Croft Port, 2016

Vintage Port - 12x37.5cl HALF Bottle Case

IN-BOND PRICE £240.00

ALSO AVAILABLE DUTY PAID AT £325 PER CASE (Link below)

Description and Reviews:
Croft has declared that it will release 2016 as a classic vintage. This is the sixth classic vintage release since Croft’s return to family management in 2001. Comments on the Croft 2016 Vintage Port are as follows:

Adrian Bridge, Managing Director
"This is a classic Croft Vintage Port, wonderfully aromatic with a rich fruitiness and an exotic herbal character. However, it has the poise and sense of proportion characteristic of the 2106 vintage. A relatively small crop means that the amount of Vintage Port made was smaller than usual.”

David Guimaraens, Head Wine Maker
Commenting on the viticultural year: "In spite of the hot summer, the grapes matured slowly and evenly, producing perfectly balance musts. Picking started later than usual with most estates, including Croft’s Quinta da Roêda, starting their harvests in the second half of September. Notes taken at the harvest mention the fine fruit aromas of the musts and the pronounced tannins.” Commenting on the wine: "The Croft 2016 is very much in style, displaying opulent fruit and a resiny herbal dimension contributed by the old vineyard at Quinta da Roêda. At the same time, it has the purity and balance which are key characteristics of the year.”

Viticultural Year
The viticultural year in the Douro Valley began with a very wet spring. In April and May, 249mm of rain fell at Croft’s Quinta da Roêda estate in the Douro Valley, nearly three times the average for the last decade. This rainfall was welcome after the very dry conditions in 2015 and helped restore ground water reserves at Roêda and throughout the Douro Valley. As a result of the cool, wet spring conditions, the ripening season started late. The first colouring of the grapes was observed around 11th July and coincided with the onset of very hot, dry weather which continued until mid-September.
During the ripening season, the weather station at Quinta da Roêda recorded 13 days with temperatures exceeding 40°C. In spite of the heat, owing to abundant ground water reserves and the late cycle, maturation was slow and even. At the end of August, most grapes were far from ripe. In mid-September, a spell of rain helped accelerate and complete the ripening process. In the second half of September and well into October, the weather remained fine, providing ideal harvesting conditions. Low night-time temperatures helped to extend fermentation times and allow for gradual and gentle extraction, a factor which contributed to the elegance and finesse of the 2016 wines and the quality of the tannins. Picking at Croft’s Quinta da Roêda started on 17th September.


Tasting Note:
Intense purple ruby core with vivid purple rim. The nose displays the ripe strawberry and blackcurrant fruitiness and resiny notes of rock rose and eucalyptus that are the essence of the Croft Vintage Port style. The palate opens with a surge of rich berry fruit flavour and is supported by a dense mesh of close-knit tannins. Although the wine displays some of the plump, rubenesque character of prior Croft vintages, the accent here is on symmetry and finesse. The characteristically exuberant fruit and heady herbal aromas are carefully modulated and the wine is classical in its proportions. An elegant and aromatic Vintage Port, perfectly poised between opulence and restraint.


DUTY PAID AT £325.00 PER CASE


What is En Primeur?

Condition Report:

Delivery Early 2019. No discount codes can be used in this purchase.

Bottle size:

75cl

ABV:

20

Drink Type:

Vintage Port, Port, Douro

Stock:

Out of Stock

Price:

$311.47 USD    inc UK VAT (where applicable) *