Dow’s 40-Year Tawny Porto
WHY WE LOVE IT
- Textbook 40 Year Tawny Port made exclusively from grapes sourced at “A” classified vineyards (the highest classification).
- Unlike most Port houses nowadays, Dow’s still ages the majority of their wines in the company’s extensive cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia where the moderate coastal climate plays a key role in bringing a balanced aging process to the wine.
- This, like all of Dow’s Tawny offerings, is noticeably “drier” than the competition, as superior grapes mean no flaws to “hide” behind a sweeter profile.
Varietal Composition: Traditional blend of Tinta Barroca, Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, & Touriga Franca
Elaboration: After the grapes are hand harvested and crushed, the wine is fermented for a short period of time before the addition of 100% neutral grape spirit alcohol. This step stops fermentation, preserves the wine’s natural grape sugars, and gives its unique, rich flavors. In the barrel-ageing process, aged tawny Ports are subjected to a gradual transformation through contact with air and wood. This results in considerable evaporation and concentration, with approximately 50% of the original volume of a 40 year old tawny disappearing before it is eventually bottled. The wines need to be ‘racked’ from time to time during each year. Racking is the process by which the Dow’s team of experienced lodge men will carefully draw the wine off its ‘lees’ (the natural sediment that is formed at the bottom of the cask) and then pour the wine back into the clean cask. Aged in barrel for an average of 40 years.
Tasting Notes: A beautiful translucent amber-golden color and an almost transparent rim with exquisite fragrances of delicate dry fruit coupled with a hint of fine marmalade. A luxuriously silk-like palate with polished elegance and notes of fruit preserves. The complex, long and slightly dry finish reveals nutty praline notes ending with a tea leaf flourish.
PRESS
NV – 91 Wine & Spirits, 92 Wine Enthusiast, 94 Wine Advocate, 95 Wine Spectator, 96 James Suckling
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.