C. that winemaking began here in earnest – a skill brought by Phoenician traders from the eastern Mediterranean. THe Port has already been oxidised in the barrel so, once opened, the wine will last a few months in a restoppered bottle. With the increase of DNA fingerprinting it is thought that the real number might come down closer to 5,000. This relates to the average number of years they have spent maturing in barrels before they are finally bottled.

As is normal with these aged tawnies, the La Rosa twenty year old has incredible length and is an ‘aristocrat’ of ports.The Symington coopers, led by Senhor Antonio, have cared for these seasoned oak barrels throughout this time. Gold, Decanter World Wine Awards: A lovely rounded wine showing aromas of salted caramel, spice, dried fruit, toasted nuts, honey and wood. Like several important figures in the history of Champagne, Dona Antonia Ferreirashe was a young widow. Over a hundred varieties of grapes (castas) are allowed for port production, although only five (Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Francesa, and Touriga Nacional are widely cultivated and used.

The extra years of wood-ageing softens the colour of Aged Tawnies and give them greater complexity and their typical nut and raisin characteristics. Savoury and rich on the palate, without losing the grip, it’s a combination of age and finesse, finishing long and fresh. In the 20 Year Old tawny, the fruit has mellowed further than in the 10 Year Old, and the spicy, nutty aromas of ageing are more powerful and intense. Today the firm is properly known as Fonseca Guimareans and is under the ownership of the Taylor Flagdate partnership, one of the leading lights of the Port industry, who also count illustrious names such as Taylors and Croft among others as part of their stable. Only the top quality wines from Graham’s four spectacular Quintas in the Douro Valley are chosen to age in seasoned oak casks for 20 years.Ferreira gained its current high reputation during the nineteenth century under the leadership of Dona Antónia Ferreira. It is created from a unique blend of reserve old cask aged ports that are matured in Taylor’s cool and tranquil cellars, known as lodges, in Oporto on Portugal’s Atlantic coast. Warm and inviting, the aroma is graced with spicy overtones, reminiscent of cinnamon and butterscotch, which impart a comforting and luxurious quality to the wine. Like all other Churchill’s Ports, the component wines of this Tawny Port have been vinified in traditional granite lagares (treading tanks).

White ports are produced the same way as red ports, except that they use white grapes – Donzelinho Branco, Esgana-Cão, Folgasão, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina, Rabigato and Viosinho. Graham’s 20 Years Old Tawny is the result of the Master Blender’s quest for the perfect balance between young and aged Port wines.Graham's was one of the first Port companies to invest in its own vineyards in Portugal’s Douro Valley in 1890 and is now at the cutting edge of innovation in winemaking techniques. Along with the most popular varieties, there are regional specialties, such as Hondarrabi Zuri in the Basque Country, Marmajuelo in the Canary Islands and Zalema in Andalucia. If you stay in a Douro Quinta you are more than likely to find a bottle or two of this in the fridge. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report.

Fabulous accompaniment to dark chocolate, but can also be enjoyed alone as a dessert in its own right. Members of the Primum Familiae Vini group of top family producers worldwide, they are one of the world's leading producers. Opulent and voluptuous nose of complex spicy, jammy and nutty aromas, hints of orange flower and a fine oakiness coming from the long period of aging in cask. The Douro valley where port wine is produced was defined and established as a protected region, and the name Douro thus an official appellation, in 1756, making it the third oldest, after Chianti (1716) and Tokaj (1730). It’s an exceptional Tawny, combining rich aromas of figs and raisins with a smooth and silky mouth feel.This is deliciously delicate with pale colour andhazelnut, cinnamon, orange peel and dried apricot flavours – made from a blendof on average twenty years old cask-aged tawny ports. A wine of high quality, made by blending wines of different harvests to achieve the array of sensory qualities. Kopke 20 year old tawny port is i rresistible with a starter of foie gras with aubergine and walnuts. The additional years of ageing produce a fine balance between the rich, raisiny fruit and the nutty, honeyed finish - a taste to linger over. The long spice and raisin flavours of this wonderful port is the result of combining the very best fruit with generations of expertise at Graham's, one of the port houses that belongs to the B Corp Certified Symington Family Estates.