Dow’s Vintage Port 2024
After seven years, Dow's returns with a vintage that exemplifies the house's legendary character: powerful structure and concentration, peppery tannins and a distinctive drier finish. The 2024 is a classic worthy of standing alongside the highly acclaimed Dow's declarations of this century - the 2007 (100 points Wine Spectator), the 2011 (Wine Spectator Wine of the Year in 2014), and the impressive back-to-back 2016-2017 declarations. For well over a century, five generations of our family have farmed the two vineyards that form the backbone of Dow's classic Vintage Ports: Quinta do Bomfim in the Cima Corgo and Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira, further upriver in the Douro Superior. It is the combination of the finest wines from these two estates that gives Dow's Vintage Ports their signature structured grip and powerful frame - an unmistakable lineage stretching back more than two centuries.
Reviews
Precise, with a pretty, grainy texture and incisive character. Medium- to full-bodied, long and dimensional. The grainy texture turns saline. Very stimulating to taste. - J.G.L.
The 2024 Vintage Port follows the previous declaration of 2017. It was produced with grapes from Quinta do Bomfim in the Cima Corgo and Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira in the Douro Superior. The blend is 40% Touriga Franca, 35% Touriga Nacional, 15% field blend (vinhas velhas) and 10% Alicante Bouschet. It fermented in lagar and matured in oak casks. It's linear and structured, with some graphite, lots of resinous rockrose, hints of chocolate (classic Dow's) and is slightly dry and peppery, with a textbook note of violets. Dow's are typically brooding, not up front and quite long. It has a lot of grip. It comes in at 20% alcohol, with a pH of 3.65 and 99 grams of sugar, which makes this one of their driest vintages, with Cockburn's, making it long and vinous. I think this is great wine. - LG