# Dow´s 2011 vintage Port: the wine of the year

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    The big news late last week were the publication by the prestigious and influential (in the business and world wine market) "Wine Spectator" magazine, of the 2014 best wines list (the 2014 top wines list; 2014.top100.winespectator.com).

    To the subject that interests us here, this classification was as follows:

    1.º Dow's 2011 Vintage Port, with 99 points (of 100 possible);

    3.º Chryseia 2011 Douro DOC, with 97 points;

    4.º Quinta do Vale Meão 2011 Douro DOC, also with 97 points.

    This classification has also confirmed one of the most celebrated vintages of past decades and is sure to be recorded in the long historical “classic” vintage Port wine list as an exceptional year and one of the best harvests ever.

    In the article published in the WS magazine site, signed by Kim Marcus, in addition to the expression used - "a monument to quality" - to define the Dow's 2011 vintage is interesting to read that the final composition of this port wine represented a choice of 6 from the best lots of grapes from 44 lots available to Symington winemakers, which alone gives us an idea of the enormous capacity of the major producers for choosing the best grapes and the many options to produce exceptional wines, when compared with small-scale producers or bottlers producers.

   Interestingly, Jancis Robinson, the influential british wine writer that considered that in 2011 the Douro region produced the best wine in the world, in the published classification referring to 2011 vintage Port wines, the Dow's 2011 vintage Port wine appeared, not in the 1st group, named "super stunnig" (Fonseca, Graham's, Chapel Vesuvio, Taylor's, Taylor's Vargellas Old Vine), but in a 2nd group classified as "stunning" (Cockburn's, Dow's, Graham's Stone Terraces, Niepoort, Biome Niepoort, Quinta do Vale Meão and Vesuvio).

    In turn, the 2011 vintage Port wine tasting notes published by Richard Mayson, assigned to the Dow's 2011 vintage Port 18 points (out of twenty possible), and on this same list it appears in tenth place.

    I recall that it was also the "Wine Spectator" magazine that in 2010 ranked with the highest possible score, 100 points, the Dow's 2007 vintage Port (the same list that year, awarded 96 points to Graham's 2007 Vintage Port).

    The effects of this news on the market and wine business, specifically in Portugal, will most assuredly be identical to those occurred in 2010, that is to say that the Dow's 2011 vintage Port still available on the market (the 2011 production was lower when compared with the previous 2007 “classic” vintage year, and so the prices were higher) will suddenly disappear just to reappear later with a new higher market price. 

    If we remember the effect in the Portuguese market of identical news in 2010 (relative to the Dow's 2007 vintage Port), was that this port wine that had until that time a market price of 65€ aprx., immediately disappeared from the wine shops and online stores to return about a month and a half later with the new price of 130€ aprx.

© HSM