Light tawny color with spicy aromas and a hint of balsam, but the palate delivers very sweet, smoky plum, herbs and mint characteristics. Bomfim is a classic ‘River Quinta’ with several natural advantages: it is south-facing ensuring ideal exposure to the sun; its stony schist soil affords excellent drainage, allowing water to reach the vine’s deep roots; the annual average rainfall is near perfect at 800mm; the altitude ranges from 120 to 340 metres above sea level, accommodating both gentle gradients lower down and progressively steeper slopes higher up the valley side. This 2011 Vintage Port Wine from Dow's is "very inky in hue, this is very tight indeed, with classic Dow dryness/austerity – firm tannins and a yet to be mined concentrated seam of minerals, black currant, berry and cherry. Dow’s Ports are made at two of the most famous Quintas in the Douro: Quinta do Bomfim and Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira, together with the privately family-owned quintas of Santinho, Fonte Branca and Cerdeira.

Its steep, south-facing slopes receive ample sunlight, reasonable rainfall and fresh breezes for perfect ripening of the grapes. Dow's Vintage Ports are drawn from the companies' finest vineyards; Quinta do Bomfim and Quinta de Senhora da Ribeira. The old vines first planted by Maurice, John and Ron Symington in the mid 1920’s bring a fabulous complexity to the Port wines made at Bomfim. As with Quinta do Bomfim, the best Ports from Senhora de Ribeira are used to make Dow’s Vintage Ports in the great and rare ‘Declared’ years. Fresh, fleshy grape, dark cherry and fig flavors melded with underpinnings of licorice, chocolate and warming spirit.The palate is seriously big and voluptuous with medium to high acidity and a medium to firm level of fine tannins. The Dow’s blenders will select particular wines that are set aside and destined to become these great Old Tawny Ports. The earliest harvest on record in 2017 followed a growing season of drought and high temperatures, the resultant wines being very concentrated with good structure resulting in the first back-to-back declaration with 2016 for many years. Most of Dow’s Old Tawny Ports are aged in the company’s extensive cellars in Vila Nova de Gaia where the moderate coastal climate plays a key role in bringing a balanced aging process to the wine.

There was plenty of beneficial rainfall early in 2020 but also plenty of heat which has given exceptionally low yields. We believe that all the wines in our range are excellent examples of their style, and offer exceptional value for money. Süßer Gaumen, karamelliger Touch, dezente Tannine, schokoladiger Nachhall, etwas Mokka im Rückgeschmack. One of the Douro Valley’s finest vineyards, Bomfim is the heart of some of the company’s greatest Ports, having provided wines for Dow’s Vintage Ports ever since it was acquired in 1896.Selected batches of wines are also made at Dow’s other winery, Quinta do Sol, just a short distance downstream where the prototypes of the revolutionary robotic lagares were first trialled in 1998 and 1999. This grape variety - very important for Vintage Port - now represents almost exactly a third of the total planted at the quinta.