Delightful amber colour. The smooth aromas tell of ageing in wood and reveal a touch of cinnamon; These same characteristics appear on the palate. Smooth and honest with a pleasant persistence.Serve with appetisers such as ham, nuts and cheeses. Try with fish such as dogfish or hake. Also great with clams and hot soups. It even goes well at the end of a meal with fruits such as mandarin, orange and peach.
The wine is dense with a deep, black cherry colour and vibrant highlights in the rim. The aroma is intense and very complex, the red fruits blending with rosemary, thyme, chocolate and dark roasted notes. This is an old vine Tempranillo which offers all the fruit and smooth tannins of a well aged wine. It is dense and sweet with a long, very harmonious finish.Drink with a wide range of foods such as: páté, porcini mushrooms, red meat, lamb chops, barbecued fish, game, stews, desserts and chocolate.The grapes are selected from bush vineyards, with over 35 years of history, where they are hand harvested.The grapes are hand sorted, fermented in small stainless steel tanks before ageing in new American and French oak casks. The wine is bottled after 17 months and it will continue to improve in the bottle.
One of the best examples from this great vintage. The port is impressive, complex and drinking well now but can also be kept.“A fine, classic Dow nose with notes of cloves, raisin and a touch of fig. Not incredibly complex but refined and inviting. The palate is sweet and fleshy, again cloves, red-berried fruit, a touch of spice and dates towards the finish. Moderate weight, certainly not an imposing, alcoholic Dow, but refined with great elegance and refinement.” 92 Pts Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate There is no front label for this bottle but the name and vintage appear on the capsule. 1985 Vintage Port Description ...The Dow's 1985 Vintage Port is an excellent vintage port that will continue to drink for decades to come and the vintage was the first all-round vintage declared since 1975. The majority of the fruit was sourced from Dow's very own vineyards, Quinta do Bomfim and Senhora da Ribeira, located in the sub-regions of Cima Corgo and Douro Superior. The harvest session in 1985 was very wet, followed by a late spring and a very hot dry summer, with harvest occurring mid to late September. The resulting vintage port, bottled in 1987 is robust and will age beautifully for years to come.
Russet colour with brilliant crimson highlights and a fragrant, ripe-fruit bouquet.
Its smooth, silky texture and subtle oak nuances are balanced by a fresh acidity
and tannic ‘grip’ that culminate in a long, elegant finish. How to serve:
Chill to just below cellar temperature (about 10ºC). In summer, serve at the end
of the meal as a refreshing alternative or try as one of the few dessert wines to
match chocolateDuring the January following each vintage, Fonseca sets aside a reserve of very
concentrated, powerful vintage quality red ports, selected primarily from the firm’s
own quintas and judged according to their ageing potential. These are placed in cask
and cellared. Tawny ports of age are blended across several vintages to maintain
quality and continuity of style, and thus show an “apparent”, or average, age on the
label rather than a vintage date.
As tawny ports age, they grow lighter in colour, as they throw their deposit in
the cask rather than in the bottle. Moreover, Fonseca cellars its aged tawnies in
the Douro rather than in Vila Nova de Gaia; the considerable difference in heat
and humidity between these two areas lends Fonseca’s tawny ports of age a very
distinctive “baked” richness reminiscent of butterscotch.
Immediately appealing with good depth of flavour and underlying finesse that provides wonderful
length and unfolding flavours - think of freshly cut hay and meadowsweet for the nose, crunchy
greengages for the palate, and some candied peel / lemongrass for the final notes.
Food match: An extremely versatile wine that can be enjoyed alone or with food – delicious alongside grilled fish
(locally we would use zander), chicken in cream sauce (poulet à la crème), asparagus & mushroom
risotto, fish chowder, a traditional roast chicken with all the trimmings, or even a cheese platter -
particularly goat's cheese.Suitable for vegans.Suitable for vegetarians.Plots within the Mâcon-Charnay-lès-Mâcon appellation lie on the higher slopes of the Mont du
Mâconnais, where soils are varied but limestone is prevalent. Here Chardonnay ripens under a
Continental climate (typically cold winters followed by warm springs and almost Mediterranean sun in
the summer). Once ripe, picking is both by hand and machine. Machine harvesting has the advantage
of picking in the early hours of the morning before daylight when the temperature rises; hand picking
is gentler and keeps whole bunches intact. After pressing and static settling the must is cooled to
around 12°C to ensure a controlled fermentation. Once alcoholic fermentation is complete, wines are
left to winter and undergo malolactic fermentation. With enviable priority access to the cellar in
Mâcon-Charnay, Samantha tastes each individual tank (up to 20) to select a very personalised blend
for GENETIE 'Les Piliers', combining three essential elements - the florals, the exotic and the mineral.
The final blend is kept on fine lees until bottling, combining the warmth of southern Burgundy with
the elegance and finesse of the special terroir of Mâcon-Charnay-lès-Mâcon.
This is a big oak aged wine made on the estate of the Wente family winery in San Fransisco Bay. Livermore Valley is regarded as the best place to grow gapes there due to the climate it almost ideal. This wine was aged in oak for seven months before bottling. The wine has green apple and tropical fruit aromas and flavours, balanced by subtle oak, cinnamon and vanilla from barrel aging. With a mouth filling body and balanced acidity this wine delivers a medium long refreshing finish.
Classic tawny colour with streaks
of amber. An array of aromas
are on display with dark raisined
fruits, mocha, hints of vanillin oak
and nutty aged barrel characters.
Initially luscious, nuances of mocha
and coffee have integrated over
time, barrel aged flavours in
harmony resulting in a smooth,
lingering drying finish.General Characteristics Sweet / Medium bodied.
Suggested Cuisine
Tawnys are a traditional after
dinner wine that can be savoured
with a platter of cheeses or a rich
fruit or chocolate dessert. Wine making: Fruit is allowed to stay on the vine
until very sweet and an intense
concentration of flavours has
developed. After crushing and
partial fermentation to retain some
sweetness, the wine is pressed and
then fortified with a neutral spirit
prior to maturation in small and large
format oak casks.
Cellaring: With an average age of 21 years,
Old Boys Barrel Aged Tawny can be
cellared for extended maturation in
bottle but is blended to be enjoyed
on opening at any time.
A bright, vibrant wine with spicy red berry fruit such as blueberry and mulberry, exotic spice and creamy vanilla, evident ripe tannins and a long finish. This wine drinks well young but will improve over the next 6 to 8 years, gaining more complexity. The grapes were hand-picked into small baskets and taken to the cellar. A portion was
fermented in open bins and hand-punched four times a day. The rest was fermented in a
rototank. No commercial yeast was used as these grapes ferment well with their own yeast.
The wine matured in a mixture of French and American oak barrels for 14 months.
Approximately 30% was new wood.
Recommendation
Deeply flavoured dishes. Peking duck, sweet & sour Pork belly, mushroom risotto.Suitable for vegansSuitable for vegetariansAwards: Decanter Medal Silver Platter's South African Wine Guide 4.5 starsPainted Wolf Wines is a quality boutique family business producing a range of commercially appealing specialist wines. They work with grape growers in various appellations in South Africa. Making wine from organic and sustainably farmed grapes, and donating around 4% of annual turnover to African wild dog (Painted Wolf) conservation is at the core of their company philosophy.
Offers astonishingly pure notes of mocha and ripe strawberry on the nose. Well balanced, its round character is lifted by a light acidity on the finish.Suitable for vegansSuitable for vegetariansThis wine is also OrganicStellar is one of South Africa's largest organic wine producers and is the leading ethical wine brand in the UK. Founded by the Rossouw brothers in 2000, Stellar is a passionate and innovative winery, continually pushing the boundaries of winemaking whilst keeping ethical, social and environmental principles at the heart of everything they do. Stellar are the world's top producers of no added sulphur wines, the purest expression of organic winemaking. The vineyards are patrolled as organically as possible assisted by Indian Runner ducks, which act as natural pest removers. Stellar is Fair For Life certified and the Stellar Foundation is committed to improving the life of its vibrant worker community.
Full-bodied and loaded with fruit, this single quinta Port has layers of black cherry, dark bramble
fruits, grippy tannins and vibrant acidity. 2004 is widely regarded as a fine vintage for Single Quinta
Ports.An unfiltered Port, so decant, and serve with well-matured blue cheese.Suitable for vegansSuitable for vegetariansWiese & Krohn's estate Quinta do Retiro Novo is located in Sarzedinho, a small village in the Rio
Torto valley. Quality is determined by the grape varieties, by the age of the vines, their method of
training and the density of planting. All these factors are officially converted into points, the sum of
which determines the final classification of the property. Here, this sum exceeds 1200 points, ensuring
it belongs to a select group of "Class A" properties. Summer was hot in 2004 followed by a wet
September but finally more sun pushed up sugar levels before harvest. After harvest, old lagares (open
granite tanks about 75cm high) are still used to make the best Ports with traditional foot treading of the
grapes without any mechanical crushing. This Port was aged for a couple of years in wood and several
years in bottle before release. It has the potential to age for around 25 years or more.
Intense aromas of raspberries, blackberries, prunes,
chocolate and minerals. Dense sweet berry fruits, plum and cassis, then spice.
The tannins are big, structure excellent and it can be drunk now or still kept
to mature further.
Aromatic and intense, lovely aromas of wild berries, blossom, nutmeg and hints of sandalwood. Fresh, fruity and well balanced with sensations of raspberries, vanilla and cinnamon.The wine is fermented in stainless steel tanks at controlled temperature and then spends 18 months in American and French oak barrels and a further 6 months in bottle before releasing.Perfect accompaniment to chargrilled meat, cured ham and tapas.Suitable for vegansSuitable for vegetarians