Strong chestnut brown; spicy aroma of dried plums, wild mushrooms and leather; fine, elegant structure, tasting of caramel and cinnamon, class!

The wildly romantic Douro Valley stretches from the Spanish border over a length of about one hundred kilometres to the west. This stretch of land, protected from the cold winds of the Atlantic coast by rugged mountain ranges, is so steep that only 30,000 of the approximately 250,000 hectares of the river valley are suitable for viticulture.

One of the strictest wine laws in the world regulates port wine production from cultivation to production, storage and export. The area of Port wine production is legally protected by the "Regiao Demarcada". Produced only from the best grapes harvested at the 40-hectare Quinta do Bom-Retiro on the Rio Torto in the Cima Corgo, the Tawny is marketed without a vintage after more than twenty years of barrel ageing. Weathered, schistose granite rock.