2009 Smith Woodhouse Late Bottled Vintage Port, Douro, Portugal (750ml)   

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Late Bottled Vintage Ports are a great way to experience the general style and depth of a Vintage Port without waiting the years required for a typical Vintage Port to approach maturity. Smith Woodhouse bottled their LBV unfined and unfiltered, however, so like Vintage Ports this wine will throw some sediment and shoud be decanted. Smith Woodhouse is a specialist producer of premium quality Ports. The uniformity of this quality is underpinned by Smith Woodhouse’s own Madalena vineyard from where the wines are largely sourced. This small Quinta (vineyard property) has the highest “A” quality rating and is located in the Rio Torto district, acknowledged as one of the finest Port growing areas. Over the coming years, the recently acquired Quinta do Vale Coelho, further upriver in the Douro Superior, producing full and elegant wines, will gradually form an important component of Smith Woodhouse’s Ports.

Producer Notes - "This Late Bottled Vintage is produced from the finest Porst of a single very good year in the traditional style. This means that after 4 years in cask, the wines are bottled unfiltered (to retain their fruit concentration) and cellared for an additional 4 years. It is the all-important bottle-maturation which allows the wine to develop outstanding style and complexity, resulting in a deep garnet Port with  rich, mouth-filling flavors of ripe fruit, balanced by notes of dark chocolate and peppery tannins. Smith Woodhouse Ports are produced in very small quantities by the Symington family, winemaklers in the Douro Valley for over 100 years. Store this bottle lying down and decant before serving." It will likely have thrown some sediment.