Cult Wines International Notes:

Offley was founded in 1737 by William Offley, and its character was shaped a century later by Joseph James Forrester, who joined the firm in 1831. Forrester was among the most consequential figures in the history of the Douro: he mapped the river in detail, campaigned against the adulteration of Port, and studied the region’s viticulture with a rigour nobody had applied before. He was made a baron by the Portuguese crown, and drowned in the river he had charted. The house’s name has been linked to Quinta da Boa Vista ever since. The vineyard sits in the Rio Torto valley, on steep schist terraces above the Douro, and is among the most celebrated single sites in the region, planted largely to Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz. From 2016 the wine is no longer labelled Boa Vista, which makes older bottles the only ones to carry the name.

1987 was not a generally declared year in the Douro. The major shippers held back, and what was bottled came from single quintas whose owners judged their own fruit good enough to stand alone. Boa Vista was one of them. Nearly forty years on, a Port of this kind has moved well past its primary fruit into something quieter and more layered: garnet gone amber at the rim, with dried fig, black cherry, toffee, almond and hazelnut, and the sweetness now carried by spice and nuttiness rather than by fruit. Stand the bottle upright for a day or two, decant carefully off the sediment, and serve at cellar temperature.

Bottle Size:

750 mL

Storage History:

Always stored on its side in a climate-controlled cellar.

Condition:

Please note: The bottle shown is the exact bottle being sold.

Outstanding condition.