Highlights: Dow’s Vintage Port 2024 Douro, Portugal
Isn’t Port wonderful? And Vintage Port, the pinnacle of the Port world, can even be drunk young. I reckon it’s best drunk young, for all its immediacy, or then let it go through its middle age and then approach it in its mellow maturity. The thing is, this maturity stretches long, and Port has this sort of immortality to it, where it’s incredibly rare to find a Port that’s not got anything left to give.
Dow’s Vintage Port 2024 Douro, Portugal
20% alcohol. From Quinta do Bomfim in the Cima Corgo and Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira in the Douro Superior. 40% Touriga Franca, 35% Touriga Nacional, 15% field blend (old vines) and 10% Alicante Bouschet. 99 g/l rs which is drier on the spectrum. Amazing aromatics. So intense with black cherries, blackcurrant and some smoky spiciness, and a touch of pepper, and even a bit of ginger on the finish. Olive, tar and spice as well as fragrant fruit. Lush and brooding on the palate with lots of sweetness as well as some spicy tannin. Concentrated and intense, and particularly sweet and rich, and sweeter than you might expect from Dow’s, although the sugar isn’t very high. This is quite brilliant. It’s so lush and vibrant, with such floral fruit. There’s some tannin here, but it’s amazingly approachable for a serious vintage Port. I think it will pick up some weight in bottle, and have a long life, but this might be a wonderful Port young, middle-aged and old. 97/100
