Churchill's Quinta da Gricha Vintage Port 2018
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This wine has a bright and rich garnet color, with fine and distinctive minerality on the nose, well balanced and elegant on the palate with a long lingering finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Vintage Port "Quinta da Gricha" is a field blend coming in at 100 grams of residual sugar. Elegant and refined, this has a bright and accessible feel with good fruit on the finish. It tightens notably with air, but it is accessible in its own way. It didn't seem terribly interesting, though, on the first day tasted. It just wasn't expressive. Where's the fruit? That sure changed two days later. It fleshed out overnight, gained weight and became wonderfully expressive—classic Porto with pungent aromatics. At that point, it was drinking beautifully. The rich fruit was fairly well ahead of the structure at that juncture, however. It did make me wonder a little how long and how well this might age, but it is going to be hard to resist for most of its life. This suave and simply delicious Porto will hold at least a reasonable time, but it will be accessible on the younger side. For the rest, it needs to prove its case in the cellar.
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Wine Enthusiast
This Port from the estate that forms the basis of the producer's declared Vintage Ports is herbal and spicy, with a blend of firm tannins and generous black fruits. It is sure to age well and give a generous Port.
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2019-
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Churchill's is a family-run port and Douro wine producer based in Vila Nova da Gaia and the Douro Valley. They were born of passion and pluck; an unlikely child of ancient tradition and youthful vision.
Johnny Graham founded Churchill's in 1981, when he was just 29 years old, to bring a personal, drier style and a fresh vibe to the traditional world of port. Today they produce a world-class roster of vintage, ruby and wood aged ports, in addition to Douro terroir wines that capture the spirit of the region and their beloved vineyard Quinta da Gricha.
Johnny still makes the wine and runs the company today, with help from the next generation of his family. Thy are now the last remaining independent British port house, and they plan to keep it that way.
They believe in wines that are personal and without pretense; jobs that work with nature; and moments that bring people closer to what brings them joy.
Live well, drink well, do good. Welcome to Churchill's.
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.
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.