The top Port Houses have all declared the 2011 Vintage Port, resulting in the first generalised declaration for Vintage Port since the classic 2007 vintage.
The Fladgate Partnership has declared for their Taylor's, Fonseca and Croft - “The 2011s stand out for the purity of the fruit and the quality of the tannins, which are silky and well-integrated, but provide plenty of structure,” said David Guimaraens, Fladgate's chief winemaker. With yields down between 14-38% on the 2007, Adrian Bridge, CEO, cautioned that “this is an exceptional vintage, and relatively small, so we expect an increase of worldwide demand.”
The Symington Family Estates have also released 2011 Vintage Port including, Grahams, Dows, Warres, Cockburn, Quinta do Vesúvio and Smith Woodhouse, as well as limited editions of Capela da Quinta do Vesúvio and, for the first time, Graham's The Stone Terraces, made from two tiny fractions of the 18th century terraced vineyards of Quinta dos Malvedos. There will be just 250 cases of The Stone Terraces.
Winemaker Charles Symington described the 2011 Vintage Ports as “characterized by an unusual combination of elegance with power and structure.” Paul Symington, CEO, emphasized their “marked minerality” with “schist-edged tannins,”.
Critics have been tasting and raving about the 2011 Vintage Port.
"Could 2011 be the vintage to put vintage port back on the wine map? I do hope so. I have never been as excited by the launch of a clutch of vintage ports. The quality of the best examples, of which there are many, is truly outstanding. There is a real sense of wine producers' having risen to the occasion of a growing season that could have been pretty ordinary but was decidedly extraordinary in the end, and the competition between them to produce the finest examples has never been keener. The good thing is that port in general is better made than ever before, which means that many of these fine, baby 2011 Vintage Ports are delicious enough to drink young". Jancis Robinson, 4th May 2013
"The young wines have the feel of greatness it could turn out to be another 1963 perhaps a 1945 or 1908" Derek Smedley MW, 2nd May 2013
Tweet from Richard Hemming who writes for Jancis Robinson @RichardHemming "In case you haven't heard yet, anything with 'Port' and '2011' on the bottle is very very delicious and every wine fan is dutybound to buy some".
