For The Love Of Port

From the label:
1816 - 1991
175th Anniversary - Commemorative bottling.

Back label states: This special Vintage Porto commemorates the founding of Quinta do Infantado in 1816. This historic bottling is made entirely from the noble Touriga Nacional grape....

Purchased on release. Dark ruby color with some some slight bricking. Beautiful blackberry and cocoa. It smells somewhat evolved and very inviting. The palate follows the nose. Medium+ body. Still some unresolved tannins, but very drinkable. Very long finish. Decent acidity. Delicious!! A very successful 1991. It reminds me of one of the better vintages of Vesuvio - it's in that style. Not as good as the 1994 Vesuvio, but just a notch down from that. This is a pretty rare bottling. I've had people argue with me that this wine doesn't exist and that no Vintage Port has been made from 100% Touriga Nacional.
92 points

David Spriggs wrote:I've had people argue with me that this wine doesn't exist and that no Vintage Port has been made from 100% Touriga Nacional.

I was under the impression that it isn't legal to produce Vintage Port from a single grape, so I can understand why people would argue the point with you.

I had heard that as well. My opinion, this is a fascinating experiment, but I believe that at this point the Port would have been better with a little Tinta Roriz or some other grape varietal with more structure. That would have been enough to push my score into the mid 90's.

I've always been told it's illegal as well. Then again, this the Douro and the IVDP were talking about. Rules are more like guidelines. Unless it's a translation issue when the label was produced in English.


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Guess we're going with.....rules are more like guidelines HAHA!!!


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Glenn E. wrote:

David Spriggs wrote:I've had people argue with me that this wine doesn't exist and that no Vintage Port has been made from 100% Touriga Nacional.

I was under the impression that it isn't legal to produce Vintage Port from a single grape, so I can understand why people would argue the point with you.

I was under that impression as well. Let's see if I can find it in the regulations.
https://ivdp.pt/pt/docs/legislacao/361.pdf
In Article 16, I find this:

d) Referência a, pelo menos, quatro ou mais castas de que o vinho do Porto provenha;

This is an optional labeling item for four or more vine varieties. This suggests to me that you don't have to list varieties, but if you do, there better be at least four.

There is another regulation out there that defines what varieties may be used. I wonder if that says anything.

I've had some single varietal samples, but they were specifically labeled as samples not for sale.

Eric Menchen wrote: I've had some single varietal samples, but they were specifically labeled as samples not for sale.

Same here, but as you noted, they were only hold backs from their blending trials (such as Ramos Pinto)

I like their style of port, this sounds like a neat bottle!