I visited Portugal and was lucky enough to be the guest of Ramos Pinto in 2005.
My friends and I above Bom Retiro

I, and an intrepid gang of wine industry friends, explored all four of the vineyards owned by Ramos and saw the port lodge in Porto. It was an amazing experience, one I won’t forget. We have had a long-standing relationship with the port house. Dad has been stocking the products for 20 years but that didn’t stop me from not knowing nearly enough about the product, or …

Taken from aged tawny wines from all their estates, this wine is expertly blended to show off the amazing almond / spice / wood flavours that tawny is famous for. There is very little fruit to hide any of the subtle nuances. I find the most amazing factor of the wine is the lack of overpowering spirity flavour which can be experienced in other ports of a similar age.

Tawny ports are aged in oak giving them a less dark, more reddish, light brown colour hence the name. The wood ageing also gives them a more subtle vanilla, nutty taste.

Made with the grapes solely from the Quinta de Ervamoira, a unique vineyard in the Duoro Superior but blended with different aged tawny to make an average of 10 year old.

Aged for an average of 20 years but contain a small amount of the oldest tawny port Ramos Pinto have. Using the grapes only from Quinta do Bom Retiro the oldest property. The port wine is extremely balanced and shows terrific length. Winning awards every year, this wine is the best example of what tawny can be. The blending “artists” very carefully create this complex wine and keep the quality consistent every year. Our most popular tawny, it is available in two sizes to appeal to every budget (50cl or 75cl).

A long time ago, on my return from New Zealand, I thought that the Wine Bar was in a wonderful position to give people information about wines and decided to go though our list and rewrite it in a clearer format. This would be more of a tome that contained a paragraph on each wine with a label by the side and maybe a few pieces of information and quotes we had picked up along the way.