Vintage Porto, Quinta do Vallado 2020
Mix any six bottles and you pay the Any 6+ price at checkout — no code needed.
£10 tracked UK delivery, however many bottles.
We pack and send twice a week, Wednesdays and Fridays, by Royal Mail Tracked 48.
Members pay £42.00 — £10.50 less on this bottle. Membership is £120 a year and carries the EDKA Promise. Membership terms
Why this wine
Vallado has been in the same family since the days of Dona Antonia Ferreira, and its Vintage comes from old field-blend vines in the Rio Torto valley. Ageing in steel rather than wood leaves the fruit vivid and puts everything on the palate. A bottle to lay down for a birthday, an anniversary or simply a long wait.
At a glance
- Grape
- Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Sousão, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca
- Region
- Douro, Portugal
- Alcohol
- 20.50%
- Body
- Full
- Acidity
- Medium
- Tannins
- Medium
- Sweetness
- Sweet
- Drink
- Exceptional Longevity (15-50+ Years)
- Pairs with
- Cheese, Rich & Creamy Dishes
How it tastes
Layers of dark berries and dried fruit, richly concentrated, the sweetness carried on ripe tannins rather than sitting on top of them. Full-bodied, with an everlasting finish. A field blend of old vines, chiefly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Sousao, Tinta Roriz and Tinta Barroca.
The producer
Quinta do Vallado was established in 1716 and is one of the oldest estates in the Douro, on the banks of the River Corgo near the town of Peso da Regua. It was once the property of Dona Antonia Adelaide Ferreira and remains with her descendants, who in the 1990s added dry red, white and rose wines to the estate's Ports and began replanting the vineyards in single-variety plots, breaking with the old habit of co-planting. The fruit for this Porto comes from terraced vines in the Valley of Rio Torto, planted between 80 and 400 metres on south- and west-facing slopes of nutrient-rich schist and picked into small crates. Half the crop was fermented with the stalks, in lagares with periodic foot treading and the estate's own yeasts, then fortified with grape spirit once the desired Baume was reached, and the wine spent 21 months in stainless steel vats to hold on to the fruit. 2020 was shaped by heat: a rapid spike on 23 and 24 June scalded vineyards across the Douro and cut yields, and three waves of heat in July, with more through August, dehydrated the grapes and drove up sugars.
Food and drinking
Serve at 16-18C, decanted an hour or so ahead. Stilton and other blue cheeses, mature hard cheese, dark chocolate puddings, or walnuts and dried fruit. This is built for the long haul and will reward decades in a cool, dark place. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.