| Origin | |
|---|---|
| Main grapes | |
| Other grapes | Alicante Bouschet, Douro Field Blend, Sousao, Touriga Franca |
| Vintage | |
| Bottle sizes |
Graham’s The Stone Terraces 2024 Vintage Port is an extremely limited release. It is produced from two tiny plots of low-yielding vines at Quinta dos Malvedos: Port Arthur and Vinha dos Cardenhos. These total just under 3 hectares and are situated on magnificent stone terraces.
This extraordinary Port is only produced when conditions are ideal. As the Symingtons say, “when these vineyards sing beautifully and demand to be blended into a standalone Vintage Port”. 2024 is only the 6th vintage.
The 2024 Stone Terraces Vintage Port reveals exquisite mango and passion fruit aromas. Sumptuous and irresistibly seductive with layers of complexity. The broad, all-encompassing structure reveals supreme purity of fruit, luxurious tannins and uplifting acidity. A wine deserving of Graham’s great Vintage Port lineage.
This is an “En Primeur” offer or pre-order from Fareham Wine Cellar. The 2024 Vintage Ports will be shipped in Autumn 2026.
The grapes, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Sousao and Alicante Bouschet, are co-fermented. Fermented in lagar with indigenous yeasts and matured in large oak vessels for 18 months, coming in at 20% alcohol with 103 grams of residual sugar.
The 3 hectares of vines are situated on historic hand-built, dry stone-walled terraces that were reconstructed after being abandoned post-phylloxera.
Although Malvedos is generally south-facing, the Port Arthur vineyard is made up of an east-facing and a west-facing, whilst the Vinha dos Cardenhos is north-east facing and forms a natural amphitheatre behind the quinta house.
Low yields, ancient vines and the unique thermal properties of the hand-laid schistous stone supporting walls absorb heat during the day and release it slowly through the cool Douro nights. This all combines to produce fruit of incomparable concentration and complexity.
Provenance: Port Arthur (East facing), Port Arthur (West facing) and Vinha dos Cardenhos at Malvedos
Grape Varieties: The grapes are principally a Douro Field Blend of mature Touriga Nacional, with Touriga Franca, Sousao and Alicante Bouschet at the Port Arthur site.
The Symington family have declared 2024 as a classic Vintage Port year, their first in seven years, and one that wine lovers have been quietly hoping for.
After a run of harvests defined by heat and unpredictability, the Douro returned in 2024 to something closer to its traditional self. Gradual ripening, cool nights and a well-timed harvest gave fourth-generation Head Winemaker Charles Symington and his team the raw material they needed to produce wines of real elegance and restraint, the kind that reward patience in the cellar as much as excitement at the table.
Seven Vintage Ports have been bottled from this exceptional year. The core declarations – Warre’s, Dow’s, Graham’s and Cockburn’s – are joined by the magnificent Quinta do Vesúvio, one of the Douro’s most celebrated single-quinta estates. Two rare micro-terroir expressions complete the collection: Graham’s The Stone Terraces and the ultra-limited Capela da Quinta do Vesúvio, both produced in tiny quantities from some of the Valley’s most remarkable vineyard sites. In addition to the family’s principal Vintage Ports, they have also released a small quantity of Smith Woodhouse and Quinta de Roriz 2024 Vintage Port.
Charles Symington, Head Winemaker and Joint Managing Director, commented, “The 2024 Vintage Ports whisper rather than shout. After years of heat-driven power, these wines are characterised by their precision: taut structures wrapped in pure, crystalline fruit. This is Douro elegance with backbone, and refinement with staying power. It was worth the wait.”
Appearance: Inky, impenetrable blue-black colour with a vivid purple rim.
Nose: Aromatic and floral. Exotic fruit and a lifted mintiness give way to violet, dark cherry and blackcurrant, with layers of lavender, crushed stone and a whisper of dark chocolate emerging with time in the glass.
Palate: Velvety in texture with supremely fine-grained tannins and great balance. Polished and sleek, yet with extraordinary concentration and depth underneath.
Ripe black fruit (damson, blackberry and black cherry) sit at the core, framed by schist-driven minerality and a precise, focused acidity. At 103 grams of residual sugar, it sits slightly drier than classical Graham’s, giving it a more vinous, savoury character than previous declarations. The finish is very long and finely structured, with tannins that promise decades of development.
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