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#26 On The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines Of 2024!

93 points Wine Spectator
Sleek and fresh, with dark plum and blackberry notes laced with singed alder and ganache. Shows nice drive through the polished finish as the fruit expands. Drink now through 2031.

#76 on The Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2023!

93 points Wine Spectator
Lovely, with a mix of persimmon, white peach, hazelnut, green tea and singed alder notes all moving together in streamlined harmony. The long, elegant finish has nice latent energy. Drink now.

This is rich on the nose, with candied fruit, fruitcake, toffee and maple syrup. Full-bodied and medium sweet, with a brilliant aftertaste of fruit and caramel. Lasts for minutes on your palate. - WS92

Lean and restrained, with focused spicy plum and chocolate flavors, gaining some interest in the tension between sweetness and alcohol. - WS78

Fresh and fruit-centric, the price here may be super accessible for everyday, but its treatment by this famed Douro producer is nothing less than classically old-school. The point in a young, vintage-blended ruby is to keep the fruit lively and juicy, with a texture that feels velvety-luxurious in your mouth and is nothing less than a pleasure on the tongue. Taylor Fladgate's Special Ruby NV port sees up to four years in large, oak casks and when you sip it, you can really feel that intense softness and supple texture from not rushing it through the process. It's got pretty notes of black and red plums and bright cherry, and is oh-so irresistible alongside some pungent, tangy Cashel blue cheese. -- PJ

Fresh and fruit-centric, the price here may be super accessible for everyday, but its treatment by this famed Douro producer is nothing less than classically old-school. The point in a young, vintage-blended ruby is to keep the fruit lively and juicy, with a texture that feels velvety-luxurious in your mouth and is nothing less than a pleasure on the tongue. Taylor Fladgate's Special Ruby NV port sees up to four years in large, oak casks and when you sip it, you can really feel that intense softness and supple texture from not rushing it through the process. It's got pretty notes of black and red plums and bright cherry, and is oh-so irresistible alongside some pungent, tangy Cashel blue cheese. -- PJ

Founded in 1820, and today housed in cellars that date from 1619, this small jewel of a company is still owned by the same family, its vineyard holdings built up over time through a series of marriages with other wine-producing families. Displaying a nutty, slightly toasty nose, with flavours of hazelnuts, and orange peel. The high acidity makes the wine taste dry on the palate, with a smooth, long, and memorable finish.

"Firm, fresh and complex, with an array of glazed apricot, ginger, maple and cream flavors. Features notes of truffle and mineral on the crisp finish. Drink now. 200 cases imported." Wine Spectator

#57 on The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines Of 2025

93 points Wine Spectator
Plump and inviting, with a burst of red and black cherry compote backed by hazelnut husk, date, green fig and baking spice notes. Generous in feel, but with the underlying zip for balance and focus. Drink now.

What's so lovely about Dow's non-vintage tawny is how wonderfully bouyant it is. Sure, it's got the intense, concentrated, succulent, dried-fruit sweetness you expect in an after-dinner sipper, but there are lovely notes of orange citrus and almond here that keep it aloft on your palate, and nicely complement a hunk of Asiago or Fontina cheese. -- PJ

#66 on The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2022.

96 points Wine Spectator
This is really vivid, with a beautiful range of cassis, cherry pur??e, boysenberry coulis and plum reduction notes unfurling across the palate while succulent licorice, warm fruitcake and enticing red and black tea notes sing back up. The long, refined finish has plenty in reserve for the long haul. One of the stars of the vintage. Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Alicante Bouschet and Tinta Amarela. Best from 2040 through 2060.

"Firm, fresh and complex, with an array of glazed apricot, ginger, maple and cream flavors. Features notes of truffle and mineral on the crisp finish. Drink now. 200 cases imported." Wine Spectator

Dense ruby/purple-colored, with an exotic, exuberant perfume of black fruits, flowers, incense, and licorice, this unctuously-textured, full-bodied port is one of the most concentrated of the vintage. Sweet, expansive, and succulent, this large-scaled, but remarkably well-balanced effort is surprisingly forward and accessible... - WA95

Organic

Quinta do Infantado Douro Tinto is a bold yet balanced red blend from Portugal’s Douro Valley, made from traditional native varieties like Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Roriz. Fermented with indigenous yeasts and bottled with minimal intervention, it shows ripe blackberry and plum notes accented by dried herbs, spice, and a touch of schist-driven minerality. Medium-bodied with polished tannins, it’s a soulful expression of the Douro’s dry wine potential.

75% native red varieties/25% white varieties. From a single hectare of 40-year-old vines, a field blend of red and white varieties, planted at almost 2000 feet in elevation on a schistous, north-facing hillside in the Douro. The bunches are co-harvested by hand and partly destemmed. The mix of berries and whole clusters macerates just long enough to take on a clear, pale red color. Fermentation is spontaneous with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tank, where the wine is also aged on its fine lees for 11 months, followed by a year in bottle. Having little exposure to air, the wine has a natural, very gentle, desirable spritz to it just upon opening. “Palhete” is Portuguese for the British term “claret” (from the French “clairet” originally), historically applied to the very pale, not-quite-red wines of Bordeaux wines way back in the 14th-15th centuries (only later did claret come to indicate the bigger, truly red, more modern style of Bordeaux red). In the bottle, Palhete references this fresh, very light style of wine, in Portugal’s case achieved through a co-fermentation and short maceration of white and red varieties.