Vintage Fortified Touriga bottle image
Vintage Fortified Touriga bottle image

Vintage Fortified Touriga 2021

Tasting Notes

Floral characters on the nose as well as blue fruits and bergamot. The wine has a very full, soft palate with integrated spirit. The palate has great length, and with heaps of flavour. A very Iberian style of port.

Good winter and early spring rains were followed by a generally dry and mild growing season. After the leaner vintages of 2019 and 2020 it was nice to see a return to long term average crop levels. We had a slow and steady ripening period without any excessive heat spikes which has resulted in super varietal fruit intensity and balanced natural acidity.

A Mary Poppins kind of vintage; practically perfect! Joch is always loathe to comment favourably about vintage quality, for fear of jinxing things – he can be superstitious like that, but by the end of harvest, the word ‘exceptional’ was heard to come out of his mouth.

What a beauty! Our second vintage of this wine. Joch picked the Touriga when it was nice and ripe. The variety has terrific tannins and structure; perfect for a vintage port. Fermented in open vessels, the wine is then fortified with brandy grape spirit (which halts fermentation) and brings the alcohol up to about 19% Alc/ vol. The port then matures in big old oak barrels for about a year before being bottled. Should last for a good long while in bottle.

Varieties:                    Touriga Nacional 92% Shiraz 8%
Vineyards:                  Dutchman’s, Bradens and a little bit of Shiraz from Chanticleer

  • Halliday Wine Companion

     

    Too often the fortified wine in a suite is the standout. Yet, morosely, nobody drinks it. Here is a good one. A veritable bargain, too. Sure, the spirit sticks out as a thrust of heat across the finish, yet there is depth, complexity and compelling length. All reasons to explore a meander of dark cherry, camphor, kirsch and saddle leather polished to an nth of volatile sweetness.

    93 POINTS

    Ned Goodwine M.W,

Technical Details

Vineyards: Dutchmans

Picking Date: 7th April 2021

Alc/Vol: 19.0%

Bottling Date: 2nd March 2022