2006 Dow’s Porto Vintage Quinta Do Bomfim

2006 Dow’s Porto Vintage Quinta Do Bomfim

2006 Dow’s Porto Vintage Quinta Do Bomfim

One of the Douro Valley’s finest vineyards, Bomfim is the heart of some of the company’s greatest Ports, having provided wines for Dow’s Vintage Ports ever since it was acquired in 1896. The estate is situated in the centre of the best wine-producing area known as the Cima Corgo, which offers an ideal balance between the relatively wet Baixo Corgo to the west and the intense heat of the Douro Superior to the east.

In the good years when Dow’s does not declare a Vintage, the best Ports of Quinta do Bomfim are carefully selected and bottled as Dow’s Quinta do Bomfim Vintage Port. These wines are exceptionally good. They will tend to mature a little earlier than the very rare Declared years, but can be every bit as good as some other Vintage Ports.

Wine & Spirits (94/100)
The Symingtons traditionally wait to release Bomfim (and Malvedos, below) until it’s about ten years old. Their newer quinta bottlings, such as Vesuvio and Senhora da Ribeira, come to market with other declared vintage releases, two years after harvest. Bomfim in ’06 will be well worth the wait, a graceful Porto with exuberant spice and a schisty undertow. Its bluesy fruit has the supple richness of the Cima Corgo, and though it doesn’t have the overwhelming youthful power of a great vintage, it has certainty to its balance and the energy to last.

With the continuing expansion of the firm, Edward da Silva and Frederick Cosens were joined by George Acheson Warre, whose well known family had been involved in the Port trade since its earliest years. GAW joined as partner in 1868 and became its driving force in Portugal.

Best known for intense, impressive and age-worthy fortified wines, Portugal relies almost exclusively on its many indigenous grape varieties. Bordering Spain to its north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean on its west and south coasts, this is a land where tradition reigns supreme, due to its relative geographical and, for much of the 20th century, political isolation. A long and narrow but small country, Portugal claims considerable diversity in climate and wine styles, with milder weather in the north and significantly more rainfall near the coast.
While Port (named after its city of Oporto on the Atlantic Coast at the end of the Douro Valley), made Portugal famous, Portugal is also an excellent source of dry red and white wines of various styles.