2017 Croft - Porto Vintage Port HALF BOTTLE (375ml)

Croft ranks among the oldest Port houses still active today, with origins tracing back to 1588 at the very start of the Anglo-Portuguese wine trade. Across more than four centuries the house helped shape the Douro Valley into one of the world's defining wine regions and built a name for producing Vintage Ports of exceptional consistency. At the heart of Croft's identity is Quinta da Roêda, its riverside property in the Douro, whose fruit anchors the house's finest Vintage Port releases and gives the wines their signature ripe, generous character.

The 2017 growing season ran hot and dry, prompting Croft to begin picking on August 31, the earliest start date at the estate since 1945. The blend leans on old vines of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Roriz grown on Quinta da Roêda's schist slopes, hand harvested and fermented in traditional lagares before fortification with grape spirit locked in the wine's natural sweetness and tannic backbone. After roughly two years aging in wood, the finished wine was bottled unfiltered, standard practice for a declared Vintage Port meant for decades of cellaring. Only around 3,900 cases were produced from the vintage.

Deep purple in the glass, the wine opens with intense black plum and crushed violet aromas, joined by orange blossom and a trace of Seville orange marmalade. The palate is medium bodied yet luxuriously smooth, with velvety tannins carrying ripe blackcurrant and black cherry fruit toward a controlled, clove-tinged finish. It suits robust hard cheeses, dark chocolate desserts, or simply a quiet glass on its own after dinner.