Warres 2016 Vintage Port

Warres 2016 Vintage Port. The 2016 Vintage Ports are exceptional, with tannins that are amongst the most refined ever, supporting beautiful red-fruit flavours with extraordinary intense, purple colour. They have impressive structure and balance, with Baumes, acidity, tannins and colour in rare and perfect alignment. This is no doubt a result of the later ripening cycle which allowed our grapes to mature evenly and completely.

Vintage Ports are only made on very exceptional years (usually three or four times in a decade). After the harvest, wines of Vintage potential are put into oak barrels called ‘pipes’. Some eighteen months later a careful and painstaking series of tastings is held to judge exactly which wines of different vineyards merit inclusion in the final blend. If the ideal blend is achieved, the wine is then bottled without any filtration whatsoever approximately 24 months after the original harvest. Vintage Port must then be matured for some ten to twenty years in cool dark cellars as it gradually achieves the outstanding style of a great wine. The bottles should always be stored lying down. Vintage Ports deposit a heavy sediment or ‘crust’ in the bottle while maturing and must be decanted prior to serving.

Warre’s 2016 Vintage Port – 2016 will be remembered as a year that produced wines of remarkable structure, balance and elegance, a profile which closely matches Warre’s traditional Vintage Port style. Words such as charm, grace, finesse and elegance are rarely absent in descriptions and reviews of Warre’s superb Vintage Ports, be they from the 19th, 20th or 21st centuries.

Symington Family Estate Tasting Note: Typically Warre’s in its feminine charm, exuding floral aromas of violets and rockrose. Supple, ripe black fruit flavours, underscored by fresh acidity, rendering superb balance and elegance. Long, lingering finish with delicate tea-leaf notes.

Vinha Velha (old, mixed vines) – 46%
Touriga Nacional – 37%
Touriga Franca – 17%

Bottled during May 2018 with no filtration

Winemakers: Charles Symington and Mário Natário

Only 4,250 nine litre cases were bottled.

Reviews

96 Points James Suckling

17.5 Points Jancis Robinson

94 Points Derek Smedley MW

18.5 Points Richard Mayson