Quinta do Infantado Tawny Port NV

Profile & Story

Quinta do Infantado has been the leading estate-bottled Port producer in the Douro since 1979, when Portuguese law first allowed small quintas to bottle and export directly from the property rather than shipping in bulk to Vila Nova de Gaia. Founded in 1816 in the Gontelho subdistrict of Pinhão, in the Cima Corgo, the estate has been owned by the Roseira family since the late nineteenth century and is today run by siblings João Roseira, vineyard manager and winemaker, and Catherine Roseira, chief executive. This Porto Tawny comes entirely from Class A vineyards — the Douro's highest classification — planted with a wide range of traditional Douro varieties on schist soils at 250-350 meters. The grapes are hand-picked into 20kg crates, given a mechanical crush with partial destemming, and fermented with indigenous yeasts in a lagar with mechanical treading before fermentation is arrested with 77% grape spirit. The wine is then aged in 550-liter casks that are themselves more than fifty years old, and bottled at 19.5% alcohol with 84 grams per liter of residual sugar.

Pairing Recommendation

The estate recommends serving this Tawny at 12-15°C. At the table it is excellent with a wide range of desserts — crème brûlée and honeycomb are two classics — and the estate also suggests laranja azeitada, a traditional Trás-os-Montes preparation of oranges, as a fantastic alternative. When pairing, consider reducing the sugar in the recipe, since the Port itself is already sweet.