Limited edition Vintage Ports

There is little in the wine-world which is as exclusive as Vintage Port from a fully declared year. “3 times per decade” was the magic rule, so fully declared Vintage Port is scarce. Even scarcer since in smaller numbers are the Limited Edition-Vintage Ports. Normally harvested from small parcels with old vines within the respective Quinta, the microclimates of these plots produce even more special wines. So special, that some producers decided not to blend them into their Vintage Ports, but to bottle separately. Therefore these Limited Edition-Vintage Ports are not bound to the years of General declaration and do in fact quite often vary from them.

Owning Quintas for generations, the Port families and leading viticulturalists know exactly their Quinta’s sweet-spots and mostly used these grapes to spice up the blend. In great years these special locations were always the backbone of the Vintage Port. Then, very slowly, producers began to fully understand the potential of bottling these areas by themselves in tiny quantities.

But why produce an even more special Port when the regular Vintage Port represents only 2-5% of the Harvest every other year? Because the wine market demands it and the reputation of the Port houses profits from it tremendously. Although being declared every other year, Vintage Port is not expensive if you compare them to big wines from other famous wine production areas. Fantastic years from big producers rarely hit the shelf with a three digit number price when released. Many times just half of it and their production – even from bigger houses – is rather measured in ten- than hundred thousands of bottles. I am quite sure that there will be more names in the near future to join the “Limited Edition-Vintage Port Club”.

Unfortunately it is quite easy to mistake Limited Edition-Vintage Ports with the Single Quinta Vintage Ports. Where Limited Edition-Vintage Ports are seen superior to the regular Vintage Port, the Single Quinta Vintage Ports are normally bottled if the grape quality is very good, but not exceptional. Sometimes, e.g. with Taylors, Noval and Croft, the labels do look very much alike and have only a small name attached to the regular label (e.g. Vinhas Velhas, Nacional or SERIKOS).