Smith Woodhouse 10 Year Old Tawny Port
Winemaker Notes
Excellent tawny color gained through ageing in small oak barrels. The nose shows layers of mature fruit aromas, beautifully integrated with nuances of nuts and crystallized dried fruits.On the palate very smooth and mellow, with a well-balanced and long finish.
“10 Years” indicates an average age: it is a blend of older lots, which offer complexity and depth, and younger wine, which lend fresh fruit flavors and vibrancy.
Smith Woodhouse 10 Year Old Tawny Port is a perfect match with apple pie and strong cheeses like aged cheddar. Taste slightlychilled to appreciate the full complexity and sensuous pleasure of this wine. Port is best served in classic Port wine glassware or white wine glasses. Avoid cordial or liqueur glasses as they are too small to fully appreciate the wine’s aromas.
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesAnother Symington family brand that often shows well, Smith Woodhouse's 10-Year Oldis big and firm, quite tannic even, and very rich and dry. This is a good, solid, powerful wine, with great finishing acidity.
The home of Port—perhaps the most internationally acclaimed beverage—the Douro region of Portugal is one of the world’s oldest delimited wine regions, established in 1756. The vineyards of the Douro, set on the slopes surrounding the Douro River (known as the Duero in Spain), are incredibly steep, necessitating the use of terracing and thus, manual vineyard management as well as harvesting. The Douro's best sites, rare outcroppings of Cambrian schist, are reserved for vineyards that yield high quality Port.
While more than 100 indigenous varieties are approved for wine production in the Douro, there are five primary grapes that make up most Port and the region's excellent, though less known, red table wines. Touriga Nacional is the finest of these, prized for its deep color, tannins and floral aromatics. Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo) adds bright acidity and red fruit flavors. Touriga Franca shows great persistence of fruit and Tinta Barroca helps round out the blend with its supple texture. Tinta Cão, a fine but low-yielding variety, is now rarely planted but still highly valued for its ability to produce excellent, complex wines.
White wines, generally crisp, mineral-driven blends of Arinto, Viosinho, Gouveio, Malvasia Fina and an assortment of other rare but local varieties, are produced in small quantities but worth noting.
With hot summers and cool, wet winters, the Duoro has a maritime climate.
Port is a sweet, fortified wine with numerous styles: Ruby, Tawny, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), White, Colheita, and a few unusual others. It is blended from from the most important red grapes of the Douro Valley, based primarily on Touriga Nacional with over 80 other varieties approved for use. Most Ports are best served slightly chilled at around 55-65°F.