Vieira de Sousa Fine Ruby Port (750 ml)

The Fine Ruby Port is a young and delicious example of the ‘Ruby Style’ in the region, from the Vieira de Sousa estate.  Spending no time in wooden vats, the approach for Ruby Ports is meant to focus on the intensity of fruit, rather than the play with oxygen that Tawny styles are known for.  This is a very traditional blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa (Franca), Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz, where the hand-harvested fruit was brought into the cellar for a foot-treading press in old granite lagares.  It ferments in lagares until it reaches the desired Baumé,  (in this case 3.2).  It was then fortified with Brandy to keep the sugar level and fruit flavor vivid and rich, offering delicious aromas and flavors of red fruit and plums, a decadent mouthfeel, and soft tannins.  Once open, drink this wine within several days, as it is about the fruit, not the oxygen.

Vieira de Sousa is a newly official Port house that dates back to the 18th century; as they have always farmed exceptional fruit from the Douro River region but used to sell the majority of their juice to larger estates nearby. As they have made small bits of Port for the family for over a century, the house now makes only their own Port as Luisa Vieira de Sousa Borges (the current and now operation generation of the family) completed a degree in oenology in 2008 and decided to take her family's business to a new level. In her young 30's, she is ambitious and is tackling a world of old traditional wine made by old men, by making incredible juice on her family's land. All estate fruit is used for the wines, coming from four different quintas (vineyards) at varying elevations, dispositions, and influences. In 2009 they bottled their first vintage Port from their top Quinta do Roncão Pequeno site, and the rest will now be history. In old stone lagares, they foot crush their fruit, let only the natural yeasts begin the fermentation, allow natural settling for clarification, and use incredibly delicate and quality brandy for fortification. Naturally, the final aged wines are exceptional, classic, and will be recognized as some of the greatest Ports available on the market.

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