Symington unveils 2012 vintage offer

Symington Family Estates has announced 2012 vintage en primeur offers for three of its most prestigious single quinta Ports.

Following similar news from the Fladgate Partnership earlier this week, Symington has declared 2012 vintage expressions from Quinta do Vesuvio, Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira and Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos.

According to Symington, 2012 was the second driest year in the Douro since 1967. This factor, combined with the cool conditions that also characterised the 2012 growing season, interspersed with sudden spikes of heat and a serious hailstorm, led the group to report yields which were “amongst the lowest since records began.” As a result, however, it noted that “the resulting wines showed excellent concentration and layers of well-ripened fruit.”

The 326-hectare Quinta do Vesuvio has produced 750 cases of vintage Port, which will be offered exclusively en primeur.

Over at Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira, the high acid grape Sousão played a particularly important role in creating balance during such a dry year, representing 20% of the final blend. Just 450 cases of the estate’s total production has been bottled as a vintage expression.

Smaller still is the en primeur release from Quinta dos Malvedos, where the average yield was just 650g of fruit per vine. Graham’s initial offer for the 2012 vintage is restricted to 60 three-litre double magnums, all individually numbered.

In keeping with the estate’s normal practice of only releasing its single quinta vintage Port after a decade of bottle maturation in the lodge at Vila Nova de Gaia, Graham’s will also keep back a number of standard sized bottles of Quinta dos Malvedos from this vintage until at least 2020.

The en primeur offer for these Ports will run until 31 July 2014.