Dow’s 1994 Vintage Port
WHY WE LOVE IT
- Dow’s Vintage Ports are only produced in years of exceptional quality and represent only a very small part of the total company’s production in that year.
- On average only two or three times every ten years the weather conditions are sufficiently good to allow for the making of Dow’s Vintage Port.
- Dow’s Vintage Ports are drawn from the companies’ finest vineyards; Quinta do Bomfim and Quinta de Senhora da Ribeira.
- The must of this Vintage was a great indicator of the quality, showing brilliant purple color with fresh flowery aromas. Truly a “Classic” Vintage, yielding monumental wines with fabulous rich fruit character. One of the best of the 20th century.
Varietal Composition: Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Barroca, Vinha Velha (old vines)
Elaboration: These wines are aged in seasoned oak casks for some 18 months and are bottled without any filtration or fining whatsoever.
Tasting Notes: Very Dow in its intensity, taut and lean with the vigor of a young thoroughbred. Typical Dow’s deep, brooding aromas of black plum and Douro schist with lavender and violet notes. Profound and substantial on the palate. A beautifully toned wine of impressive structure. Bottled in May, 2018.
PRESS
99 Decanter (published 2023) | 97 Wine Spectator (published 1999) | 96 Wine Advocate (published 2016)
PRODUCER BACKGROUND
Founded in 1798 by Portuguese merchant, Bruno da Silva, Dow’s has lengthy history of offering some of the finest Ports. The Dow’s brand name was established when another partner, James Dow, joined the company.In 1912, Andrew Symington, a Scot who had been working in the industry for 25 years, became a partner in Dow’s. Today, the company is 100% owned and managed by the fourth generation of the Symington family, who are today the largest landowners in Portugal’s Douro Valley with over 4,000 acres. For over two centuries the name of DOW has been associated with the finest Port from the vineyards of the Upper Douro Valley. Throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st, the Symington family has built on the legacy of the preceding Silva and Dow families. Generations of Symington winemakers have worked at the Dow’s vineyards: Quinta do Bomfim and Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira, creating from them Dow’s superbly concentrated wines that are intense and tannic when young, maturing towards a superlative racy elegance with age and scented with violet and mint aromas. Dow’s attractive and distinctive drier finish is the recognizable hallmark of the wines from this great Port house.