Croft Vintage Port 2016

Croft Vintage Port 2016

Intense purple ruby core with vivid purple rim. The nose displays the ripe strawberry and blackcurrant fruitiness and resiny notes of rock rose and eucalyptus that are the essence of the Croft Vintage Port style. The palate opens with a surge of rich berry fruit flavour and is supported by a dense mesh of close-knit tannins. Although the wine displays some of the plump, rubenesque character of prior Croft vintages, the accent here is on symmetry and finesse. The characteristically exuberant fruit and heady herbal aromas are carefully modulated and the wine is classical in its proportions. An elegant and aromatic Vintage Port, perfectly poised between opulence and restraint.

Critics' Tasting Notes: 

"The key ingredient is Quinta da Roêda with its southwest-facing semicircle of terraced vineyard on the right bank of the Douro close to the village of Pinhão. 2,500 cases made. Blackish mid crimson. Mild, ‘agreeable’, friendly nose. Sweet and lightly spicy. Then the thread is drawn and it’s much drier on the end. Fairly early maturing compared with the greats, I would have thought. Without massive density."  Drink 2030 - 2050

16.5++/20 points, Jancis Robinson, jancisrobinson.com, May 2018

"The 2016 Vintage Port is a field blend with 104 grams of residual sugar. When last seen this was in good form. Let's check in. Darker in its flavor profile than the 2017, this is more rhubarb, plums and blackberries. The tannins have moderated a bit, but obviously this is not exactly tamed. It is coming along fast enough so you can dive in now (or soon) with some decanting, but it certainly will show better at the end of the decade (or later)."

94/100 points, Mark Squires, WINE ADVOCATE, August 2022