia. And he has. As Machado points out, ‘Czar has preserved something you cannot find elsewhere in the Azores’.

Or the world.

See Sarah Ahmed’s notes and scores for Czar wines

Wines in ascending order of vintage and release

Related articles

•  Decanter’s Dream Destination: Pico Accommodation, Azores, Portugal
• Azores travel guide: Where to go
• Portuguese whites: Panel tasting results

Want to find out how your birth-year fared? Or want to know which vintages are drinking well now? Our Port vintage guide has you covered.

We take a look at the vintages from 1960 to 2017, offering ratings for each year and advising whether the vintage is best to drink now or keep for ageing. Outstanding, widely declared vintages are highlighted, and specific weather conditions and their impact on grape quality and yields are detailed for each year. We also highlights some of the best wines for notable years.

Jump to the outstanding, widely declared vintages

2017 2016 20112007 2003  20001998 1997 1996 1995 1994 1992 19911985 1983 1982 1980 1977 19701966 1963 1960

2017

Drink/Keep

The most widely declared vintage to date, with outstanding quality and cellaring potential.

5/5

The fact that this was the first time that two vintages were consecutively widely declared is testament to the superlative quality of the 2017 crop. The growing season was extremely dry as well as, from the end of winter until harvest, very hot with various heat waves through spring and early summer. Intense, short summer storms caused further challenges. However, while yields were significantly reduced by these extreme weather conditions, quality was superb, with harvest bringing in a small but fantastic crop.

The resulting wines have vivid, deep fruit and a paired-down intensity, combining power with elegance and restraint. Sophisticated wines that will age well for decades to come.

2016

Drink/keep

Fantastic vintage, widely declared and with great ageing potential.

5/5

The rather unusual growing season started with a mild and wet winter, followed by an equally wet but oddly cold spring. A scorching, extremely dry summer ensued, with a rainy coda in September. These fluctuations challenged the vines, affecting yields. Quality, on the other hand, was superb: the grapes had concentration, complexity and aromatic nuance. The structure and robustness of the tannins, paired with their elegance and details was particularly noteworthy.

A vintage of concentrated, balanced wines, that will age beautifully.

2015

Drink/keep

An outstanding vintage, which was on the cusp of becoming legendary before being disrupted by intense heat spells.

4/5

A dry spring and early summer promised a healthy crop. However, one of the hottest Junes on record, followed by enduring scorching temperatures, placed vineyards under extreme stress and reduced yields, in some cases significantly. While Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca vines were able to cope and produce very good quality grapes, the other Douro varieties suffered and the grapes were mostly overripe and lacking balance.

While many leading houses declared the vintage, it is largely perceived as a harvest that never quite reached its full potential.

2014

Drink

The bumpy growing season, with significant disease pressure, did not yield consistently good fruit. The vintage went largely undeclared, with most of the crop used for blends and single quintas.

2/5

2013

Drink/Keep

Largely undeclared but with standout single-quinta wines.

3/5

The growing season was uneventful but a very rainy September disrupted harvest and had an impact on both yields and quality.

The vintage went largely undeclared. However, producers that harvested early were able to produce excellent single quintas with very good concentration and structure. A handful of houses released very small allocations of vintage expressions.

2012

Drink/Keep

An excellent vintage, perhaps underestimated due to outstanding quality of the preceding harvest.

5/5

Although extremely dry, the growing season was steady and cool. Yields were low – mostly due to water stress – but produced wines of great finesse, chiselled tannins, aromatic detail and defined fruit. A couple of top producers released vintage wines but most did not declare, releasing single quintas instead – a decision no doubt influenced by the 2011 declaration, rather than by lack of potential in 2012.

2011

Drink/Keep

Outstanding, universally declared vintage, combining elegance and rusticity.

5/5

A rainy winter, waa followed by a warm and dry spring, with patched mildew and hail. The mild and dry summer was disrupted by heat spikes leading to drought, which was mitigated by slime precipitation in late August and early September.

The plants that were able to respond to these many challenges yielded fruit of great quality, ultimately producing wines with elegant structure, nuanced aromas and vibrant acid. A year with a distinct personality and extraordinary balance, more rustic than 2007 and elegant than 2003.

2010

Drink

Intense rains followed by intense heat prevented the development of fruit with enough complexity to yield noteworthy wines.

2/5

2009

Drink/Keep

An excellent vintage, although not unanimously lauded. Declared by some, but not all, top producers.

4/5

Very dry growing season, which kicked off early following a warm early spring. An extremely hot summer catalysed early phenolic ripeness but water stress impacted negatively on yields.

The small crops predictably had outstanding concentration with deep, intense black fruit, silky but assertive tannins and enough acid to balance it all out. Both vintage and single-quinta releases have great cellaring potential.

2008

Drink

A good vintage, somewhat eclipsed by its landmark predecessor. Great vintage and single-quinta iterations.

5/5

A cold spring delayed budburst and flowering and cool temperatures continued throughout the growing season causing some worry among producers that grapes wouldn’t fully ripen. A timely heat spell allowed them to successfully achieve phenolic maturity while cool nights ensured an optimal retainment of acid.

The wines therefore showcase freshness, balance, vivid acid and vibrant, lifted fruit. Drink beautifully and, although some examples will be long-aged, the fine quality of this vintage suggests they will not hold as long as the 2007s.

2007

Drink/Keep

An absolutely superb vintage – the second mostly widely declared harvest to date.

5/5

The growing season started with significant disease pressure as a result of steady rains from November to February. This was somewhat mitigated by dry conditions in August and September. Mild temperatures throughout allowed grapes to ripen slowly and steadily, with the development of aromatic complexity and beautiful phenolic balance.

The wines stand out for their transparency, finesse, silky tannins and rick fruit offset by fragrant aromas. Although with great cellaring potential, many examples are already surprisingly approachable.

2006

Drink soon

Heat and hailstorms affected this inconsistent vintage with few good examples.

2/5

Tinta Barroca suffered particularly, affecting the overall balance of the blends and the character of many wines. The few noteworthy wines had deep black fruit and interesting balsamic nuances.

2005

Drink/Keep

An uneven vintage, plagued by heat and drought. Some producers declared, while others focused on characterful single-quinta wines.

4/5

More resilient vineyards were able to deliver small yields of very concentrated fruit, producing deep, intense, robustly structured wines that will cellar beautifully.

2004

Drink

Not a widely declared vintage but with great single-quinta iterations.

3/5

4/5 – Drink

The threat of rain into harvest season forced producers to make hard decisions on whether to harvest potentially underripe fruit early or lose the crop. The most fortunate decision-makers were able to work with vibrant fruit, subtly aromatic, with lovely acid and a fine tannic framework.

2003

Keep

The second widely declared vintage of the new century, not without its challenges.

5/5

Unusually high temperatures peaked in the end of July and beginning of August (45℃ during the day and 30℃ at night) and continued into harvest season. Some plants shutdown in late August but a spell of rain in early September provided relief and paved the way for an excellent harvest, with little but very concentrated grapes. These produced muscular, complex, tannic wines with great ageing potential.

Some exceptions, lacking acid and with overly ripe fruit, were unfortunate outliers.

2002

Drink soon

An underwhelming and double-faced vintage, with very different outcomes for producers, depending on crucial decisions on harvest date.

2/5

The vintage was evolving positively, with a dry winter, spring and summer, the latter with moderate heat. Early September rains provided relief and promised a good vintage. However, heavy rains followed, erasing hopes of a good crop for many producers.

Those who harvested earlier – most in Douro Superior – produced good to excellent wines.

2001

Drink

Although not widely declared (perhaps due to the previous standout crop), 2001 yielded fruit of good quality and significantly more quantity than 2000.

4/5

The wet winter created some disease pressure but was followed by a warm, dry, uneventful summer, supporting the slow and healthy development of the grapes. A long and late harvest – well into October – was disturbed by some rain towards the end.

The year therefore rewarded those who picked slightly earlier, and were able to produce the deep-coloured, structured wines this vintage is known for.

2000

Drink/Cellar

The turn of the millennium was marked by a so-called ‘legendary’ vintage, widely declared and highly sought after by collectors.

5/5

A dry and cold winter delayed budburst. It was followed by a warm February and March; April and May brought much-needed rains that created, however, the conditions for unwelcome coulure. The summer was warm and dry, allowing for the slow maturation of the grapes. Harvest started in late September, yielding small but excellent quality crops.

Overall, the wines of this vintage are superb, combining early-drinking appeal and incredible ageing potential. They stand out for the vibrancy and definition of the fruit.

The vintage summaries and ratings below were last reviewed by Richard Mayson in 2022. 

1999

Drink

Prospects of an excellent year dashed by rain. Good single-quinta wines from the Douro Superior.

2/5

1998

Drink

Small harvest. Some excellent single-quinta Ports for drinking in the medium term.

3/5

Vintage summary

A cool, wet spring and early summer slashed yields and induced mildew and oidium in many vineyards. After a period of unrelenting heat in high summer, a minute but potentially outstanding vintage appeared to be on the cards. Picking began in the Douro Superior on 14 September and by 24 September the harvest was underway. Unfortunately, the heavens opened at the same time, diluting sugar levels and turning a potentially great vintage into a curate’s egg: merely good in parts.

No major declaration, but some good, concentrated wines were produced by quintas in the Douro Superior, which picked before the rain.

1997

Drink

A widely declared vintage producing well-structured wines. Approachable now and for drinking over the next two decades.

4/5

Vintage summary

An uneven year in that an abnormally warm, dry spring led to an early burst of growth and then gave way to cool, wet weather in June and July. The heat returned in August and by mid-September grapes were showing good sugar levels and the harvest began in earnest. Apart from a localised downpour, picking continued without incident and it was clear that a good, possibly great, vintage was in prospect.

Apart from Croft and Delaforce, who opted for single-quinta Ports, all the major shippers declared in the spring of 1999. The most promising wines (combining elegance and structure) are those from well-situated quintas at lower altitudes in the Cima Corgo and these wines form the basis of the finest declared wines. A few wines are rather lean and one-dimensional but the best have solid, sinewy tannins and will age well for the long term. There is a strong similarity in style with 1983. Prices were up by around 30% on the highly acclaimed 1994s.

Best wines

• Dow’s
• Fonseca
• Graham’s
• Niepoort
• Quinta da Corte (Delaforce)
• Quinta da Roeda (Croft)
• Quinta do Noval
• Quinta do Noval Nacional

1996

Drink

A huge crop produced forward, fruit-driven single-quinta wines drinking over the medium term.

2.5/5

Vintage summary

The prolonged drought that had become quite desperate in parts of southern Portugal broke spectacularly in the winter of 1995/96. The winter deluge gave way to a mild spring and, with so much ground water, vines sprouted in all directions. Development was slow and as a result the harvest began late at the end of September and early October. Yields were vast but sugar levels remained on the low side and many of the wines tasted dilute.

The best Ports came from old, low yielding vines and a handful of quintas declared promising wines for drinking over the medium-term. Quinta do Noval Nacional (the first declaration of Nacional by the new owners) stands out as the only wine for the long term.

Best wines

• Quinta da Agua Alta (Churchill)
• Quinta Nossa Senhora do Carmo (Burmester)
• Quinta do Noval Nacional
• Quinta de la Rosa
• Quinta do Vesuvio

1995

Drink

A hot summer allowed a few producers to declare a vintage. Some good single-quinta wines.

2/5

Vintage summary

After a generally cool spring and early summer, August provided four weeks of unrelenting heat. In the Douro Superior, which is always the hottest and driest of the Douro’s three sub-regions, some growers began picking as early as mid-August. By 7 September the harvest was underway throughout much of the Douro region as grapes began to shrivel on the vine.

The extreme heat made for some rather coarse, burnt wines with roasted coffee notes, but the sheer jammy concentration of flavour justified a fully-fledged declaration for some. Barros, Burmester Krohn, Osborne, Noval Roses and Pocas declared outright, with the remainder opting for second label or single-quinta Ports. Drink over the medium-term.

Best wines

• Fonseca Guimaraens
• Quinta do Crasto
• Quinta do Noval
• Quinta de la Rosa
• Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha (Taylor’s)
• Quinta do Vesuvio

1994

Drink

The start of the modern era for vintage Port, with outstanding wines that are ripe and well structured. May be approached now but the best will continue to improve.

4.5/5

Vintage summary

A wet winter brought an end to three years of drought, and when the sun began to shine in March and April the vines began to sprout in all directions. There was some concern when heavy rain fell in May but fortunately it was not unduly warm, and the unsettled conditions merely served to check the overall size of the crop.

From then on it was plain sailing all the way through to the harvest. The threat of rain in mid-September rekindled memories of 1993 (a quagmire) and a few growers panicked and harvested too early. The majority kept their nerve and by 20 September the grapes were fully ripe and picking was well underway. Winemakers were helped by cool, clear nights which served to slow down fermentations and the lagares took plenty of work.

It was clear as soon as the wines were run from the lagares that a fine vintage was in the bag, and the shippers could hardly conceal their glee at the prospect of a major vintage declaration. By the time the wines were offered in the spring/summer of 1996, the market had recovered fully from the recession of the early 1990s with the US having become particularly receptive to vintage Port. Opening prices rose considerably and in some cases have continued to soar, perversely overtaking mature vintages like 1970. The wines were appealing from the start, with ripe fleshy fruit concealing the underlying tannic grip that will enable these wines to stand the test of time.

Best wines

• Burmester
• Croft
• Dow’s
• Fonseca
• Gould Campbell
• Graham’s
• Quarles Harris
• Quinta do Vesuvio
• Quinta da Eira Velha (Martinez)
• Taylor’s
• Warre’s

Revisiting vintage Port 1994

1992

Drink

A split declaration – a year favoured by Taylor’s and Fonseca over and above 1991. Rich, concentrated wines for drinking now and over the next 20 years

4/5

Vintage summary

The winter was unseasonably dry throughout Portugal and the drought continued until June, when a few days of rain proved to be very beneficial. Fortunately, the flowering was early and therefore not affected. The remainder of the summer was generally dry but not unduly hot, and a few short sharp showers in August helped to swell the grapes. Most growers began picking on 21 September but those who held off another week probably made better wines.

A split declaration (with 1991); Taylor’s/Fonseca famously declared 1992 whereas the Symington-owned houses all opted for 1991. Niepoort declared both. It now seems that 1992 produced the better wines for drinking over the medium- to long-term: big, rich and complete.

Best wines

• Delaforce
• Fonseca
• Malvedos (Graham’s)
• Niepoort
• Quinta do Infantado
• Quinta do Passadouro (Niepoort)
• Quinta do Vesuvio
• Quinta da Agua Alta (Churchill)
• Taylor’s

1991

Drink soon

Soft and relatively early maturing, declared by Dow’s, Graham’s and Warre’s among others.

3.5/5

Vintage summary

Growing conditions were good: a wet winter was followed by a dry, settled spring and early summer when flowering took place under ideal conditions. High summer was hot and very dry, relieved only by some timely rain on 11 and 12 September and again just before the harvest. When picking began, ambient temperatures were still high, presenting real problems for those producers without means of controlling fermentations.

The grapes tended to be small with little juice resulting in deep, dense powerful wines for the medium-to-long-term. It was declared by the Symington-owned houses Dow’s, Graham’s, Warre’s, Smith Woodhouse, Gould Campbell and Quarles Harris in preference to 1992. Taylor’s and Fonseca declared single-quinta wines. 1991 was a watershed vintage in that, for the first time, more vintage Port was shipped to the US than the UK.

Best wines

• Croft
• Ferreira
• Graham’s
• Niepoort
• Rozès
• Taylor’s

1987

Drink soon

A handful of shippers declared good wines for the medium term.

3/5

Vintage summary

After a successful flowering, the prospects were for a large crop, but exceptionally hot, dry weather from mid-June intervened. By early September, the grapes were looking distinctly small and somewhat raisined. The weather broke during the vintage but those who picked early made intense, concentrated wines, marred in some cases only by a slightly roasted character.

A handful of shippers declared (Ferreira, Martinez, Niepoort) but the majority held off and bottled single-quinta wines. More may have taken the plunge but for the fact that the market for vintage Port was looking distinctly shaky by the time of the would-be declaration in the spring/summer of 1989.

Best Producers

• Quinta da Eira Velha (Martinez)
• Quinta da Terra Feita (Taylor’s)
• Quinta do Bomfim (Dow’s)
• Quinta do Panascal (Fonseca)

1985

Drink

Universally declared. A warm summer produced some outstandingly good wines for the long term, but some emerged with serious faults. Buyer beware! The best are lovely now and can be drunk over the next 15 years.

4/5

Vintage summary

A textbook growing season: a wet winter was followed by a cool spring and from June onwards the weather was magnificent. The grapes were gathered under perfect conditions with unbroken summer-like weather from early September until the end of the harvest. The only serious problem for the winemakers was the midday heat (up to 32C) and this may account for the variability in some of the 1985s.

A unanimous declaration, but some of the wines have not lived up to their early promise having subsequently turned volatile in bottle. However, the power and concentration that is the hallmark of the 1985 vintage continues to live on in many of the wines. These will remain impressive to drink over the medium-to-long-term.

Best wines

• Dow’s
• Fonseca
• Graham’s
• Warre’s

1983

Drink

Widely declared, although a few shippers preferred 1982. Firm, tight-knit wines that can be drunk now, and the best will keep for another 10-20 years

4/5

Vintage summary

The year began badly with a long, cold winter extending into spring. Snow fell on the Serra do Marão to the west of the Douro as late as 20 May! The vines were three weeks behind. From June to mid-August the weather was hot but unsettled and, despite a successful flowering, the vines remained backward. Picking consequently began late (end of September) but fortunately the weather remained fine into October and some outstanding wines were made despite the uneven spring and summer.

The majority of shippers chose (rightly in retrospect) to declare 1983 instead of 1982, making this something of a ‘split vintage’. Initially the 1983s were quite difficult to taste, the fruit being wrapped up in powerful, muscular tannins. With age however, the wines gained flesh and appeal but the cast iron backbone remains. The best will last forever.

Best wines

• Dow’s
• Gould Campbell
• Graham’s
• Niepoort
• Quarles Harris
• Smith Woodhouse
• Taylor’s
• Warre’s

1982

Drink soon

Forward and relatively fast-maturing, with soft, sweet character

3/5

Vintage summary

After a dry winter and warm spring, June and July were abnormally cool with high cloud and hazy conditions with some showers. Consequently, the vines were well-able to cope with the extreme heat in August and early September, with beneficial heavy rain over the last weekend in August. The grapes were uniformly healthy with high sugar readings throughout the Douro.

1982/1983 is a classic example of a so-called ‘split vintage’ (see also 1991/1992), where there was a lack of consensus among the Port shippers as to which of the two is the better year. In the end, 1983 won hands down. Although the ripe, healthy fruit is reflected in the soft, sweet raisiny character of the 1982s, they are relatively forward and early maturing. Those who decided not to opt for a fully fledged declaration bottled some successful single-quinta wines.

Best wines

• Churchill
• Niepoort
• Quinta do Noval
• Sandeman

1980

Drink

An underrated vintage that produced approachable, easygoing wines for the medium term. Dow’s, Graham’s and Warre’s are very good.

3/5

Vintage summary

An unusually early spring was followed by an extremely dry growing season and sugar readings were on the low side when picking began a week or so later than normal, at the end of September. Ambient temperatures were high during the harvest and the lagares fermented furiously fast and therefore took little work before being run off.

Perhaps deterred by a steep hike in opening prices, the 1980s were largely overlooked by the trade. The wines however are very attractive; open, fresh and fruit-driven, which has stood them in good stead for drinking over the medium-to-long-term. As a result, 1980 is something of a Cinderella vintage, delicious for drinking now and over the next ten or more years.

Best wines

• Dow’s
• Graham’s
• Niepoort
• Offley
• Smith Woodhouse
• Taylor’s
• Warre’s

1977

Drink

Highly rated at the outset – and widely declared – these wines have developed faster than expected.Drink now – 2030.

4/5

Vintage summary

A wet winter was followed by a somewhat disappointing summer with only one period of real heat. August was cool and often overcast. Sugar levels were still alarmingly low at the beginning of September but this was compensated for by very hot weather later in the month, which continued into early October. Sugar levels were still on the low side when picking began but it was clear from the colour and flavour of the musts that some fine wines were likely to emerge.

The 1977 Port vintage was hailed as a classic when it was declared in 1979 and was well received by the trade. Every shipper except Cockburn, Martinez and Noval chose to declare. Although 1977 produced some outstanding wines, overall the vintage has not quite lived up to early expectations and, 20 years on, the wines were fully mature with one or two beginning to show their age. This is a very good vintage but not up to the standards of 1963 or 1945.

Best wines

• Dow’s
• Fonseca
• Graham’s
• Smith Woodhouse
• Taylor’s
• Warre’s

1970

Drink

Classic, tight-knit wines, some outstanding, that will will last a lifetime. Drink now to 2030+.

5/5

Vintage summary

Cool weather during the flowering reduced yields and, following a dry summer, prospects at the start of picking looked good. The harvest began around 20 September in extreme heat. Due to the dry summer, sugar readings were on the low side but the heat served to raisin a portion of the crop, thereby concentrating the musts. Cooler night-time temperatures as the vintage progressed helped to slow down fermentations and produced wines with exceptional colour and body.

Early tastings tended to play down the overall quality of the 1970s and it is only several decades on that these tight-knit, beautifully balanced wines have come to be judged in their true light. Although not as fine overall as the undeniably impressive 1963s, there are wines from 1970 that deserve to be ranked among the great vintage Ports of the 20th century. This being the last vintage to be bottled both in Portugal and in the UK, there is inevitably a certain amount of variation from bottle to bottle. All subsequent vintages were bottled in Vila Nova de Gaia.

Best wines

• Cálem
• Delaforce
• Dow’s
• Fonseca
• Graham’s
• Kopke
• Niepoort
• Quinta do Noval Nacional
• Taylor’s

1967

Drink soon

Two leading shippers declared 1967, but there was little that was memorable

2/5

Vintage summary

After a cool summer (without any real heat in July or August), the grapes were still green and backward when picking began around 20 September. Both yields and sugar levels were low. Many picked too early (fearing a repeat of the rains which had marred the latter part of the previous three vintages), however warm weather continued into October and, unusually, the best grapes with higher sugar readings were picked last.

Two leading shippers (Cockburn and Martinez) declared 1967 in preference to 1966, whereas a handful – including Noval and Sandeman – declared both. At best 1967 produced gentle, middle-distance wines, but even the finest are starting to fade.

Best wines

• Cockburn
• Quinta do Noval Nacional

1966

Drink

Some outstanding wines, combining power and elegance, the best on par with 1963. No hurry to drink, some wines will last a lifetime.

5/5

Vintage summary

An exceptionally wet winter prepared the vines for a hot, dry summer. In August, temperatures of 45C were recorded twice at Pinhao in the heart of the Cima Corgo but with so much ground water, the grapes did not dry up or raisin-ise. Rain finally arrived during the harvest, but with yields well-down on average the crop came to no harm. The fermentations were helped by cool weather and musts registered higher-than-average readings with excellent colour. It was clear at the end of the harvest that a fine vintage was in prospect.

History has been rather unfair to the 1966s which, until relatively recently, were completely overshadowed by the 1963s. Although quality is not as uniformly high as 1963, 1966 hits many of the same high spots with wines combining concentration, structure and intensity. Although bottlings vary (a consequence of bottling in both Vila Nova de Gaia and in the UK) Dow and Fonseca are stupendous.

Best wines

• Cálem
• Dow’s
• Fonseca
• Graham’s
• Quinta do Noval Nacional
• Taylor’s

1963

Drink

A post-war classic. Superb wines, wonderful to drink now and many with a long life ahead. The best will last a lifetime.

5/5

Vintage summary

A textbook growing season: warm weather throughout the summer with no rain from June onwards. A little rain fell in mid-September, helping to swell the grapes just before the harvest. Yields were high. Fine weather continued through the vintage, which took place in perfect conditions with cool night-time temperatures serving to control fermentations.

The combination of a near-perfect growing season and temperate weather during the harvest (at a time when temperature control was unheard of) made for a benchmark vintage. With very few exceptions, nearly all the shippers produced supremely balanced, well-structured wines for a full-on declaration. No vintage since can claim quite so many classic wines (with the only caveat being the variation between different bottlings). Anyone born in 1963 has a wine for life.

Best wines

• Cockburn
• Croft
• Delaforce
• Dow’s
• Fonseca
• Graham’s
• Quinta do Noval Nacional
• Taylor’s
• Warre’s

1960

Drink soon

Erratic conditions reduced yields and dramatically compromised quality

2/5

Vintage summary

A hot, dry summer was relieved at the last minute by refreshing rain just before picking began on 19 September. The rain brought the intense heat to an end so that the lagares took more work and produced musts with good structure and depth of colour.

This beguiling vintage seemed to peak in the early 1980s but the better wines now appear to be sitting on a long plateau and are still drinking well. The wines are mostly middle-weight and lacking a little in backbone but are soft, sweet and attractive for drinking now.

Best wines

• Cockburn
• Dow’s
• Graham’s
• Quinta do Noval Nacional

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Portugal’s Douro Valley has long been celebrated for its fortified Port wines, but in recent years, a new contender has emerged – its still red wines. At the 2024 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), Douro reds achieved an impressive 12 Gold medals, setting a new record for the region.

This milestone marks a significant leap from the fluctuating one to four Gold medals each year seen over the past decade, underscoring Douro’s rapidly growing reputation for producing exceptional-quality still reds.

The success of these reds is a testament to the power of indigenous grape varieties and the deep connection between winemakers and their land.

Scroll down to discover 15 red wines to try from the Douro

By focusing on local grape varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca, winemakers in the Douro are capturing the true essence of their terroir, producing wines that are both unique and expressive of their origin.

Portugal, once overshadowed by more established wine regions, is now being recognised by experts as a key area to watch for both quality and value. The Douro valley, with its dramatic landscape and rich history, is leading this charge, proving that its still red wines are just as worthy of attention as its iconic Ports.

Below, explore 15 reds worth seeking out from DWWA 2024, with more to discover at awards.decanter.com

Quinta do Crasto, Touriga Nacional 2019

97 Platinum

£59.50 Carruthers & Kent, Shelved Wine, The Great Wine Co, Winesquare

Tightly wound dark cherries, plums and blackberries unravel on the palate, joining fine-spun tannins and graceful, fruit-led acidity, all then coming together on the long, gently spiced finish. Classy and sophisticated. Alcohol 14.5%

Quinta do Pégo, Vinhas Velhas 2016

96 Gold

quintadopego.com

Redolent of warm summer evenings, enhanced by lily and bergamot florals with sumptuous black cherry and plum fruit. Very polished with silky, fine-grained tannins and texture. Superb. Alc 15%

Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo, Reserva Terroir Blend 2022

96 Gold

quintanova.com

Glistening with red fruits, blue floral notes and a touch of spice. Exquisitely fresh and grippy with a pomegranate pith acidity and striking menthol zing to the finish. Alc 14%

Rui Roboredo, Castello d’Alba Limited Edition 2020

96 Gold

ruimadeira.pt

Charming dark plums, berries and violet florals weave around a tight-knit structure of firm tannins and bracing acidity. Very lush and textured with plenty of ageing potential. Alc 14.5%

Vallegre, Touriga Nacional 2016

96 Value Gold

POA £ Lanchester Wines

Lavish ripe plum, black cherry and blueberry fruits burst onto the palate and flow seamlessly through the juicy tannins and granitic mineral structure. Long and graceful. Alc 13.5%

Quinta do Crasto, Roquette & Cazes Touriga Nacional-Tinta Roriz-Touriga Franca 2020

95 Gold

£26-£28 Millésima, The Great Wine Co, Winesquare

A bewitching delicacy of violets intermingles with sultry wild berry fruits, awakening the senses in a perfect harmonious symbiosis. Silky and joyous, a fabulous treat! Alc 14.5%

Quinta do Tedo, Tinto 2019

95 Gold

£21.30 Lant Street Wine

Beaming with cassis, blueberry and minty florals nicely interspersed among attractive, carob-laden tannins, lingering acidity and creamy texture. Lengthy, with a bergamot-infused finish. Alc 14%

Quinta dos Castelares, Tinto 2022

95 Value Gold

castelares.com

Flavours of glossy, gleaming dark plums and mulberries wrapped in luscious textures and soft tannins, with an intriguing minty core and remarkable length. Alc 14%

Symington, Altano Rewilding Edition 2021

95 Value Gold

£10.50-£14.95 Noble Green, Ocado, Tesco, Vinotopia

A true taste of the Douro with a heft of ripe cherries, plump raisins and an injection of violet florals. Wonderful rounded structure and a lingering finish. Alc 13.5%

Terras do Grifo, Grande Reserva Tinto 2017

95 Gold

rozes.pt

A brooding beast, brimming with inky florals, dense black fruit and dark chocolate-coated gingerbread. Powerful yet composed, with velvety tannins and a luxurious mineral finish. Alc 14.5%

Van Zeller Wine Collection, Zom Reserva Tinto 2021

95 Value Gold

zomwines.com

Enchanting plum and blackberry fruits with liquorice, underpinned by a cedar oak core bringing a savoury element. Polished and fine-grained with focused acidity and robust structure. Alc 13.5%

Asda, Extra Special Douro 2022

93 Silver

£7.50 Asda

Fresh nose with floral nuances, aromas of sour cherry, red and black berries and some rhubarb. Light and fresh style. Alc 13%

Casa Ferreirinha, Castas Escondidas 2019

93 Silver

£47.99 Hedonism, Liberty Wines, Shelved Wine, The Fine Wine Co

A core of ripe black fruit, with elegant chocolate and savoury aromas, hints of dried herbs and leather. Nicely managed tannins on the palate and a long, fruity finish. Alc 13.5%

The Society’s Exhibition Douro Superior 2020

93 Silver

£16 The Wine Society

Intense aromas of wild black fruits with smoky nuances and hints of violets and chocolate. Dense and structured tannins. Alc 13.5%

Vicente Faria Vinhos, Quinta Vale Santa Luzia Reserva Tinto 2020

93 Silver

vicentefaria.com

Fresh nose of aromatic herbs, with notes of dates and dense dark berries. Very concentrated style yet elegant, with an earthy finish. Alc 14%

Search all DWWA 2024 award-winning wines

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What is a field blend? How is it different from a blended wine?

Imagine a meadow of wildflowers picked all at once and made into perfume. Field blends are wines made from different grape varieties that are grown together in one vineyard and then co-fermented. Traditional wine blends, on the other hand, use grapes from different plots, fermented separately by variety and blended later.

The idea of mixed-grape vineyards can be traced to Roman agricultural practices, as documented by writer-farmer Columella in the 1st century CE. It didn’t happen overnight and certainly not for romantic reasons, but rather for yield.

Grapevines were likely sparse and scattered back in the day. Farmers harvested existing wild and native grapes together, and if a grape didn’t perform, it would be replaced with something that might work better.

They would propagate, trade, select and cultivate for desirable traits, such as productivity and resistance to pests and diseases. So, it makes sense that field blends are typically found in the Old World and are associated with older vines, because they pre-date modern varietal planting.

Four examples of field blends listed below

So none in the New World?

Not quite. There are centenarian vines producing field blends outside of Europe. Known for its pre-industrial agricultural approach, California’s Ridge Vineyards produces estate-grown field blends starring Zinfandel.

Also, its Pagani Ranch wine is a field blend from vines planted from the late 1800s. In neighbouring Lake County, Dancing Crow Vineyards makes a wine from co-planted vines in the ground since 1901.

These are among the few surviving field blend vineyards aged 100 years or more in California, as recognised by the Historical Vineyard Society.

Beyond California there are handfuls of other producers who are intentionally planting vineyards to produce field blends, such as South Africa’s Alheit Vineyards.

Which areas of the world are known for field blends?

Austria’s history with field blends is now seeing a revival. Gemischter Satz is a wine that showcases co-fermented grapes cultivated in and around Vienna. Producer Fritz Wieninger describes the perfect Gemischter Satz as a wine in which individual varieties are indiscernible.

‘One variety is like an instrument and the Gemischter Satz is the whole orchestra,’ he explains.

In Portugal’s Douro valley, co-planting has been a tradition for centuries, initially for Port production and more recently also for dry wines. Quinta do Crasto’s Maria Teresa comes from a plot of 54 grape varieties from heritage vines, according to Miguel Roquette, who says ‘the recipe is in the field’.

Exceptionally varied microclimates dictate precise harvest times of specific sections within the vineyard to best illuminate the terroir, and maintain the integrity and complexity of the wine.

Any other names to look out for?

Also in Portugal, Antonio Madeira seeks the ethereal side of the Dão and shares his love of rescuing old forgotten vines to make a palhete, in which black and white grapes are ‘mixed joyfully’ to create easy-drinking ‘farmer’s style’ wines.

The long-ageing ‘complantation’ wines of Domaine Marcel Deiss in Alsace are both traditional and visionary, highlighting soil specificity through 13 Alsace varieties. With great respect for tradition, Scarbolo in Friuli, northeast Italy, appreciates field blends for their ‘fascinating’ complexity.

Second-generation Mattia Scarbolo says it’s about the ‘cooperation of cultivars, with each year being a different love story’.

It’s said that wines of quality come from fruit picked at optimal ripeness. As field blend grape varieties have different ripening times, does this still apply?

Good question! Of course, the dream vineyard consists of vines with similar ripening times, but it’s not always the case – even in a monovarietal vineyard. Factoring in such variables as soil and microclimate, optimal ripeness is not achieved across all grape varieties.

Proponents of field blends strive to find that sweet spot, in which underripe berries contribute nerve and acidity, and overripe ones add complexity and body. Yet, while there are many high-quality field blends being made, this is one aspect of them that deserves further exploration.

Do field blend wines help environmental resilience?

Yes. Historically, field blend vineyards came about in part because farmers were hedging their bets against disease and adverse vintage conditions. This is still an important consideration for producers of field blends today.

David Gates of Ridge Vineyards notes that diversity in the vineyard fosters resilience because different varieties contribute different strengths.

So we should seek out field blends?

These wines tell the story of a unique vineyard, through a kaleidoscope of different grapes. This diversity can offer a wine of unexpected thrill and complexity, balance and regional character.

It’s a great one to add to your wine discovery list.

Marisa Finetti selects four field blends worth seeking out

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Stories of appellations and wine regions hamstrung by their commercial success abound. A boom in popularity can sometimes come at the cost of diversity – both stylistic and viticultural – and identity.

Perhaps this could have been said of Vinho Verde in the late 1990s, when its off-dry, fruit-driven, slightly fizzy iterations were ubiquitous. Not so today.

The northwestern corner of Portugal has re-emerged as an exciting region with an appreciation and understanding of tradition and terroir differences, as well as an appetite for experimentation.

A new generation of winemakers has begun to come to the fore, leading the transformation of existing (sometimes their own family’s) estates and starting new, niche projects in collaboration with local growers.

They’ve expanded the regional repertoire by reviving an almost forgotten wealth of historical varieties and styles.

Scroll down to see notes and scores for 18 dazzling Vinho Verde wines

A world of flavour

The selection of wines that follows highlights the diversity and quality on offer today. It’s a cue to explore the region’s sub-regions, varieties and winemaking philosophies – from the classical purists to the low-intervention mavericks.

Think of Vinho Verde as a plural, not singular, designation of origin, with the common denominators of winemaking acumen and a sense of purpose: each wine presents a sub-region, specific vineyard, grape variety or blend with a clear intent.

Much of that clarity is a product of an increasing exploration of terroir diversity and of the varieties that thrive in and/or are historically relevant to each of the nine sub-regions.

The DOC’s rules permit 45 different grape varieties, yet Alvarinho, Arinto and Loureiro represent 57.6% of the region’s grapes.

The role that others – such as Azal, Avesso, Gouveio (Godello) and Trajadura (Treixadura) – can play is now being reconsidered, as winemakers develop a better appreciation of regional nuance.

All in the detail

Also of note is the renewed attention given to old-vine field blends – many trained along the traditional, pergola-like ramadas – mostly thanks to young, well-travelled winemakers attuned to the appeal of the vibrant wines these produce.

Dominated by local red varieties, the trend has also shed new light on the region’s rosé and red wines. Although known today as a region of great whites – which, as shown here, it indisputably is – Vinho Verde actually produced mostly red wine until the late 20th century.

But many of the local varieties – thin-skinned, with low alcohol potential – did not appeal to either producers or consumers. That reality is changing fast, as both winemakers and markets increasingly value freshness, subtlety and elegance.

Among the star performers is Alvarelhão, the ‘Pinot Noir of Vinho Verde’ according to Anselmo Mendes, one of Vinho Verde’s most renowned winemakers. Along with other thin-skinned grapes, such as Padeiro and Espadeiro, it was until recently seen as a fussy, lesser variety.

The deeply coloured Vinhão, a teinturier grape (with dark flesh as well as skins), was favoured to produce the rustic pinta malgas (‘bowl painter’) Vinhos Verdes.

Vinho Verde’s heritage is aligned with the current consumer demand for lighter, lower-alcohol wines and for the need, in the face of climate change, to experiment with alternative grape varieties.

There is a sizeable pool of winemakers in the region, with very different philosophies but the same technical ability and passion, leveraging this huge potential.

These wines will hopefully challenge you to reassess Vinho Verde not just as a source of great-value, early-drinking wines – which it still is, and long may it be so – but also of truly special bottles of remarkable character and ageing potential.

See notes and scores for 18 dazzling Vinho Verde wines of all hues

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Ancient, gnarly, cork oaks stand half-naked in the midday sun. And then come the vineyards, as far as the eye can see. Welcome to the Alentejo region. With its golden plains and rolling hills topped with white-washed villages and majestic medieval cities, the Alentejo grows most of the nation’s rice, wheat, barley and oats, supplies half of the world’s cork, and is the country’s biggest wine producing area. It’s also home to L’AND Vineyards, a wine resort around an hour’s drive from Lisbon.

Luxury around the L’AND lake

Opened in 2011 by the Sousa Cunhal family, which has operated an agriculture and forestry business here since the 19th century, L’AND Vineyards is enjoying a new phase. Set on 66 hectares near the small hilltop town of Montemor-o-Novo, it boasts a five-star hotel, two restaurants, a spa, stylish serviced residences (34 occupied, 13 under construction, 30 more plots available), vineyards and a winery. The resort is scattered around a large wild swimming lake, new for this year, along with several new suites and a new chef.

The lake is attracting a lot of attention. On an unseasonably warm day in mid-March, white fluffy-robbed guests sit clutching wine glasses on the long wooden pier that extends across the water. A guest ventures in, their gasps reaching diners’ ears at the hotel’s more casual waterside restaurant, Café da Viagem, where lunch stretches into dinner as the sun slips behind the ruined castle.

Joining the 10 original Sky View suites – so-named for their unique retractable roofs that allow guests to sleep under the stars, are 11 new Lake Sky View suites, with interiors straight out of the pages of Architectural Digest. With their black slate floors and glowing eucalyptus wood finishes, they were put together by Brazilian interior designer Márcio Kogan. Think Tom Dixon lights and hand-woven striped rugs from the nearby town of Reguengos de Monsaraz.

The original suites (with private plunge pools) have patios modelled on traditional Alentejo homes. The new Lake Sky View suites have fire pits, thoughtfully lit by staff just before you return from dinner, complimentary bottle of personalised wine at the ready.

Six hectares of vineyards surround the suites, growing grapes old and new – Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Alicante Bouschet and Syrah. Come September, they’re destined for the winery right at the heart of the hotel – the tanks clearly visible through a large picture window from the chic lounge area.

Wine and dine

And it’s those four varieties that we meet again in the popular Make Your Own Wine experience. The entertaining session with well-versed head sommelier Gonçalo Mendes includes a blending exercise, which sees your own wine bottled and individually labelled, something the hotel also extends to Wine Club members, residence owners, many of whom specify their own vineyards. But it’s the estate’s own wines (usually nine, depending on the harvest) that can be chosen for dinner in its fine dining Mapa restaurant, now overseen by new executive chef David Jesus. Until recently he headed up the kitchen at Lisbon’s two Michelin-star Belcanto restaurant. And his food doesn’t disappoint, weaving in flavours and techniques from former Portuguese colonies and combining it with the country’s gastronomic heritage. Under a sea of Dixon lights (thankfully not all lit), flavours happily wander from Mozambique-inspired shrimps with spinach, peanut and coconut, to a winning Brazil-influenced dish of red mullet with corn and cockles, while we’re taken on a vinous journey that shows off Portugal’s individuality and array of indigenous varieties that few countries can rival.

To complete your stay, don’t miss the vinotherapy. In a darkened, scented, wood-lined treatment room, bathe in red wine (a Touriga Nacional blend) mixed with various fragrant unguents from Austrian brand Vinoble Cosmetics, to first soften the skin – a bunch of red grapes to nibble on the side. Then a vigorous polish with a grape seed scrub, followed by a grape seed oil massage – your immersion into Alentejo wine is now complete.

For more information visit the L’AND website.

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Port producers only declare a vintage in the best years, when wines hailing from the best plots are deemed of good enough quality and market conditions are considered favourable. As such, Vintage Port accounts for between 1 and 2% of overall Port production and vintage declarations are always eagerly anticipated.

Challenging growing season

The 2022 vintage did not look particularly promising amid a very dry and hot growing season, with rainfall well below average. The region entered severe drought at the end of June. According to Christian Seely, MD at Quinta do Noval, temperatures hit 45.5°C in mid-July and stayed above 40°C for prolonged periods in August.

However, there was moderate rainfall in early September, creating better picking conditions at harvest and offsetting some of the effects of the drought and high temperatures. Overall, the year’s challenging conditions produced small berries, with a good juice to skin ratio contributing directly to the quality of the wines.

Seely described it as ‘a year of extremes’, but suggested that 2022 could follow in the footsteps of some highly-rated vintages.

‘Such extremes are not entirely unprecedented: similar conditions were experienced in the great vintages of 2017 and 1945,’ he said. ‘As in these years, 2022 demonstrated the remarkable resilience of our terroir and of our Douro grape varieties.’

Quinta do Noval has declared three Vintage Ports: Quinta do Noval 2022, Quinta do Noval Nacional 2022 and Quinta do Passadouro 2022.

Seely added: ‘We knew from the start that the Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port 2022 was exceptional, and the wine has continued to develop wonderfully since the harvest, displaying the multi-layered complexity and depth that are typical of a great Nacional. Powerful and pure, it combines opulent richness, intensity and concentration with astonishing freshness.’

Meanwhile, the Sogevinus Group declared four 2022 Vintage Ports from across its multiple estates: Kopke Quinta de São Luiz 2022, Burmester Quinta do Arnozelo 2022, Cálem 2022 and Barros 2022.

Carlos Alves, master blender and winemaker, said: ‘At harvest, the red wines had a very clean aroma and very bright and rich colours. These characteristics improved with two years of ageing, and so we decided to declare a vintage for all four Quintas, which each exhibit individual differences and represent a sense of place.’

Vintage Ports are declared two years after the harvest. The announcements traditionally take place on St. George’s Day (April 23), or at some point during the following few weeks.

The Fladgate Partnership marked St George’s Day by announcing the release of two Vintage Ports from 2022 – limited bottlings of Fonseca Guimaraens and Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas.

Head winemaker David Guimaraens said: ‘The crop at Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas estate was one of the healthiest we have seen for years, and the Ports made on the Fonseca estates were outstanding, allowing us to produce a very fine Guimaraens vintage blend, full bodied and packed with dense berry fruit flavour. A true time capsule of the year.’

Earlier in April, Sogrape announced the declaration of Vintage 2022 for its three Port houses: Porto Ferreira, Sandeman and Offley. Luís de Sottomayor, who oversees Douro and Port wine production at Sogrape, highlighted the good acidity and sense of place that underpins the character of the three Vintage Ports – Sandeman Quinta do Seixo Vintage 2022, Porto Ferreira Quinta do Porto Vintage 2022, and Offley Vintage 2022 – to be released in September.

Previous iterations of Sandeman Quinta do Seixo (Vintage 2017) and Porto Ferreira (Vintage 2018) are among the best scoring wines in Sogrape’s history, creating great anticipation for the potential of the newly declared Vintage.

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It was a moment which barely seemed possible. Port Ellen, the now mythical Islay single malt whisky distillery has risen from the rubble and is once again making its distinctly smoky spirit – more than 40 years after it closed down.

The distillery was founded in 1825, but mothballed in 1930. Reopened for a brief period between 1967 and 1983, it became a powerhouse on the island of Islay, with much of its stock used predominantly for blended whiskies.

Due to a difficult economic climate, the distillery was then shuttered – seemingly for good – in April 1983. Its last casks were laid to rest in nearby warehousing, while the stills and other distilling equipment were dismantled and removed.

Remarkably the handful of remaining, almost forgotten stock of Port Ellen blossomed into truly extraordinary single malt. It became highly coveted by whisky connoisseurs and collectors alike during the early 2000s, prized for its distinctive chamois leather, gentle smoke and citrus fruit aroma and flavour – as well as its increasing rarity.

Prices for Port Ellen on the secondary market rose considerably and the brand’s owner, Diageo, released a yearly batch bottling, from the last casks dating back to either 1978 or 1979. These were quickly snapped up by those in the know.

Back to life

As a result of its reversal in fortunes, in 2017 Diageo announced that Port Ellen would become part of a £185 million investment scheme to breathe life into a handful of closed distilleries. This scheme also included Highland distillery Brora, which was fully renovated and reopened in 2021.

Work was finally completed on the site of Port Ellen in early 2024. The brand new, state-of-the-art distillery complex was formally opened in an emotional ceremony on 19 March.

Descendants of the distillery’s founding father, John Ramsay, were in attendance, along with former distillery worker Iain McArthur. This was a remarkable moment, as McArthur had filled the very last Port Ellen cask back in 1983.

To exactly recreate the original distillery – and the spirit which ran from its stills – was an enormous task. But it was a challenge relished by the entire team involved. ‘We’re very lucky that we have the Diageo archive team, who had documents and blueprints for the original stills,’ explained Master Distiller Alexander McDonald (above). ‘Everything from the shape and fill size has been accurately recreated to the original specifications,’ he added.

Innovations and new experiences

The re-envisioned distillery building is housed completely in glass (see below) and now incorporates a number of innovative additions, alongside the more traditional features. A unique 10-part spirit safe allows the distilling process to be broken down to a granular level for the very first time, so McDonald and his team can accurately recreate the classic Port Ellen spirit style of the past.

‘The thing which makes Port Ellen for me is the unique fruitiness of the spirit,’ he explained. ‘Using these “Phoenix” stills [named in homage to their resurrection] we can accurately recreate the character of the spirit from the golden period between 1967 and 1983.’

In addition to the main Phoenix stills, the distillery is also equipped with a pair of Experimental stills that are exact one-third scale replicas of the originals. They can be used to produce spirit in a number of other styles, giving a huge variety of scope for future innovation.

Alongside the distillery building is a visitor centre experience, its minimalist Scandinavian design inspired by the natural beauty of Islay. This will be open from June and has been designed to make the most of stunning views of Islay’s coastline and across the bay to the Carraig Fhada Lighthouse. The new visitor centre is furnished with artwork by renowned Scottish artist Lucy May Schofield, inspired by the elemental landscape.

A taste of Port Ellen

The new site also includes a bespoke Kiln Room tasting space, where visitors can really get under the skin of the legendary spirit. ‘The kiln room was the only building left from the original site [due to its previous demolition],’ explained Ewan Gunn, senior global brand ambassador for Diageo malts. ‘The tasting experience is designed to be a crucible of ideas, to explore and map out flavour from every stage.’

To coincide with the reopening, the distillery has also unveiled a new release: Port Ellen Gemini. This 44-year-old release features twin decanters of original whisky first distilled in 1978 and filled into two contrasting European oak casks – an Original Cask and Remnant Cask, the latter being additionally seasoned with oloroso Sherry – to demonstrate the original distillery’s distinctive character.

Tasted at the distillery, Port Ellen Gemini Original Cask (Alc 54.9%) boasts baked apple, tropical fruit and maritime coastal aromas, with light aromatic smoke, plus sherbet lemon and lime aromas. The palate is filled with more delicate smoke, manuka honey and cracked black pepper.

Only 274 individual sets of Port Ellen Gemini are available in selected markets, priced at £45,000.

For more information on Port Ellen Gemini or visiting the distillery later this year, visit portellen.com 

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Sarah Ahmed, Nelson Guerreiro and Joanna Locke MW tasted 109 wines with 1 Exceptional, 4 Outstanding and 30 Highly recommended.

Portuguese whites: Panel tasting scores

109 wines tasted

Exceptional 1

Outstanding 4

Highly recommended 30

Recommended 55

Commended 17

Fair 2

Poor 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release dry white wines from any region in Portugal other than Vinho Verde, and produced using native Portuguese white grapes only, including single-varietal wines or blends

Portugal has an exceptional diversity of grape varieties and terroir, making this panel tasting a stylistic smorgasbord. The standard of the country’s white wines has improved exponentially in the last decade. With a good 76% of wines here earning Highly recommended or Recommended ratings, the quality base was broad and the apex high. Expect to drink well from Portugal and expect to drink interesting, food-friendly wines from native grapes, which tend to a dry, rather than fruit-driven, profile.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the Portuguese whites panel tasting

While structure, mouthfeel, intensity and specifics such as Atlantic-influenced saltiness (Bairrada, the Azores) pointed to region of origin, the panel struggled to identify regional typicity. Partly because this is an emergent, fast-growing category and winemaking approaches vary, but also because of numerous varietal and site permutations, especially where blends predominate. It all adds up to an oxymoronic common thread: Portugal’s diversity. The upside is a rich mosaic to unpick.

Today’s brighter wines make for a vivid array. Years ago, wines from warm, dry regions often suffered from low acidity but, said Jo Locke MW, the wines we tasted were ‘certainly not flat, as in the past’. Whether from 2022 (hot and dry) or 2021 (mild and wet), this tasting’s overall freshness and balance impressed. Hand in glove with higher acidity, more than 80% of the entries featured 13% alcohol by volume or less, which ‘is a big change’, remarked Nelson Guerreiro. Producers are picking grapes and selecting sites with freshness in mind.

Together with no or low(er) oak use – another major shift – wines to be lighter on their feet, more nuanced and pleasurable. Increased use of large-format and seasoned barrels for controlled oxygenation – as opposed to overt oak flavours – meant that wood tended to be well integrated, enhancing structure and complexity.

About a third of the wines entered were unoaked, but stainless steel is no longer the default – an uptick in concrete, cement and clay vessels (including Portugal’s traditional talhas), brings the complexity of controlled oxygenation without added oak flavour or tannin.

See all the wines from the Portuguese whites panel tasting

Skin contact – pre, during and post-ferment – also contributed to complexity and phenolic mouthfeel, with the growing ‘orange’ wines niche sneaking into this ‘white’ tasting. If some of the entries were a tad outré, it is exciting to see the creativity. Although, cautioned Locke, ‘the ones who know what’s good to bottle are playing around more successfully than others’.

What should readers buy? The top five entries hail from low-yielding old vines or field blends in the Douro, Dão and Bairrada. Old vines and/or moderating factors such as the ocean (Bairrada, the Azores) and elevation (the Douro, Dão and Alentejo’s Portalegre sub-region) produced particularly intense, structured examples. But old vines – look out for ‘Vinhas Velhas’ on labels – can also elevate wines from regions and varieties traditionally associated with quantity rather than quality – Fernão Pires from Tejo, for example.

Portugal is known as a source of cheap wine and this tasting fielded some good examples, mostly from southern regions, where fruit tends to be rounder and riper. Cheap is not, however, synonymous with value – no disappointment here, either. As Guerreiro noted, one doesn’t ‘pay more than €100 retail for top Portuguese whites so, compared with some top wines in world, they are remarkable value’. At £32-£48, our top five scorers from virtuoso winemakers remain within reach, representing smart buys for connoisseurs.

Portuguese whites panel tasting scores

Wines were tasted blind

The judges

Nelson Guerreiro is a certified sommelier currently working as brand ambassador for prominent Italian producers at renowned Portuguese merchant Garrafeira Nacional, as well as a wine educator at the Turismo de Portugal schools.

Sarah Ahmed is an awarded wine writer, educator and judge with a focus on Portugal. The DWWA Regional Chair for Portugal, she is a Cavaleiro of the Confraria do Vinho do Porto and writes a monthly column for Revista de Vinhos.

Joanna Locke MW is a wine buyer for The Wine Society, responsible for sourcing wines from Alsace, the Loire and Portugal. Previously a buyer for Thresher group from 1991, she joined importer John E Fells in 2000, then moved to The Wine Society in 2004.

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Seppeltsfield, established in the Barossa in 1851 and with an unbroken lineage of cellared single vintage tawny from 1878, has made no secret of its aim to position its 100-year-old wines as being desirable for the new-generation luxury market. The Riedel partnership marks the latest in a series of steps to draw fresh attention to its rare annual wine offering.

The Seppeltsfield winemakers and marketing team conducted a tasting masterclass with Riedel Australia staff during 2023 to test 12 different glasses from the existing Riedel range with the aim of finding the ideal drinking vessel for such old, concentrated wine – and sent a bottle of the 1924 Para Vintage Tawny to company CEO Maximilian Riedel in Europe for consideration. They reached a unanimous decision that the Riedel Vinum Cognac Hennessy Glassware presented the wine in the best possible manner.

‘For such a highly concentrated fortified wine, we found this glassware best delivered the complex mix of aromas and flavours to the taster. A new design wasn’t required because the Vinum Cognac Hennessy glass worked perfectly. We were surprised how much it lifted the best attributes of this wine,’ said Lauren Mudge, Seppeltsfield’s head of sales and marketing.

The pairing of tested stemware with Seppeltsfield Para Vintage Tawny builds on steps taken in 2023 to modernise and refine packaging of the 100-year-old wine in elegantly shaped 100ml glass vessels. The success of this transformation prompted Seppeltsfield to go further by positioning itself alongside other luxury brands such as Riedel.

Such a partnership is designed to help draw attention to the 1924 wine that continues the Seppeltsfield Centennial Collection. The world’s only unbroken lineage of single vintage Tawny dates back to 1878, with each of the vintage wines having seen a minimum of 100 years in oak barrels within the Centenary Cellar at Seppeltsfield before being released to the market.

The 1924 vintage is surprisingly deceptive, being fresher than expected for a 100-year-old wine. The aroma is especially powerful, yet its richness is measured and tempered by clean, sweet notes, with concentrated coffee essence and an undertone of dark molasses framed by a whiff of green walnut liqueur, cedar cigar box shavings and vanilla pod.

Coloured the deepest walnut brown, with glowing amber ember at the rim, the wine shows a sweet meld of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre components (although percentages of each grape variety used in the blend were not recorded at vintage). On the palate, it’s an intriguing long flavour ride, with a more explosive initial impact than recent Para Centenary releases. After a smooth entry, it bites sharply as slightly bitter herbal notes and a spicy nutmeg tingle interrupt a rich, rolling chocolate and coffee tide that fills the mid palate, with acid keeping the structure taut and the flavours clean and clearly defined. The concluding note of concentrated coffee and cocoa sticks to the walls of your cheeks long, long after the last drop has drained down your throat.

Seppeltsfield chief winemaker Fiona Donald expressed surprise at the wine’s vitality. ‘The 1924 vintage shows incredible intensity, volume and mouthfeel, remarkable freshness and length driven with a type of blood orange acidity,’ she said.

Mudge said that the Seppeltsfield cellar door tasting room is now transitioning to use only Riedel stemware for presenting tasting samples of 100-year-old Para Vintage Tawny. Customers purchasing the 2024 Para Vintage Tawny can also have a pair of Riedel Vinum Cognac Hennessy glasses included with the boxed wine bottle for an additional A$110.

* Seppeltsfield 1924 100-Year-Old Para Vintage Tawny is available in the UK via Bancroft Wines (RRP £1,250, including sales tax), and in the US via LEGEND imports (US RRP $1,750). It is also available from Seppeltsfield Cellar Door or via Seppeltsfield.com.au with shipping possible worldwide.

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In 30 years of contributing to Decanter, this is without doubt the most self-indulgent article I have ever had the good fortune to write.

I want my case of 12 Ports to last longer than the 12 days of Christmas and into the better part of the next year, or longer if I’m thinking about cellaring something special for the future. As well as fireside drinking this winter, I’m already thinking ahead to the lazy days of summer, when I want to bide my time with a glass of cool tawny in the garden. Then there’s that most wonderful of aperitifs: white Port and tonic or Portonic.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Richard Mayson’s perfect Port picks

Port, so often associated with the winter months, is very much a drink for all seasons.

The following is a personal selection of some of the best and most innovative Ports I’ve had the pleasure to taste over the past year or so. My choice covers the entire style spectrum (and most of the price spectrum), though I do admit to a penchant for suave, aged colheitas and tawnies. One of the great advantages of these wood-aged styles is you can keep a bottle open to the air and help yourself to a glass over weeks, even months.

All the wines in my perfect case are available to buy now, and there’s a great wine here for nearly every occasion – that’s the beauty of Port.

White Port

I used to be down on white Port, but it all changed when more cask-aged wines came on the market about 20 years ago. Churchill was one of the first to bottle this style of wine and since a change in the legislation there are also white Ports bottled with an indication of age, and as colheitas [single-harvest wines aged long in casks until ready for consumption]. It might seem a bit taboo, but in summer I rather like mixing an older white Port with tonic: this style of Portonic has the bittersweet zest of a Negroni cocktail but is considerably more refreshing – and you can drink more of it.

• Ferreira, Dona Antónia Reserva Branco

Ruby

A good ruby, bottled young with minimal wood-ageing captures the vibrant fruit of the Douro like no other wine. Only a young Douro red comes close, but there you have to stomach the tannins without any of the natural sweetness. Not all ruby comes up to the mark; some bargainbasement wines are raw and uninteresting. By contrast, Cockburn’s Fine Ruby (widely available at £12-£16) is a bestseller and was awarded a Gold medal in this year’s DWWA. The wine I’ve chosen is just a cut above, delicious on its own as a winter warmer, or even in a long serve, reviving the reimagined pub classic Port & Lemon.

• Cockburn’s, Tails of the Unexpected Ruby Soho

LBV

Late Bottled Vintage means just what it says: a wine from a single year or vintage that’s bottled after spending four to six years in large wooden vats or casks. It’s a style that has captured the hearts of British drinkers and has been responsible for the growth in consumption over my professional lifetime. LBV has been very price-sensitive and there are still some real bargains to be had. Supermarket Marks & Spencer won a Gold for its own-label LBV 2017 (£16 Ocado) at this year’s DWWA. I have chosen a couple of wines with real substance: one (Graham’s) filtered before bottling so that you don’t have to decant, the other unfiltered that will continue to develop in bottle should you wish.

• Graham’s, Late Bottled Vintage 2018
• Sandeman, Late Bottled Vintage 2018

Tawny

‘Tawny’ covers a continuum of colours, styles and prices of Port from relatively young reserva, through 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years old. Remember these are ‘indications of age’ rather than an exact statement as these are blends – and, for me, aged tawny is more about house style. I admit to a preference for a paler, more refined style of tawny than a fuller-flavoured wine. I love aged tawnies from Burmester, Ferreira, Niepoort, Poças and Sandeman, as well as the wines listed here. My preference is for 20- and 30-year old as the perfect place on that continuum, where youth and maturity seem to meet. The combination of one of these wines with a Portuguese tarte de amendoa (almond tart) a crème brûlée or even a pastel de nata (the popular custard tart) is simply heavenly.

• Ramos Pinto, Quinta de Ervamoira 10 Year Old Tawny
• Taylor’s, 30 Year Old Tawny

Colheita

It may be a coincidence but, like aged tawny, I feel that colheita (effectively vintage-dated tawny) needs 20 years or so for the tannins to soften and the melding process to be complete. However, some older colheitas suffer from elevated volatile acidity, sometimes described in my tasting notes as vinagrinho (‘little vinegar’) or ‘balsamic’. The two wines below were bottled at their peak.

• Quinta do Noval, Colheita 2005
• Barros, Colheita 1974

Single quinta vintage

The 2010s have been a golden decade for vintage Port, with classic declarations of full vintages in 2011 and from 2015 to 2020. The weakest years were 2012 and 2013, but this is only relative and a cause for celebration when single-estate Ports (quinta means simply ‘estate’) then come onto the market and provide the opportunity to drink a vintage Port, early on and at a reasonable price.

• Taylor’s, Quinta de Vargellas 2013
• Quinta do Noval, Vintage Port 2012
• Vintage

Vintage Port needs little introduction, but suffice to say it represents the cream of the crop from the best of years. I am spoilt for choice here, but older vintages (pre-1994) are now getting harder to find other than through the auction houses. Provided they have been cared for, I could happily fill my whole case with these. The 1994 vintage heralded a return to form after something of a dip in the 1970s and 1980s (though that’s not so say that these decades didn’t produce some magnificent individual wines). Here are two wines from the ‘modern’ era (of differing age and maturity) that really impressed me in the past year.

• Warre’s, Vinhas Velhas Vintage Port 2020
• Dow’s, Vintage Port 1994

Richard Mayson’s perfect Port picks:

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Even in the spectacular vineyard landscape of Portugal’s Douro Valley, Quinta do Vesúvio stands apart. Partly that’s because of its sheer scale: 326ha of land, 130ha of it under vine, spread over 32 valleys and seven hills. Partly it’s because of the diversity of altitude and aspect that its vineyards enjoy. But mostly it’s because of the quality and longevity of the Ports and table wines that it produces.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for eight wines from Quinta do Vesúvio

Located on the south bank of a sinuous bend in the river high in the Douro Superior, the wine estate celebrated its bicentenary in 2023. But its saga goes back much further than the first time vines took root in its soils.

Johnny Symington, chairman of Symington Family Estates, owner of Vesúvio since 1989, charts its history back to 1565. At that time it was known as Quinta das Figueiras and grew a combination of citrus fruit, almonds, olives and – as the name suggests – figs. Only after António Bernardo Ferreira bought it in 1823 were vines introduced, and a new name found: Quinta do Vezúvio (in old Portuguese spelling).

Pioneer vision

Ferreira was, in Symington’s words, ‘completely and utterly bonkers’, given the remoteness of Vesúvio’s location, 120km – or two weeks on horseback – from Porto. ‘He had incredible foresight,’ says Symington. ‘He started bulldozing without any bulldozers, building terraces and stone walls on a scale never seen before in the Douro.’

Soon there was a winery, a large house, a church, a school and an aqueduct – all constructed using only men and horses. In 1823, 100 people were working at Vesúvio; by 1825, it was 500. Planting the vineyards in the steeply sloping schistous rock took them 13 years.

Ferreira was proud of his work, writing: ‘All the English have poured praise on my lodge and held that they cannot find another adega [winery] to match mine in the Douro.’ But he didn’t enjoy his creation for long, dying in 1835. His son, also called António Bernardo, died a decade later, leaving the quinta to his wife (and first cousin) – Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira, one of the most remarkable figures in the history of the Douro.

Dona Antónia put Vesúvio on the map, selling her wines in London and hosting lavish parties and dinners. When phylloxera came, she kept all the workers on to plant citrus and olive trees – even mulberry trees to breed silkworms – and to build a 16km wall around the property. When the railway came in 1887, she talked the railway company into giving Vesúvio its own station.

Eyes on the prize

Even then, the Symington family knew Vesúvio, with Symington’s great-grandfather buying Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira, on the opposite bank, in 1890. ‘They spent 100 years looking across the river, thinking: “Not a bad place…”,’ he says wryly.

Then, in 1989, the Ferreiras put Vesúvio up for sale. ‘My father [Ian Symington] basically said: “There is only one opportunity that we will ever have to buy Vesúvio. It’s now or never.” So we did, and we preserved his view.’

This jewel of the Douro, however, had lost some of its lustre. There were only 60ha of vines, and no wine was being produced (the grapes were sold). ‘It was by no means abandoned, but it was not in good shape, so it was an opportunity for us to restore it to its former glory, and that’s taken us the past 30 years,’ says Symington.

Vines and wines

In that time, the vineyard has more than doubled in size to 133ha, much of it systematically planted with key varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Amarela and Tinta Roriz. Touriga Nacional is mainly confined to the higher altitudes and northwest-facing slopes, sheltering from the intense summer sun. While the much more heat-tolerant Touriga Franca is found on west-facing spots – and is assuming greater influence as temperatures rise.

Beyond its growing conditions, Vesúvio’s trump card is its diversity. Vines are planted at altitudes from 106m to 462m, on a mix of socalcos (dry stone wall terraces), patamares (literally ‘platforms’ or unwalled terraces) and old stone terraces. They are planted in two-vine rows and three-vine rows in a multiplicity of orientations.

The quinta typically bottles only about 7% of its production as table wine and 4% as vintage Port – the latter wholly foot-trodden in Vesúvio’s original granite lagares. So that palette of blending options is crucial.

Balance and biodiversity

It also means that the wines sourced from this remote, inhospitable place – where annual rainfall totals 300mm on average, and less than half that in some years – combine their expected structure, power and concentration with a remarkable perfume and elegance. They have an ethereal character that never leaves them as they age, often for decades.

Drought conditions are tough for vines, but good for minimum-intervention farming. As the estate has been farmed more and more sustainably in recent years, its biodiversity has reaped the rewards. Wild boar, foxes, badgers and wildcats live here; eastern imperial eagles, Bonelli’s eagles and Egyptian vultures nest on the cliffs.

Proof that for all the relative ease of modern transportation, Vesúvio clearly remains not only a wonderful place to grow grapes, but also a wild, remote, spectacular landscape. It’s certainly one that would be familiar to António Bernardo Ferreira and even those who came before him.

Quinta do Vesúvio: Eight wines to try

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One hundred UK memberships to the Matriarca wine club have been offered by Symington Family Estates, which makes premium wines in the Douro, Alentejo and Vinho Verde, and owns several leading Port houses, including Graham’s and Dow’s.

Membership costs £750 per year, said Symington, adding this includes a biannual, curated selection of six bottles of Portuguese still wines and Ports, plus invitations to exclusive events and tastings in the UK and Portugal. 

Members will also have access to an online shop where they can buy older vintages, limited-edition bottlings and recent releases ‘not readily available elsewhere in the UK’, said the company.

The Symington family initially launched its Matriarca club in October, welcoming the first 100 members in Portugal. 

Its name is inspired by the family’s original matriarch in Portugal, Beatriz Leitão Carvalhosa Atkinson, who married the first Symington to live in Porto, shortly after arriving in 1882.

Charlotte Symington, fifth-generation family member in the company, said the group was delighted to bring Matriarca to the UK.

‘Matriarca was born out of a desire to create a community around a shared passion, whilst drawing inspiration from our matriarch, Beatriz Leitão Carvalhosa Atkinson, who had a well-known flair for creating convivial moments around good food and wine.’

Symington added, ‘We want to create a small, dynamic community of people from Portugal and the UK – the two countries that represent my family – to celebrate the very best of Portugal.’ 

When visiting Portugal, Matriarca club members can also enjoy discounts and benefits at the Symington family’s restaurants, cellars and wineries, as well as at some establishments owned by friends of the family. 

As well as Graham’s and Dow’s, Symington Family Estates also owns Port houses Cockburn’s and Warre’s. Its Portuguese wine holdings also feature Douro-based Quinta do Vesúvio and Quinta do Ataíde.

Earlier this year, Taylor’s Port owner The Fladgate Partnership announced an expansion into Portuguese still wines via the purchase of key vineyards.

Portugal also saw a strong increase in Gold medals at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) in 2023, with fortified and non-fortified wines both well-represented.

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More to Madeira

Wine lovers will know Madeira for its fortified wines, but this group of Portuguese islands in the Atlantic ocean also boasts a long history of rum production. Sugar cane has been grown here since 1425 and William Hinton Distillery, the oldest rum producer, was founded in 1845.

Madeira native Harold Vieira and his partner Hansa Palmer are on a mission to make these rums better known. Their company, Harold & Hansa, imports a range of agricole rums produced by Engenhos do Norte in Porto da Cruz – Europe’s only steam-powered distillery. Latest releases in the premium 970 range include 12 Year Old Reserva Velha (Alc 59.7%, £104.90/70cl) a smooth and characterful pot still rum with layers of dried fruit, toffee, Madeira cake, orange and candied peel.

While 970 Madeira Brandy Cask (Alc 53.9%, £104.90/70cl) is a complex sipping rum, aged in brandy casks for seven years, that combines grassy agricole freshness with deeper woody notes, spice, salted caramel and dried apricots. Check availability and the rest of the range via the Harold and Hansa website.

What is… a Boston shaker?

All cocktail shakers serve the same basic purpose: to mix ice and liquid. The first recorded use of a shaker dates back to 1848 in New York City, when a flared glass and slightly larger tin cup were fitted together to shake juleps. Over time, stainless steel replaced tin and this two-part mixing tool was known as an ‘American shaker’ by the mid 20th century, then an ‘American-type Boston shaker’ and finally just a Boston shaker. No one is sure why the name Boston was chosen, though it can be traced back to a series of adverts by shaker manufacturer WR Loftus in the 1920s. Modern Boston shakers can be either glass and metal or consist of two metal tins.

What to drink now… Corpse Reviver No2

This spooky-sounding mix is on theme for Halloween, but in fact the name refers to a group of pick-me-up morning drinks intended to refresh patrons who had overindulged the night before. Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) offers two recipes: No1 combines vermouth, Calvados and brandy, ‘To be taken before 11am or whenever steam and energy are needed’; No2 comes with the following note: ‘Four of these taken in swift succession will revive the corpse again’. While we wouldn’t recommend drinking four, you should try mixing one, using a good London Dry gin such as Portobello Road London Dry No171 (Alc 42%, £23.90-£28/70cl, widely available).

Corpse Reviver No2

Ingredients: 22.5ml London Dry gin, 22.5ml Lillet Blanc, 22.5ml Cointreau, 22.5ml fresh lemon juice, 1 dash absinthe

Glass: Cocktail

Garnish: None

Method: Shake all the ingredients with ice, until your hands are cold, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass

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A contrarian, but arch collaborator; irreverent, but a lover of tradition, Dirk van der Niepoort is something of a conundrum. However, the willingness of the 40th recipient of the Decanter Hall of Fame award to flout convention and question authority or perceived wisdom is crystal clear. It has been a pebble, maybe even a boulder, in the pond of the Portuguese wine industry, making waves that have reached far and wide.

Scroll down to see Dirk Niepoort’s five inspirations and influences

Transformative figure

At a time when, says fellow producer Paul Symington, ‘many thought it was mad’, Niepoort successfully diversified his family’s 19th-century Port company, entering the still wine arena and blazing a trail for Douro DOC wine. He has elevated the reputation of Portuguese wine, throwing his creativity and weight behind premium wines of quality and personality, and encouraging and helping others to do the same.

Over three decades, the self-taught winemaker has influenced peers and won legions of loyal fans and official recognition. He was awarded the rank of Grau de Comendador, Ordem do Mérito Empresarial, Classe do Mérito Agrícola by the President of Portugal in 2015.

Looking over the Decanter Hall of Fame roll call, Niepoort remarks: ‘They all did something special for the wine world in a broader way, so it’s an honour to be in their midst.’

The context in which he joined the family business in 1987 highlights the special nature of Niepoort’s own achievements. Following the Carnation Revolution of 1974, Portugal was still recovering from the repressive, authoritarian regime created by António de Oliveira Salazar in 1932. Putting your head above the parapet by doing something very different to your peers was profoundly counter-cultural.

Describing Niepoort as ‘a transformative figure in the Portuguese wine scene’, Symington adds another layer of context: ‘the relatively closed atmosphere’ of the highly competitive Port market in the late 1980s and 1990s. The Decanter Hall of Fame 2012 recipient observes: ‘Despite this, Dirk – especially with the growth of Douro DOC wines – encouraged an atmosphere of collaboration and openness. Pioneering and very refreshing, it changed a lot of the dynamic.’ And, it ‘spread back into the rather traditional Port sector’. Inevitably, it ushered in a changing of the guard at Niepoort.

Dirk Niepoort at a glance

Born 11 March 1964, Porto

Studied Economics, Zurich

Career Intern at Mövenpick Wein, Zurich (1985); cellarhand at Cuvaison Estate, Napa Valley (1986); joins Niepoort (1987); Niepoort managing director (1997-2005); co-founder Douro Boys (2003); co-founder The New Douro (2004); Niepoort president (2005-present); founding member of Baga Friends (2012)

Projectos partners past & present Austria Dorli Muhr; Germany Philipp Kettern; Portugal Barbeito, Alvaro Castro, Anselmo Mendes; Spain Equipo Navazos, Raúl Pérez, Telmo Rodríguez; Chefs Nuno Mendes, Ljubomir Stanisic

Family Two sons, one daughter

Other interests Tea, reading, music, psychology

Single-minded

Comparing Rolf Niepoort to ‘the original négociant dans La Place de Bordeaux’ – the French merchants who, rather than own or even visit vineyards or growers, bought grapes, must or wine for blending and ageing in their cellars in or around the city of Bordeaux – Symington recalls Niepoort’s late father being ‘famous for not much liking the Douro; he bought on sample, waiting for farmers to come down [from the Douro to Vila Nova de Gaia]’. When Dirk wanted to invest in Douro vineyards and winemaking, it was, says Symington, ‘rather against his father’s wishes’. Never released (his father gave away all but one cask), Niepoort’s first Douro red (Robustus 1990) was poorly received by the few Port shippers to whom he showed it.

Conversely, once Niepoort’s Douro wines achieved success, father and son locked horns and, in 1997, the 33-year-old winemaker almost left the company. Throwing down a gauntlet, Dirk requested to run the business for a year his way – ‘I won’t ask your opinion, I’ll wear what I want, I’m not as bad as you think,’ he told his father. The pair agreed to look at the numbers at the end of the year and, if Dirk did better, he would stay on. Under Dirk’s tenure the company flourished, and he has held the reins ever since.

Free thinker

Does he enjoy challenging convention? ‘I just do it – it’s a question of attitude,’ replies Niepoort. It’s an attitude which, ironically, he attributes to Rolf, who did not do things by the book or care about social conventions. Hard-wired from a young age, when Dirk the economics student (whose car had broken down) turned up in dirty clothes asking for double the salary at an internship interview, he learned he had done everything wrong, but would get the job at Mövenpick Wein in Switzerland anyway, precisely because he was different. Thankfully so, because it was here that Niepoort developed his taste for and aspirations about fine wine, pouring flights of Petrus and the like.

Casually dressed and not one to stand on ceremony (‘it is very important for me to treat everyone the same, from a gas station attendant to the President of Portugal,’ he maintains), Niepoort gives the impression of being laid-back, but it would be wrong to underestimate his depth of intellect and strategic vision. Multilingual, he is an extremely good ambassador and salesman, observes Symington: ‘Always in his sleeveless jackets and Crocs, he knows how to stand out and be different. A region needs that… he is one of best wine marketeers I have ever met.’

With 15 country-specific names and storyboard labels, Fabelhaft – the company’s entry-point Douro DOC – is a case in point. Designed, states Niepoort, ‘to create an instinct to touch the bottle’ and launched in 2004, Dirk says it now accounts for about 60% of Niepoort’s total production of 2.4 million litres of Port and wine. When his son Daniel was uncertain about joining the sprawling family empire and leaving Fio (the boutique Mosel project his father co-founded with Philipp Kettern of Weingut Lothar Kettern), Niepoort handed him a glass of Fabelhaft. Says the 30-year-old, who became head winemaker in 2021: ‘I realised it’s easy to make one exceptional barrel, but if you can make more well, then you can make an impact.’

Ahead of the game

Niepoort reads people and situations well. He is watchful, an avid listener and veritable sponge, who invariably answers a question with a question. ‘I live the situation,’ he says. ‘I anticipate problems and already have 10 solutions before they arrive, so I’m very fast at taking solutions, not because I am crazy,’ he insists, ‘but because other people only start thinking about solutions when the problem occurs’.

Being ahead of the game has been a strength, but, admits Niepoort, it has also been a source of huge frustration, ‘because I wanted to achieve a lot more and people don’t let me’. With, he admits, a low boredom threshold, the 59-year-old’s accomplishments already exceed what most might hope to achieve in a lifetime.

The ripple effect

As Niepoort’s portfolio has grown, extending well beyond Port and Douro wine, so has the influence of the company. Niepoort acquired Quinta de Baixo in Bairrada in 2012, and Quinta da Lomba in the Dão in 2014, and also makes wines in Vinho Verde, Alentejo, Madeira, the Azores, Germany and Spain. This, and being part of leading producer groups the The New Douro, Douro Boys and Bairrada’s Baga Friends, sprinkles the stardust far and wide, attracting the attention of the media and trade around the world. It is no exaggeration to say that Niepoort has turbo-charged Portuguese wines’ reputation and profile.

His illustrious collaborators on the Projectos wines over the years speak volumes, too. For Niepoort, it is a two-way street: ‘I didn’t study winemaking from a scientific point of view, so my knowledge comes from drinking and talking about good wine; partnership for me is a learning process,’ he explains. Paying it forward, he is renowned for munificently sharing his knowledge and considerable wine collection with Niepoort’s handpicked crack team, interns, competitors, trade and press.

Small wonder the company is a seedbed of talent when, says Niepoort, ‘I feel obliged to teach interns something and give them something for the road, so talking to them, explaining what we do and opening bottles, blind or not, and bringing winemakers to my cellar to listen to opinions different to mine’. The rising (and risen) stars of Portugal and elsewhere invariably mention Niepoort in warm, thankful tones.

In a country with conservative roots, his relentless boundary-pushing has moved the dial for innovation. Unafraid to court controversy (albeit sometimes stung by it, because, he opines, ‘the more different you are, the more isolated one becomes’), Niepoort has eschewed extract and colour in winemaking in favour of elegance, has stubbornly refused to sell to supermarkets and has reached out to a new generation of consumers and winemakers with his cutting-edge Nat Cool project. It has become an all-embracing umbrella brand – ‘a movement around the world’, says Daniel, for Niepoort’s and other Portuguese and international producers’ lighter, minimal-intervention wines, which are sold in litre bottles with playful labels and the Nat Cool logo.

Celebrated Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes believes glou-glou wines such as Nat Cool have ‘helped wine step out of the shadow of beer’ in Portugal. When Mendes was growing up, no one drank wine, he explains, but Niepoort ‘has helped make wine fun – fresh, super-juicy, light and deliciously fruit-driven, stripping it of the normal setting at the table’. The style is equally at home being drunk at contemporary restaurant-cum-wine bars (like Lisboeta, Mendes’ London outpost) as in the park, hence Niepoort and the chef’s collaborative Park Juice label. ‘It’s democratic,’ says Mendes. ‘Wine does not require a precious setting.’

A patriot

Mendes calls Niepoort ‘an inspiring friend, who continues to evolve, reinvent himself and show the world how amazing Portuguese wine can be and how well it has evolved’. Which is not to say he has thrown the baby out with the bath water. Old vines and heritage techniques are treasured, and Niepoort seeks to elevate Port. A special commemorative 2018 Lalique bottling of Niepoort 1863 Garrafeira comfortably holds the record for most expensive Port sold at auction [HK$992,000 in November 2018, about £98,000 at the time]. But, contends Niepoort: ‘If we only made Port, it would probably be a social disaster; what really matters is the Douro. It’s not Port, it’s not wine, it’s an area that needs not just to survive, but to do well socially and economically.’

As for his country’s standing in the wine world, he found it ‘really, really rewarding’ that, last year, Redoma 1996 Tinto and Branco both came second to red Bordeaux and white Burgundy at two blind tastings of iconic red and white wines. ‘Twenty years ago, French wines were the reference point; our wines always looked poor and stupid next to them, but Portugal is getting very close,’ he says, proudly; ‘I can sit next to a French person and we can talk on the same level.’ But do their wines engage such a diverse audience? Do they make a non-alcoholic beverage from tea that tastes like Riesling (Niepoort’s next project)?

This depth and range of curiosity and ambition is what makes Dirk Niepoort so special.

Five to inspire: Dirk Niepoort’s inspirations and influences

Wilhelm Haag, Mosel

‘The Mosel in Germany is very important to me. I didn’t know it until I met Wilhelm Haag in 1987. I was only interested in heavy-duty stickies – beerenauslese and trockenbeerenauslese. But he forced me to taste the whole collection often, so I got to know his favourites, which had an incredible lightness of being.

‘Wilhelm taught me about the harmony and equilibrium between acidity, sugar and alcohol; and the ageabilty of a wine with just 7.5% alcohol.’

Angelo Gaja, Piedmont

‘We wanted to import each others’ wines. It didn’t work out, but we stayed in touch and, when I visited him in Italy, he always listened and was generous with his time, and I learned a lot.

‘Angelo’s work for Italy really inspired me. My most important mission has been to put Portugal on the map, not just look after the company or the Niepoort name.’

José Nogueira 

‘José was the third generation of his family to be Niepoort’s Port wine master blender. He taught me patience which, in many respects, is not in my character. I’m now probably one of the most patient people I know, because I learned from him to think in terms of 20 years, rather than two months like normal people do.’

Bruce Guimaraens

‘Living Port like no one else, Bruce was a big inspiration. Direct, frank – if he preferred Dow’s to Fonseca, he said so. One day we compared Fonseca 1977 and Niepoort 1977 blind. He preferred Niepoort, which was sweeter, with a higher baumé. He wasn’t a chauvinist; his open-mindedness was incredible.’

Rolf Niepoort

‘My father never did things by the book, so I probably inherited that. He liked a glass of wine or beer with humble, normal people, but could also mingle with high society, without being part of it. He didn’t care about social niceties, was badly dressed and didn’t adapt to conventional behaviour, but he knew how to do it.’

Decanter’s Rising Star 2023: Brenna Quigley

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Dirk van der Niepoort has become the 40th recipient of the Decanter Hall of Fame award, which honours those who have made significant contributions to the modern wine world.

‘It is no exaggeration to say that Niepoort has turbocharged Portuguese wines’ reputation and profile,’ wrote Portugal expert Sarah Ahmed in Decanter magazine’s October 2023 issue, in a special feature on Niepoort as this year’s Hall of Fame prize winner.

Sometimes described as a maverick, Niepoort manages to blend a love of tradition with a desire to flout convention and question authority, said Ahmed, who is the regional chair for Portugal at the Decanter World Wine Awards.

After joining the family’s 19th-century Port business in 1987, Niepoort pioneered premium-quality, Portuguese still wines, ‘blazing a trail for Douro DOC wine’, said Ahmed. He has since developed projects in other regions and countries, sometimes linking up with other top winemakers.

Paul Symington, of Port house owner and wine producer Symington Family Estates, described Niepoort as ‘a transformative figure in the Portuguese wine scene’.

Symington also praised Niepoort for breaking down barriers between producers, including Port houses. ‘Dirk – especially with the growth of Douro DOC wines – encouraged an atmosphere of collaboration and openness. Pioneering and very refreshing, it changed a lot of the dynamic.’

Niepoort became MD of his family company in 1997 after taking over from his father, Rolf. He is known for being generous with his time, sharing his knowledge – and bottles from the cellar – with everyone from fellow winemakers to interns.

Whilst Niepoort’s entry-level Douro DOC, Fabelhaft, constitutes a significant proportion of the company’s production, the producer’s influence stretches well beyond the Douro today.

Niepoort acquired Quinta de Baixo in Bairrada in 2012, and Quinta da Lomba in the Dão in 2014, and also makes wines in Vinho Verde, Alentejo, Madeira, the Azores, Germany and Spain. Niepoort’s ‘Nat Cool’ project, meanwhile, has focused on lighter, minimal intervention wines.

Last year, Niepoort’s Redoma 1996 Tinto and Branco both came second to red Bordeaux and white Burgundy at two blind tastings of iconic red and white wines.

‘Twenty years ago, French wines were the reference point; our wines always looked poor and stupid next to them, but Portugal is getting very close,’ Dirk Niepoort told Sarah Ahmed. ‘My most important mission has been to put Portugal on the map, not just look after the company or the Niepoort name.’ 

Port is still an important part of the picture. A commemorative bottle of Niepoort 1863 in a Lalique decanter set a record auction price via Sotheby’s in 2019. 

Read the full article on Hall of Fame 2023 award winner Dirk Niepoort

Rising Star 2023 award winner: Brenna Quigley

Decanter also announced that this year’s Rising Star award winner is wine-focused geologist and podcast host Brenna Quigley, based in California. 

Now in its third year, the Rising Star prize was created to recognise up-and-coming wine world talent.

Quigley is known for both exploring and explaining the complex concept of terroir. She has worked with Californian wineries such as Quintessa in Napa Valley and Carlo Mondavi’s Raen label in Sonoma, and also visited Burgundy to provide geological mapping, wrote Clive Pursehouse, Decanter’s US editor.

Carlo Mondavi said, ‘As one of the world’s foremost wine geologists, Brenna has helped us tell the story of our wines in a new, very fundamental way; not just in the vineyard but by connecting the minerality in wine’s flavour profile to the story and geological history of our site.’

Quigley’s academic research had focused on geological mapping and structural geology, and she worked extensively in the mining industry.

However, she said she first heard of the concept of ‘terroir’ whilst working in the tasting room at Kunin Wines in Santa Barbara upon graduation.  

Her podcast, Roadside Terroir, is described as ‘an audio travel guide for wine lovers who want to dig into the subject of terroir’, and takes inspiration from a series of books entitled Roadside Geology. 

Quigley believes terroir doesn’t have to be the sole preserve of higher-end wines, and that the concept is attractive to a younger demographic.

In an interview featured in the October 2023 issue of Decanter magazine, she said, ‘You may have in your glass a simpler wine that’s perfectly enjoyable, or “drinkable”, but it doesn’t mean there are not sophisticated things happening in the ground and in the weather patterns that make such a wine what it is.’  

Read the full article on Rising Star 2023 award winner Brenna Quigley

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Residents watched on in astonishment as an estimated 2.2m litres of wine gushed down the winding roads of São Lourenço do Bairro in Portugal’s central region.

Firefighters had to intercept the alcoholic flash flood and divert the wine into a nearby field. There were fears that the Certima River could be contaminated, but local officials said they managed to avoid that outcome, according to local media reports.

Videos of the spill were shared on X, formerly Twitter, including by the @AweInspireMe account.

Video credit: Brain Quest @AweInspireMe / X

Most buildings were spared, but Destilaria Levira said that the wine may have flooded the basement of one house in the town.

The company apologised for the spill and said it would cover the costs of the clean-up and repair.

‘Although the incident did not cause any injuries, we want to express our sincere concern for the damage caused in general in Levira and in particular to this home,’ it said in a statement.

‘We assume full responsibility for costs associated with cleaning and repairing damage, with teams available to do so immediately. We are committed to resolving this situation as quickly as possible.’

Destilaria Levira is one of Portugal’s largest distilleries, specialising in the production of brandy, liqueurs and grapeseed oil.

The company revealed that it is currently storing a large amount of wine as part of the government’s response to an oversupply ‘crisis’ that has gripped the country.

Official statistics show that stocks of red and rosé wines were 20% higher than average at the end of 2022, resulting in around 128m litres of excess wine.

Producers across the country have agreed to distil the wine in order to reduce the oversupply crisis, which threatens their livelihood.

The Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture has provided €20m to pay for the distillation at Destilaria Levira and various other sites.

The raw distilled alcohol can only be used as biofuel or for industrial purposes, according to EU legislation.

Two large tanks burst ‘stemming from the extraordinary government support measure to producers and wineries of the Distillation Crisis 2023 motivated by the excess of wine in the country’, according to Destilaria Levira.

Oversupply issues have unfolded across Europe, with the French government spending €200m on destroying surplus wine in a bid to shore up prices and support struggling producers.

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Esporão is one of the best known wine brands from Portugal. Highlighting its position and status at home and abroad, the company celebrated its 50th anniversary in July with 1,100 guests from 20 countries. They included Portugal’s Ministers of Agriculture & Food and Economy & Maritime Affairs, whose speeches fêted the company’s achievements.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 12 top Esporão wines to try

In his forceful keynote speech, co-founder José Roquette exhibited the vision and tenacity that enabled Esporão to survive a turbulent watershed in Portugal’s history. And then to thrive. ‘The story of Esporão is the story of the country itself,’ said 87-year-old José, who retired last year. He has handed the chairmanship to his youngest son, João Roquette (below).

Arrested development

It all began promisingly in 1973, when Roquette (a banker) and Joaquim Bandeira (an agronomist) acquired Herdade do Esporão in Reguengos de Monsaraz, a sizeable estate in Portugal’s southerly Alentejo. Since the 1950s, the region had been dominated by cooperatives focused on bulk wine production. Bandeira believed in taking control of planting, production and marketing to build a quality brand. Roquette was immediately taken with this vision. ‘My father, a natural entrepreneur, invested all his money in this dream project,’ explains João.

However, the dream turned into a nightmare following Portugal’s ‘Carnation Revolution’ on 25 April 1974. This successful left-leaning military coup led to the nationalisation of companies (including Esporão) in March 1975. ‘The first thing the communists did was to arrest business owners, people working in finance and some landowners,’ says João. José as Esporão’s CEO, was targeted and jailed for four months.

Following his release, the family fled to Brazil, only returning home at the end of 1979. By this time the democratically elected government had returned Herdade do Esporão to José and Bandeira. The pair were initially required to sell the estate’s grapes to the local co-op but, as soon as they were able, they made their first wine, Herdade do Esporão Reserva Tinto 1985. It marked the launch of a brand that last year turned over €52m and, now listed in 58 markets, accounts for a sizeable chunk of Alentejo’s sales.

Continuous innovation

With quality in mind, the partners had already started constructing a winery and bottling lines to control the entire process in-house. In the first of many talent hires, winemaker Luís Duarte (who became a leading consultant in Alentejo) and the company’s current head of viticulture, Amandio Rodrigues, were recruited from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro.

The duo teamed up with Professor Colaço do Rosário of Évora University, the so-called ‘father of Alentejo wine’ – a key player in identifying the foundation varieties for Alentejo’s modern, quality-focused wines. Esporão provided the experimental ampelographic field and financed a laboratory that – together with Bandeira’s insistence on tasting the resulting wines – helped to identify the cuttings and varieties that were to shape the region’s modern premium wines. They included Aragonez, Trincadeira and Alicante Bouschet (reds) and Antão Vaz and Roupeiro (whites), which became mainstays of Esporão’s range.

Following Duarte’s departure, Australian winemaker David Baverstock was recruited in 1991, beginning a 30-year career for the winery. ‘Some of his work, especially in the 1990s, shaped modern winemaking in Portugal – and Esporão was at the forefront of that,’ explains João.

In Alentejo’s sunny, warm climate, temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks revolutionised white winemaking. They contributed to Monte Velho, Esporão’s unoaked, fruity entry-level red, becoming a best-seller in Portugal. American and French oak barrels were deployed for a smoother, less rustic mouthfeel than traditional Portuguese oak. As Baverstock liked to say, he brought ‘a New World way, using Old World grapes’. Although under his watch, Esporão was also at the vanguard of bottling traditional DOC Vinho de Talha (clay pot) wines.

Baverstock introduced French ‘helper varieties’ into blends, such as Cabernet Sauvignon for backbone and Syrah for richness. Semillon was one of several innovative single-varietal labels he introduced. The tweaks and changes kept coming, not least because Esporão planted its own ampelographic field in 2010 to some 190 grapes (37 of which are now in full production) and acquired three more Alentejo vineyards.

Looking ahead

So it’s no surprise that the Esporão name has become synonymous with quality and consistency, accessibility and innovation, from Monte Velho to Torre do Esporão, the flagship red which has only been made four times since 2004. Since 2022, winemaker José Luís Moreira da Silva (who joined the company in 2015), has been responsible for overseeing all Esporão’s production. ‘We have a new cycle of winemaking and someone who will definitely continue to push barriers like David,’ says João.

‘Innovation is part of our DNA,’ states Moreira da Silva. It’s part of the legacy that he fully intends to respect, continuing the direction of travel towards more precise, detailed wines. Initiatives include focusing on balanced maturation, not concentration. ‘It’s all too easy to obtain concentration in the south,’ he remarks.

Moreira da Silva’s team is using more used oak and bigger format oak, as well as concrete tanks for ageing. They are also ageing wines more reductively on lees (an antioxidant). Still, adds the Porto-born winemaker who cut his teeth in the north: ‘There is always a comfort side in Alentejo wines compared with Douro, and I am beginning to appreciate it.’

Beyond Alentejo, beyond wine

Esporão’s winemakers have been prominent ambassadors which, for João, reflects ‘a balance between management and passion and product and vision’. Both Roquettes – father and son – started out in banking, and have built the brand with considerable business acumen. José bought out Bandeira in 1994. In 1997, Esporão was among the first wine (as opposed to Port) companies to invest in wine tourism and launched its popular olive oil, pioneering single-varietal labels for its products.

José explains that this century the company has invested around €100m in new projects. Esporão has acquired estates in the Douro (Quinta das Murças) and Vinho Verde (Quinta do Ameal). In 2018, it bought Sovina, a craft beer business. This has already resulted in cutting-edge cross-fertilisation projects, such as substituting hops (an antioxidant) for sulphur in wines, and ageing beer in wine barrels.

Perhaps the most ambitious project of all has been to secure organic certification for 111ha of olive groves and all 635ha of Esporão’s Alentejo and Douro vineyards. This figure represents 18% of Portugal’s total certified organic vineyards. The change to organic viticulture has contributed to more balanced maturations (and, it follows wines), according to Moreira da Silva. Sustainability, an overarching strategy, is also exemplified by Restaurant Herdade do Esporao, a no/low waste eatery, which has held a Michelin star and Michelin Green star since 2021.

Popularity and respect

The move into the family business in 2005 was intimidating for João. ‘The scale overwhelmed me,’ admits the man who had already left banking for music, before succumbing to wine. ‘But when I thought about incredibly respected musicians like Stevie Wonder and Prince, who are also very popular, I thought “This is possible!”’

The 49-year-old is keen to emphasise that respect for Esporão among both consumers and the wine trade stems not only from its product-oriented approach. By that João means: ‘Being full of ideas about how we can improve and best serve people with a product we are proud of and excited about.’ He adds: ‘More than just work, it’s about contributing to society and improving people’s lives and protecting the environment.’

This values-oriented approach has been the key to attracting and keeping talent. As he observes: ‘People want to be part of it. Once you take care of the cultural side, it’s just a matter of organising ourselves and having good ideas.’ Smiling broadly, João remembers it prompted this question from the former Niepoort winemaker, Luís Seabra, who has won acclaim for his eponymous label. How do you do the scale, but with attention to detail, and the emotion is there? Esporão is like a giant with a big heart.’

Top Esporão wines to try

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Port will be celebrated across the world on 10th September. National Port Day offers the perfect opportunity to explore the many styles of this famous fortified wine.

In his guide to Port styles Richard Mayson explains that there is a Port for all occasions, if you know what you’re looking for. ‘Often thought of as an after-dinner, fireside drink, Port can be enjoyed in multiple ways depending on the character of the wine,’ he says.

Scroll down to discover 12 top-scoring Ports reviewed by Decanter’s team of experts

Take a look at his ‘Know your Port styles – The Decanter guide’ for a formidable look at the Port pyramid, which explains each different style from white Port (often served with tonic water to make an alternative version of a gin & tonic) through to vintage Port and everything in between. It will point you to the right Port for any occasion, winter or summer.

All Port comes from Portugal’s Douro Valley, which is one of the oldest regulated wine regions in the world, with demarcation dating back to 1756. Given the myriad grape varieties native to Portugal more than 100 different varieties are permitted in port production, but in reality just a handful are used.

For red Ports Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), Tinto Cão and Touriga Francesa are the key varieties, while for white Ports, Viosinho, Malvasia Fina, Códega and Rabigato are the most common.

Whatever style you prefer, make sure you enjoy a glass on National Port Day.

To get you in the mood, here’s a selection of recently reviewed Ports.

12 top Ports to try on National Port Day

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The Madeira Wine Company (MWC) represents nearly three centuries of accumulated tradition. It is one of only two shippers on the island to carry large stocks of older Madeira wine. Cossart Gordon dates back to 1745 and is the oldest company still trading on Madeira.

As a result of mergers and acquisitions over the years it has become part of MWC, which also includes Leacock (founded a little later in the 18th century), Blandy (1811) and Miles (1814).

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for nine Madeira Wine Company new releases

In the mid-19th century the Blandy family was in a position to buy up stocks of old wines from other shippers that had been felled by the double whammy of oidium and phylloxera. This stood them in good stead and Blandy’s now plays a central role in the MWC which came under complete Blandy family control in 2010. Blandy’s still has wines ageing in barrel and demi-john going back to the 1920 Bual. It also has a museum stock of wines in bottle dating from the 19th century.

How Madeira is aged

No other wine develops quite like Madeira, which starts out as a light wine with high natural acidity. Once fortified, it matures with the benefit of oxygen in the island’s sub-tropical warmth. This serves to ‘maderise’ the wines, concentrating the sugars and accentuating certain volatile components.

The best wines – set aside to be either colheita or frasqueira (vintage) – are subject to the canteiro ageing process in cask, named after the racks on which the casks rest. In order to qualify as a colheita the wine must be from a single harvest and aged for at least five years in wood. Meanwhile a frasqueira must age for at least 20 years before bottling.

At their best, there is no wine more gloriously ethereal than vintage Madeira, nor a wine that’s quite so resilient. The ageing in extremis that would destroy most wines means that a Madeira will last and last, even after a bottle has been opened. These wines can be kept and revisited for weeks, even months!

Protecting vintage stock

Chris Blandy, managing director of MWC, represents the seventh generation of the family on the island. He explains the shipper’s current approach. ‘Over 150,000 litres of our stock has been ageing for 20 years or more and as a result of the canteiro ageing process, the angels have had more than their fair share. Today our philosophy is to continually improve the knowledge that we have on the process, from vine to wine, and to ensure that we are ageing more wine than we sell, therefore contributing to the protection of vintage stock for future generations.’

Since 2017 the MWC has released newly bottled wines in time for the annual Festa do Vinho timed to coincide with the start of harvest. As Chris relates: ‘Our colheita and vintage wine release programme is led by myself and our winemaker Francisco Albuquerque, supported by the tasting panel, to ensure that the wine is bottled at a perfect moment of consumption, whilst satisfying an ever-increasing demand from the global market.’

I was fortunate to have a preview of this year’s new releases earlier this year. All the wines come from one of the four principal white grape varieties: Sercial, Verdelho, Bual and Malvasia (Malmsey) in ascending order of sweetness.

All but one of these newly released wines comes from Blandy’s. The tasting started with a quartet of 2010 colheitas (or ‘single harvest’ ), followed by newly released frasqueira wines back to 1976.

These can be paired with a variety of different foods as I suggest in my tasting notes below. But my feeling is that the vintage wines are so thrilling that they really deserve to stand on their own. These are wines for meditation!

Madeira Wine Company new releases

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