Dow’s Late Bottled Vintage Port 2009: The Best Port Wine For Making Cocktails?
The Dow’s late bottled vintage Port 2009 is a pleasant and velvety sweet wine, mature and full-bodied, excellent for pairing with cakes and chocolate desserts or served at the end of a meal as a sweet meditation wine.
Be careful not to get confused. It is not a Vintage Port but an LBV. The vintage was good but not legendary. And so this wine deserved a longer refinement, five years in cask to refine and smooth the edges, oxygenate, and become even more velvety. In a nutshell, it is a Porto Ruby aged for a more extended period, given that the pulp was not lacking.
The bouquet
A ripe and opulent nose with red fruit in alcohol and plum jams in profusion, carefully dosed spices, floral returns, and a finish full of coffee, vanilla, and bitter cocoa. It has good persistence and decent variety; it’s not a rock, but it does its job without overdoing it.
The taste
On the palate, it is rich, warm, and enveloping, thanks to the fruit’s pulp. The tannins are still lively but soft, it is not a wine to leave for 30 years in the cellar, but it is certainly not too stylized either.
It is undoubtedly not very broad: the flavors are clean, but it follows a very linear taste trajectory. It opens with ripe fruit. The tannins arrive to straighten the heat, a touch of acidity, and close with spices, wood, and a whisper of pepper.
Overall it is a Port wine that travels with cruise control but is not too stylized.
Dow’s is a historic winery with a very structured and standardized production for this type of Port wine that we could define as approachable and popular in terms of price.
Price of the Dow’s late bottled vintage Port 2009
18-20 euros, an acceptable price for an immediate, simple Port wine, but with that grabbing sweetness that will appeal to neophytes of Port. If you are Port’s inveterate and demanding drinker, forget about this bottle.
What cocktails to make with Dow’s late bottled vintage Port 2009
Ok, we said discreet as a wine, but if you have to make desserts or cocktails with it, it becomes an excellent Porto, considering the very affordable price. Try it to make great classics like Porto Flip, Papillon, and Zazie.
Dow’s Late bottled vintage Port 2009 Food Pairings
Tiramisù, chocolate salami, creme brulee, aged cheese, Gorgonzola, aged Cheddar.