2016 Maynard's - Vintage Port

Maynard's takes its name from Walter Maynard, born in 1652, one of the first English merchants to ship Port wine from Oporto and an ancestor of the Van Zeller family through marriage. Today the brand belongs to Barão de Vilar, founded in 1996 by brothers Fernando and Álvaro van Zeller, whose family has been in the Douro wine trade for fourteen generations and once owned the storied Quinta do Noval. Winemaker Álvaro van Zeller, who began his career at Noval, now oversees the full Maynard's range, honoring an ancestral connection to Port's earliest English trade.

This 2016 Vintage Port was made from grapes grown in the Torto Valley, at the heart of the Douro, using traditional varieties including Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, and Tinto Cão. The grapes were foot trodden in granite lagares, and fermentation was halted with the addition of grape spirit before the wine spent two years aging in oak. It was then bottled unfiltered, a classic Vintage Port style that allows for further development and the formation of natural sediment in the bottle over time.

The color is a deep, dense red, and the nose carries ripe blackberry, cassis, and hints of marzipan and maple. On the palate the wine is rich and firm, with thick, well-structured tannins framing dense fruit and a long, fresh finish. Decant carefully before serving, and pair it with a Portuguese sheep's milk cheese or a bowl of vanilla ice cream.