Quinta do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Port

Port, Douro Valley

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) Port wine is made from a single vintage that is bottled after 4 to 6 years of maturation in large Portuguese oak vats.

Tasting Notes

Deep purple in color, almost opaque. Impressive for its extraordinary intensity, the nose shows wild blackberry fruit aromas wrapped in light cocoa notes. The palate starts in an engaging way and leads to a serious wine, with excellent concentration and volume, and a structure made of compact-textured tannins very well integrated with fresh wild berry fruit hints. A lovely wine that finishes with perfect balance and great persistence. Bottled without filtration, it meets all the conditions for evolving positively in the bottle.

2015 was a dry but well-balanced year that was saved by the right amount of rain at exactly the right moment. July and August were mild, with hot days and cold nights, which had a positive influence on the ripening of the grapes. Weather conditions throughout the harvest were favorable. Rain on September 15th & 16th heightened the ripening of some of the grapes, namely that of the Touriga Nacional. The white and red wines from this year sported excellent aromatic distinctiveness and compact structures made up of high-quality, rounded tannins. This is a year whose wines stand out for their generous fruit, natural freshness, and extraordinary elegance.

  • Grape Varieties: Old Vines (several grape varieties)
  • Winemaking: The grapes, coming from old vines, are taken to the winery in plastic boxes. On arrival in the winery, they are rigorously inspected on a sorting table. The grapes with their stems are then slightly crushed and transferred to a traditional stone tank where they are foot trodden. After this, the grape spirit is added to stop the fermentation and fortify the wine.
  • Aging: In 9,000-liter oak barrels for about four years. Bottled without fining or filtration; light sediment may form in the bottle over time.

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) Port wine is made from a single vintage that is bottled after 4 to 6 years of maturation in large Portuguese oak vats.

Tasting Notes

Quinta do Crasto LBV is dark ruby in colour with red fruit aromas and good concentration and length on the palate. This wine is bottled unfiltered. This allows the wine to maintain its characteristics and evolve throughout the years. Decanting is recommended.

2014 was a challenging year in the Douro, both for grape growing and winemaking. The viticultural year was characterized by a rigorous winter that delayed the start of the vines´ vegetative cycle. Mild temperatures during the spring and a long ripening period obliged us to wait for the correct level of ripeness of the grapes to begin the harvest. As a result, 2014 produced very interesting wines that stand out for their freshness and great bottle ageing potential.

  • Grape Varieties: Old Vines (several grape varieties)
  • Winemaking: The grapes, coming from old vines, are taken to the winery in plastic boxes. On arrival in the winery they are rigorously inspected on a sorting table. The grapes with their stems are then slightly crushed and transferred to a traditional stone tank where they are foot trodden. After this, the grape spirit is added to stop the fermentation and fortify the wine.
  • Ageing: In 9,000-liter oak barrels for about four years. Bottled without fining or filtration; a light sediment may form in the bottle over time.

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) Port wine is made from a single vintage that is bottled after 4 to 6 years of maturation in large Portuguese oak vats. Quinta do Crasto LBV is dark ruby in colour with red fruit aromas and good concentration and length on the palate. This wine is bottled unfiltered. This allows the wine to maintain its characteristics and evolve throughout the years. Decanting is recommended.

Tasting Notes

Deep purple in colour, this wine shows an extraordinary intensity of wild fruit aromas, elegant cocoa notes and delicate spice hints. The same intensity is found on the palate, with excellent volume and a compact structure made up of serious, polished and fine-textured tannins. Everything is lovely wrapped in fresh wild berry fruit notes. This is a wine with a balanced finish and as it was bottled without filtration it meets all the conditions for evolving positively in the bottle.

This year was marked by high levels of rainfall and low temperatures until late May. The June to August period was dry, with just 4.6 mm of rainfall. September 5th saw rain, which was instrumental for perfecting the ripening of the grapes.

The grapes, coming from old vines, are taken to the winery in plastic boxes. On arrival in the winery they are rigorously inspected on a sorting table. The grapes with their stems are then slightly crushed and transferred to a traditional stone tank where they are foot trodden. After this, the grape spirit is added to stop the fermentation and fortify the wine. Ageing: Two years in large Portuguese oak vats. Bottled without fining or filtration; a light sediment may form in the bottle over time.

  • 2020-12-01

    90

    points

    Wine Enthusiast, December 2020

    ""

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  • 2020-05-31

    91

    points

    Wine Spectator, May 2020

    "This is opening up already, with a hint of dark earth infusing the core of plum cake and blackberry preserve flavors. A tarry echo emerges on the finish, which shows enough underlying cut for balance. Best from 2021 through 2024. 700 cases imported."

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  • 2020-02-28

    90

    points

    Wine Advocate, February 2020

    "The 2015 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a field blend with 95 grams of residual sugar. It is a traditional, unfiltered LBV bottled in February 2019 with a long cork. The mid-palate here is average, but the structure is a bit more notable. The fruit is very tasty, in a dry and controlled fashion, but this young LBV shows no hint of complexity or gravitas just yet. It needs a little more time to develop, obviously. It should hold well—there is no rush. Even if you think it is approachable now—moderate power does come out with aeration—it will benefit from a couple of years in the bottle. I'm not surprised this is showing well—in 2015, Crasto made one of its best ever Vintage Ports—but it is a bit understated, relatively speaking, especially on opening. If it is not quite as impressive in its category as the 2015 Vintage Port was, it still managed to improve dramatically when retasted the next day. At that point, there were some nuances of eucalyptus on the nose as well. There were 47,300 bottles produced (a dramatic uptick over the difficult 2014 vintage), plus 12,000 half bottles, from vines with an average age over 60 years old."

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TRADE & MEDIA ASSETS /////////////////

2013 Quinta Do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Port – Tasting Notes

2014 Quinta Do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Port – Tasting Notes

2015 Quinta Do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Port – Tasting Notes

Quinta Do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Port – Label

Quinta Do Crasto Late Bottled Vintage Port – Bottle

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