The village of Pinhão, nestled in Portugal’s Douro River Valley, is home to some of the country's most breathtaking vineyards, where native Portuguese grape varieties thrive on steep, rocky terraces. This region is the heartland of Port, a historic fortified wine known for its rich, sweet flavors and remarkable aging potential.
While Port's popularity had waned in recent years, the 2011 vintage marked a major resurgence, producing some of the highest-quality Ports in decades. With ideal growing conditions, the vintage was widely hailed as the best in 50 years, with 25 Vintage Ports scoring 95 points or higher on Wine Spectator’s 100-point scale.
Among these, Dow’s 2011 Vintage Port stood out as a benchmark of quality and modern Port winemaking. Produced by the Symington family—Douro’s largest landowners—the wine primarily comes from the prestigious Quinta do Bomfim and Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira vineyards. The blend, dominated by Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, and Sousão, was carefully selected from the best fermentation lots and crafted using both traditional lagares and modern techniques. Aged for 18 months in oak casks before bottling, it was made in a drier style with muscular tannins, concentrated black fruit, chocolate, and spice flavors, and an exceptionally long finish.
Praised for its balance of power, complexity, and aging potential, Dow’s 2011 Vintage Port was named Wine Spectator’s 2014 Wine of the Year, cementing its place as a modern classic in the world of fine Port.
Dow's Vintage Port 2011
Dow’s is one of the most respected Port houses in the Douro Valley, known for its bold, structured, and long-aging wines. Founded in 1798, it has a long history of producing high-quality Ports with a drier style than many of its peers. The winery is owned by the Symington family, who have been making Port since 1882 and own some of the best vineyards in the region.
Key vineyard sites include Quinta do Bomfim near Pinhão and Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira further upriver, both of which provide top-quality grapes for Dow’s Vintage Ports. The wines are made using a mix of traditional foot-treading in granite lagares and modern winemaking techniques to ensure deep color, balanced tannins, and rich flavors.
Dow’s Vintage Ports are known for their concentrated dark fruit, chocolate, and spice notes, with firm tannins that help them age beautifully. The 2011 Vintage Port was particularly well received, earning Wine Spectator’s Wine of the Year in 2014. With a strong track record for quality and longevity, Dow’s remains a top name in the world of Port.
The Douro Valley in northern Portugal is one of the world’s oldest and most dramatic wine regions, famous for its steep, terraced vineyards along the Douro River. With a hot, dry climate and rocky schist soils, it provides ideal conditions for native grape varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, and Sousão, which thrive in the challenging terrain. The region is best known as the home of Port, a fortified wine that has been produced here for centuries.
Port is made by stopping fermentation with grape spirit, preserving natural sweetness while boosting alcohol content. The result is a rich, complex wine that can range from deep, fruity Ruby Ports to long-aged Tawny Ports and the highly prized Vintage Ports, which are only declared in exceptional years. While Port has long been the region’s signature wine, Douro table wines—dry reds and whites made from the same native grapes—have gained recognition for their quality in recent decades.
With its UNESCO World Heritage status, the Douro Valley remains a cornerstone of Portuguese winemaking, balancing deep-rooted traditions with modern innovation.
