Quinta Do Vesuvio, Vintage Port, 2024

Vesuvio is a single estate (like Noval) in the heart of the Douro Superior, known for its fiercely hot weather conditions. This heat is mitigated by exposure and elevation, as the vineyards are situated on the river and rising to 500m on steep terraced hills. With a huge array of different aspects, it has been described as a wine making nirvana. Vintage Port accounts for just 4% of total production at the estate. It is 100% foot trodden in granite lagares, built in the 1920s. Bought by Symington in the 1980s, it has slowly been brought back to life. A racehorse of a wine “quivering to get out of the glass” according to Anthony Symington, the 2024 is an explosion of wildflowers and piercing red and black fruits on the nose, in part thanks to the presence of 50-year-old Touriga Franca vines. There is a layered sweetness here; the wine is unctuous and full but never overbearing. It is toned down by mineral notes of slate, wildflowers and rosemary, nuanced by pipe tobacco and liquorice that meld with the dark plum, cherry, damson, prune and dates on the mid-palate. It is velvety and decedent and exactly what one wants from Vesuvio.