Symington launches 2021 Graham’s PortoVintage The Stone Terraces 

The Symington family has just announced the bottling of Graham’s The Stone Terraces Vintage Port of 2021. Born from two low-yield plots, with less than three hectares, spread over narrow terraced vineyards, on Graham’s main property, in the Douro, Quinta dos Malvedos , this Vintage Port is only produced in years when the vineyards produce wines of incomparable elegance and complexity. This is only the fifth time that Symington has decided to produce a Graham’s The Stone Terraces Vintage Port, joining the year 2021 with the previous editions of 2011, 2015, 2016 and 2017. 

  The Stone Terraces 2021 Vintage Port has lively and fresh aromas, with the unmistakable trace of tropical fruit – the hallmark of this wine –, also being characterized by being a concentrated wine, but at the same time supremely refined with polished tannins and acidity. tense, which draws exquisite elegance and balance. Only 4,800 bottles of 75cl and 280 “tappit Hen” bottles (triples of 225cl) will be bottled for marketing, which corresponds to just two percent of the total production of Quinta dos Malvedos, in 2021. The wine will also be launched en primeur, during the spring of this year. 

With regard to the growth cycle and the 2021 harvest, these were among the freshest in recent years, guided by moderate conditions that favored slower and more gradual maturation, with good balance. It should be noted that the stone terraced vines are mostly planted with mature Touriga Nacional, but there are also some small, more recent plantings of Touriga Franca, Sousão and Alicante Bouschet. The grapes from these vineyards were harvested simultaneously and co-fermented (vinified together) in order to enhance the complexity, structure and freshness of The Stone Terraces 2021 Vintage Port. 

When evaluating the best wines produced in 2021 at all the Symington family farms in the Douro, Charles Symington, production director, was truly impressed by the quality of the wines from the terraces of Quinta dos Malvedos. The family therefore took the rare decision to make a limited bottling of Graham’s The Stone Terraces Vintage Port. “My family has valued the hand-built stone walls of Quinta dos Malvedos for a long time, as they produce wines with an incredible and unique profile, which are clearly distinguished from the other wines produced there. After being abandoned following phylloxera, these terraces were meticulously rebuilt by hand at the end of the 19th century, designed to produce Port wines of exceptional concentration and power, using centuries-old viticulture techniques”, said Charles Symington. 

The manager also explained that «while the Malvedos have an exposure mainly to the south, the terraced stone terraces are made up of two vineyards with cooler exposures: the first, designated ‘Port Arthur’ has two adjacent plots, with west and east exposures, while the second, known as Vinha dos Cardenhos, faces north. The shale walls of these terraces have the particularity of storing, throughout the day, solar heat, which is then slowly released during the night. This phenomenon favors the evolution of maturation in a gradual and more homogeneous way and this effect, in addition to the fresher exposures, explains the fascination of these vines that we work with and why they give rise to one of the best wines we produce in the Douro».  

As these terraced vineyards consist of small plots of very restricted production, the quality is not always necessarily in line with the trend of classic Vintage years – as was the case in 2021. The family felt that the best expression of the year was in their main estates, deciding to bottle the following Quinta Vintage Ports: Cockburn’s Quinta dos Canais 2021 Vintage Port; Dow’s Quinta do Bomfim 2021 Vintage Port; Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira 2021 Vintage Port; Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos 2021 Vintage Port and Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha 2021 Vintage Port. 

After careful evaluation of these Quinta Vintage Ports, the family decided to launch, en primeur, a small quantity of Quinta do Bomfim 2021 Vintage Port in 2023. The remaining Vintage Ports will age in the family cellars for future release. 

The family chose not to bottle Vintage from Quinta do Vesúvio, as the winery was closed for the 2021 harvest due to restrictions related to covid-19. It was the second year (following 2020), since the construction of the winery in 1827, that there was no stepping on the lagares. Staying true to tradition, the family decided not to bottle Vintag