With its dark color, this port offers you scents of violets and a subtle touch of fresh mint. Its delicious character immediately introduces you to the powerful flavors of dark fruits, including blackberries. These flavors are perfectly complemented by hints of peppery spices. This combination makes the character of this Dow's Vintage richer than that of its predecessors.
Dow's - In 1798 Bruno da Silva set up a company in London to import Portuguese wines. In 1862 his son John bought into a partnership with Frederick Cosens. Fifteen years later Silva & Cosens merged with the smaller Dow & Co, adopting the name of Dow due to its high reputation in the Port trade. They built up considerable holdings in the Douro
including Quinta do Bomfim. The Symingtons had a stake in the company early in the twentieth century and became sole owners in 1961. In style the wines are drier than most, very tannic, but with pronounced fleshy fruit. Given 15 to 30 years aging the Vintage wines show great complexity. As at the other Symington properties Peter Symington has introduced robotic lagares.
Food-Pairing
With its dark color, this port offers you scents of violets and a subtle touch of fresh mint. Its delicious character immediately introduces you to the powerful flavors of dark fruits, including blackberries. These flavors are perfectly complemented by hints of peppery spices. This combination makes the character of this Dow's Vintage richer than that of its predecessors.
Dow's - In 1798 Bruno da Silva set up a company in London to import Portuguese wines. In 1862 his son John bought into a partnership with Frederick Cosens. Fifteen years later Silva & Cosens merged with the smaller Dow & Co, adopting the name of Dow due to its high reputation in the Port trade. They built up considerable holdings in the Douro
including Quinta do Bomfim. The Symingtons had a stake in the company early in the twentieth century and became sole owners in 1961. In style the wines are drier than most, very tannic, but with pronounced fleshy fruit. Given 15 to 30 years aging the Vintage wines show great complexity. As at the other Symington properties Peter Symington has introduced robotic lagares.
Food-Pairing
A delicious digestive, but can also be accompanied by rich old cheeses, dark chocolate or chocolate mousse.
Grapes: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Sousao & others
For this Vintage Port, the grapes are harvested from the vineyard with the name 'Senhora da Ribeira'. This name literally means 'The woman of the river'.
Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira: One of the classic river-side quintas of the Douro and one of its most beautiful, is relatively small with just 25 hectares of vines. This Quinta is located 23 km upriver from Bomfim and has a different climate; rainfall in this remote area of the Douro Superior is about 30% less than at Bomfim with just 450 mm on average each year, and the summers are hotter. Yields are very low at just over 1kg per vine, resulting in full and dark wines of incredible structure which age exceptionally well. The Senhora da Ribeira wines are made at the property’s own winery, where, as at Bomfim, the grapes are fermented in lagares.
Abundant rainfall during the first half of the winter reversed the severe drought of 2022, replenishing soil water levels satisfactorily. Although February to April was an exceptionally dry and mild period, generous late spring rainfall in May and June sustained the vines over the ripening cycle. While much of Europe was blasted by extreme heatwaves during the summer, July temperatures in Portugal were close to normal and in the Douro fractionally below average. Although there was virtually no rainfall in the Douro during July and August, reasonable soil moisture, combined with comparatively moderate temperatures, favoured good levels of acidity, balanced maturations, and good phenolic development. Perfectly timed rain in early September provided a great start to the vintage, and we picked under fine conditions during the first half of the month. From mid-September, excessive rainfall affected later ripening grapes, but many of our finest vineyard parcels had been picked before the rain, enabling us to produce some very fine wines.
Alcoholcontent
20%
Store & Serve
Serve at cellar temperature at 12 - 15ºC.
Decanting a few minutes before serving emphasises the complexity. Can be kept for up to 3 days after opening.
Critics & Awards
17/20- Julia Harding MW, JancisRobinson.com - Tasted Jun 2025
Touriga Nacional (43%), Touriga Franca (38%), Sousão (11%), Alicante Bouschet (8%). Vineyards on the north bank of the Douro in the Douro Superior. High proportion of old vines. TA 4.3 g/l, pH 3.65. Cask sample. Black core with narrow and intensely purple rim. Not quite as open and expressive as the Bomfim at the moment. Smells somehow darker fruited, too, more elderberry than damson. Tannins are more obvious, structured and deliciously dry, thickly textured, maybe needs longer than the Bomfim to come round, I think, but may not age quite as long. Tannins are powerful and dense. Long, and with just enough freshness.
