The Douro Boys have used their 20th anniversary to highlight the glories of seriously old tawny port, raiding cellars to create a special blend whose components date back to 1860.
The group is made up of five members: Quinta do Crasto, Quinta do Vale Meão, Quinta do Vallado, Van Zellers & Co and Niepoort. Each producer has contributed an equal proportion of wine to create two limited edition blends, The Douro Boys Anniversary Cuvée Tinto 2021 Douro DOC and the Douro Boys Anniversary Very Old Tawny Port.
Currently being offered to the trade en primeur on allocation, the two wines are due to be bottled this summer and shipped in September. Just 1,350 magnums of the Douro red have been created, while even less of the tawny port is available: 950 bottles in 75cl format.
The group marked previous major anniversaries with a vintage port blend, but Cristian van Zeller of Van Zellers & Co explained that on this occasion, “We discussed an ’02 colheita and a 20 Year Old tawny but in the end we decided to make the finest blend of very old tawnies depending on the very best wine available in our stocks.”
The final blend contains components from 2000, 1992, the 1960s, 1930s and then reaches right back to a tawny port laid down in 1860. “Trial and error, that’s how we work,” said van Zeller of the collaborative blending process. “We reflect and go back until we’re all happy.”
The project represents part of a wider surge of venerable tawny releases that is injecting real energy into a category that has seen long-term decline in global sales of its cheaper standard ports. In 2022 alone, the Port and Douro Wines Institute (IVDP) reported a -4.5% volume decline in global sales of standard port, while premium port saw volume sales rise by 22.5%.
In recognition of the growing excitement around the Douro’s extensive stocks of old tawny port, January 2022 saw the IVDP create two new categories: 50 Year Old Tawny and Very Very Old Tawny, a designation which applies to blends with an average age of over 80 years.
Many houses have already embraced these classifications. Taylor’s, Kopke, Sandeman and the Douro Boys’ own Quinta do Vallado have added a 50 Year Old tawny to their core range. Meanwhile Taylor’s released a Very Very Old Tawny Port to mark Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee last year. The same producer has just announced another Very Very Old Tawny Port to mark the coronation next month of Charles III.
Although the Douro Boys have only existed as group since 2003, many of its members boast a far older history and can therefore draw on stocks laid down several generations ago. They used their 20th anniversary as an opportunity to open some of these mature wines, which represent such a valuable part of the Douro’s identity, but has remained relatively under-exposed until now.
Miguel Roquette of Quinta do Crasto confirmed that he was now investing “very heavily” in laying down colheitas, or single harvest tawny, each year. “I think it is one of the most noble wines we can drink,” he remarked.
“It cannot but amaze us how such a drink can handle time so well,” said van Zeller. “All these old tawny ports have an incredible sense of poetry: their own history and challenges through time, how they were preserved and how they will be enjoyed in the future. These bottles are little poems.”
