Introducing our 2024 Vintage Ports
Our family’s first classic Vintage Port declaration in seven years marks a return to classical Douro harmony, with wines defined by remarkable elegance.
Following a succession of harvests marked by prolonged heatwaves and erratic rainfall, 2024 saw the return of an old-style Douro vintage with more typical conditions, producing wines of remarkable elegance and precision. The key barometer for a great Douro vintage rests on the performance of the Touriga Nacional and the late-ripening Touriga Franca, with both reaching their apex in 2024.
After reviewing the best wines made in 2024 from across our Douro estates, we felt compelled to take the rare decision to make a classic Vintage Port from each of our port houses – Dow's, Graham's, Warre's, Cockburn's, and single estate, Quinta do Vesúvio, together with our two micro-terroir Vintage Ports – Graham's The Stone Terraces and Capela da Quinta do Vesúvio. Different expressions of one exceptional vintage, each faithful to the signature character of its house and the estates that define it.
Charles Symington (4th gen.), Head Winemaker and Joint Managing Director, commented: “The harvests from 2018 to 2023 were marked by challenging growth cycles. We made some great wines, but they weren't classic. We drew on multi-generational experience of our vineyards, we adapted, and we innovated. We also waited. After seven years, 2024 delivered what we hoped for but couldn't force – the return of a classic Douro vintage. These are the wines that our family have always aspired to create in any given vintage since 1882. And we made the very best of it that we could.”
He continues: “The 2024 Vintage Ports whisper rather than shout. After years of heat-driven power, these wines are characterised by their precision: taut structures wrapped in pure, crystalline fruit. This is Douro elegance with backbone, and refinement with staying power. It was worth the wait.”
We are committed to only making our classic Vintage Ports in the most exceptional years – which has typically been 2–3 times a decade over the last 144 years that we have made wine in the Douro. The seven years between the 2024 and 2017 Vintage Port declarations is the longest since WWII, when there was generally no Vintage Port made between 1935 and 1945.
In addition to our principal Vintage Ports, we will also make a small quantity of Smith Woodhouse and Quinta de Roriz 2024 Vintage Port.
Our family recently came together at Matriarca to taste the wines for the first time. To see the video, click here.
