The Douro Boys: 20th anniversary tasting & 15 Ports tasted

All five producers have a longstanding family tradition of making Port, even if – with the exception of Niepoort (a sixth generation Port shipper) – it was sold to shippers who, until 1986, enjoyed a monopoly over export sales.

Nowadays, the other members of this famous five – Quinta do Vallado, Quinta do Crasto, Van Zellers & Co and Quinta do Vale Meão – proudly append their own name to top flight Ports too. And they are ramping up fortified wine production.

To mark their 20th anniversary, the Douro Boys kicked off a two-day celebration with a once-in-a-lifetime tasting (for them and us) of fine and exceedingly rare Ports dating back to the 1860s.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 15 Ports from the Douro Boys’ 20th anniversary tasting

The arch collaborators also each contributed a soupçon from precious pipas (casks) for a moreish 950-bottle limited edition Douro Boys’ Anniversary Very Old Tawny Port. ‘You add a tiny amount of one wine, maybe one percent only, but this may dramatically change the character of the final blend,’ explained Cristiano van Zeller.

Since selling Quinta Vale D. Maria in 2017, he invested heavily in relaunching Van Zellers & Co as an independent Port shipper, having acquired an eye-popping collection of Very Old Tawny Ports from long-standing contacts. The black book is not so little when your family has been linked to the Douro since 1620 and once owned Quinta do Noval.

Claiming similarly distinguished roots, cousins Francisco Ferreira (Quinta do Vallado) and Francisco Olazábal (Quinta do Vale Meão) are descended from Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira who, respectively, owned and established their quintas during the 19th century.

For many years, grapes and Port wine were sold under the family’s Ferreira (Port shipper) brand and, famously, in Meão’s case, additionally for one of Portugal’s most renowned table wines, Barca Velha. Following Ferreira’s sale in 1987, both quintas switched their focus to Douro DOC wine.

But Port was not forgotten. Quinta do Vallado swiftly made its mark with mellifluous Tawny Ports with an indication of age (10, 20, 30 or 40-year-old) and impeccably sourced ultra-rare Very Old (19th century) Tawny Ports.

‘It has been a good decision to focus more and more on Port wine, because it is unique and the base of our region,’ said Ferreira; ‘Vallado was among the first to release a 50-year-old Tawny Port [the category was introduced last year],’ he added, proudly.

Once the Olazábal family took control of the property at Quinta do Vale Meão, they wasted no time making a Port with the extra grapes; fortuitously, 2000 was a terrific (generally declared) vintage.

Olazábal has set aside Tawny Port each year and Meão’s recently launched 10-Year-Old, will soon be joined by 20-year-Old and Colheita (single vintage) Tawny Ports. ‘Everything is from our own vineyard; we are one of the few producers who do that,’ he observed.

When he acquired Quinta do Crasto in 1918, Constantino de Almeida – founder of Constantino Port house – brought stock with him. Not even Miguel Roquette, his great grandson, has yet tasted the 1886 Colheita, of which just five bottles remain.

However, in commemoration of 400 years of wine production, precious 19th century Ports from de Almeida’s stock were blended to produce Quinta do Crasto Honore Very Old Tawny Port.

Roquette showed it alongside Quinta do Crasto Colheita 1997. ‘It was an important year because the family started to bottle Tawny Port again,’ said Roquette. Crasto will launch 30 and 40-year old Tawny Ports this year.

Being a shipper, Niepoort boasts a continuous Port winemaking tradition since 1842. During this time, successive generations of Niepoorts have worked alongside the Nogueira family, the shipper’s Master Blenders, forging a fine reputation for wood-aged Ports.

With its antique 19th century pipas and glass demijohns of aged stock, the company’s lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia provided an atmospheric setting for the tasting, it providing particularly handy when Dirk Niepoort decided, spontaneously, to fish out his grandfather’s earlier bottling of Niepoort VV Very Old Tawny for comparison with his own.

Both Ports were based on Niepoort’s magnificent 1863 pipa which produced a 2018 Lalique bottling (the world’s most expensive Port ever sold) and the outstanding bottling we tasted from 1992, Dirk’s eldest son’s birth year.

If you have followed the Douro Boys, new releases usually mean just that: young Douro DOC wines. But with the luxury of time to build stock, and now that Douro DOC wines are firmly on the map, all five Douro Boys are producing must-try mature Ports. Is there a better way to commemorate an anniversary?

15 Ports from the Douro Boys tasted and rated

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