Cult Wines International Notes:

Quinta de Santa Eufémia lies at Parada do Bispo, on the schist slopes above the Douro, and has belonged to the Carvalho family since the nineteenth century, when it was founded by Bernardo Rodrigues de Carvalho. It remains genuinely small and genuinely family-run, with the fourth generation making the wine, everything grown, aged and bottled on the property. For most of its history the house built its name on tawny, turning to vintage Port only in the 1990s. Quinta dos Eirados was a separate label the family created alongside their own Quinta Santa Eufémia Vintage, and here is the point worth knowing: 1999 is the only year it was ever bottled under this name. When the Eirados label reappeared in 2007 it held the same wine as the house Vintage. This bottle, declared in 1999 and bottled in 2001, is a one-off.

1999 was not a generally declared year in the Douro, so the great shippers passed. What that leaves are the single-quinta and small-house Ports made by growers who judged their own fruit good enough, bottled in tiny quantities and rarely seen outside Portugal. Fortified at 19.5 percent and given twenty-seven years in glass, a Port of this kind sheds its youthful purple for deep garnet with an amber edge, and trades primary fruit for fig, dried cherry, chocolate, walnut and warm spice, the tannins long since settled into the sweetness. Stand it upright a day or two, decant 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.