Posted 9 April 2019
by Dia Grigoriou
The Symington
family just announced 2017 as a classic Vintage Port year, making this their first
ever 'back-to-back' general declaration since Andrew James Symington arrived in
Porto in 1882!
This declaration -
only the sixth declaration of the 21st century comes in contrast with the
tradition of rarely declaring a vintage year 'back-to-back’. So far, the
port trade has held back declaring two consecutive vintages as we can see
from the 2015 vintage port which, although of very high quality, was not
declared in anticipation of the widely declared 2016. It is worth
mentioning here that the only shipper continuously declaring their ports year
after year, is Quinta Do Noval who also declared Quinta Do Noval 2017, as well
as the very rare 2017 Quinta Do Noval Nacional
Vintage Port.
Chairman Johnny Symington
comments on this declaration: “Few wine regions
in the world restrict vintage years with such integrity as we do in the Douro.
The decision to declare Vintage Ports from two consecutive years was not one
taken lightly. However, these two exceptionally strong harvests have produced
wines of such immense quality that we felt justified in making this historic
decision.”
Reports on the 2017
vintage mention this was an early harvest as warm and very dry conditions
resulted in small flavoursome berries of excellent polyphenolic composition and
ripeness. These weather reports resemble the dry conditions of the stellar 1945
vintage, another early harvest resulting in vintage ports of the highest
quality which are still drinking exceptionally well now, nearly 75 years
later!
Head wine-maker Charles Symington reports:"In my 25 years as a winemaker in our family vineyards, I have
never seen a year like 2017. The yields were extremely low, but the
concentration and structure took my breath away. We have made some really
remarkable wines."
Symington will
shortly be offering limited quantities (by allocation en primeur) of Graham’s,
Dow’s, Warre’s and Cockburn’s as well as Quinta do Vesuvio, Graham’s ‘The Stone
Terraces’ and Capela da Quinta do Vesuvio. The 2017 is just the fourth release
of the latter two, which are only produced in truly exceptional years.
Given the very
low-yielding year, the 2017 Vintage Port is the smallest Symington declaration
of the 21st century, with en primeur volumes approximately a third less than in
2016.
To obtain a vintage
port from the exceptional 2017 vintage, please e-mail us your interest at sales@vintagewineandport.co.uk.