NV Warre’s ‘Warrior’ Special Reserve Ruby Port, Douro, Portugal (283RMB)
Available from Aussino (www.aussino.net). Contact: Joe Ma 13810465433, Email: joema@aussino.net

Founded in 1670, Warre’s was the first British-owned Port house and is now operated by The Symington Family. As a Reserve Ruby, this wine is from grapes of higher quality than normal Ruby Port - see this month’s Tips and Tricks for more information - and is aged for longer before release.

Dark purple in colour, the nose has lovely crushed black fruits and sweet spice aromas. A powerful palate with intense fruit, high tannins, vibrant acidity balancing the high sugar here, this wine has good length and is one of the best Reserve Ruby Ports.

2003 Graham’s Late Bottled Vintage Port, Douro, Portugal (306RMB)
Available from Torres China (www.torreschina.com). Contact: Jenny Zhang, Email: jenny@torres.com.cn 13901366534

Graham’s, like Warre’s, is also part of The Symington Family estates. This wine is from the amazing 2003 vintage. As a Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) wine (see this month’s Tips and Tricks on Port styles), it can be drunk earlier than other Vintage Ports.

Very dark purple in colour, the nose has gorgeous concentrated black fruits and sweet and savoury spices. The palate is immensely rich with integrated sugar, high acidity, very ripe high tannins and excellent length.

This wine represents good value (in the Chinese market) and can easily last for a week after opening without spoiling.

Posted on Saturday, January 16th, 2010 at 4:52 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.