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Vintage port is the flagship wine of Portugal and is only produced during exceptional vintages. Accounting for only 2 percent of production, they are renowned for their outstanding quality, longevity and rarity.
Vintage Wine and Port is one of the UK's largest retailers of vintage port and single quinta port and has an extensive catalogue of new and rare vintages.
A gift of vintage port from a special year makes a unique and thoughtful present for anniversaries, birthdays, christenings and other special occasions.
Celebrate that special anniversary with a bottle of vintage wine or vintage port
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Port is produced from grapes grown and processed in the Douro region. The wine produced is then fortified with the addition of a Brandy (distilled grape spirits) in order to stop the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine, and to boost the alcohol content. The wine is then stored and aged, often in barrels stored in caves (Portuguese meaning "cellars") before being bottled.
The wine received its name, "Port," in the latter half of the 17th century from the seaport city of Porto at the mouth of the Douro River, where much of the product was brought to market or for export to other countries in Europe from the Leix's docks. The Douro valley where Port wine is produced was defined and established as a protected region, or appellation in 1756 - making it the 3rd oldest defined and protected wine region in the world after Tokaji and Chianti.
Although it accounts for only about two percent of production, vintage port is the flagship wine of all Portugal. Vintage port is made entirely from the grapes of a declared vintage year. Not every year is declared a vintage in the Douro; only those when conditions are favourable to the production of a fine and lasting wine. The decision on whether to declare a vintage is made in the spring of the second year following the harvest. The decision to declare a vintage is made by each individual port house, often referred to as a 'shipper'. Conventional shippers will declare, on average, about three times a decade.
Vintage ports are aged in barrels for a maximum of two and a half years before bottling, and generally require another ten to thirty years of aging in the bottle before reaching what is considered a proper drinking age. Since they are aged in barrels for only a short time, they retain their dark ruby colour and fresh fruit flavours. Particularly fine vintage ports can continue to gain complexity and drink wonderfully for many decades after they were bottled, and therefore can be particularly sought-after and expensive wines.
