Ferreira Tawny Port NV
£13.75
The wine
Pale brick red. Mellow red fruits married with baking spice and roasted notes.
Tawny port is aged in small casks where slow contact with oxygen fades the colour and builds nuttiness, unlike ruby which is held in large vessels to keep fruit and colour. The Douro is the largest mountain vineyard on earth, terraced into schist so hard the roots drive metres down for water, and it was the first demarcated wine region in the world, in 1756. Ferreira was founded in 1751 and is among the oldest port houses still trading, its wines vinified at Quinta do Seixo where the grapes are foot trodden in granite lagares.
The producer
Ferreira
View all Ferreira winesFerreira is one of the oldest and most revered names in Port, founded in 1751 and Portuguese-owned throughout its long history. From its lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia it has shaped the story of the Douro for centuries. The house is forever linked with Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira, the legendary 19th-century matriarch who built its reputation.
The wines are born in the steep, schist-terraced vineyards of the Douro Valley, one of the world's most dramatic wine landscapes. Native grapes such as Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca are grown at altitude and fortified in the traditional way. Ferreira's quintas lie at the heart of the finest Port country.
The range spans everything from fresh Ruby and White Ports to smooth aged Tawnies, Late Bottled Vintage and the rare Quinta do Porto Vintage. The Dona Antónia Tawnies, aged ten, twenty and thirty years, are the jewels of the house. Each shows the depth and elegance that define great Port.
Few names carry such history or such consistency. Ferreira's Ports are rich, warming and endlessly versatile, as at home after dinner as beside a cheeseboard. This is Port in its most authentic and Portuguese form.
