Barao De Vilar Ruby Port NV (750ml)

 

Port Wine is a fortified wine that results from the interruption of the fermentation process by adding brandy, hence keeping the residual sugar of the grape.  Port is produced exclusively in the Wine Region of the Douro, in the North of Portugal and it can be divided into three distinct categories: white, tawny and ruby, having recently emerged a new one - rosé.

 

Ruby Port

 

Ruby Ports are young wines, fruity, with a deep red colour and intense flavour of red fruits, namely berries.  Within Ruby Ports one finds the categories LBV (Late Bottle Vintage) and Vintage, upper-quality wines with unique characteristics.  Vintages are wines produced with grapes harvested in a single year and bottled two years after the vintage.  It ages in bottle where it can be kept for several decades.  LBV is also a wine from a single harvest , but it is only bottled between four and six years after the harvest, and one can leave it to age in bottle or drink it while still young. 

 

Barao De Vilar Ruby Port

 

Origin:  DOC Porto

 

Grape Varieties

 

Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca and Tinto Cão

 

Fermentation takes place in stainless steel vats at controlled temperature, with 1 day on pre-fermentative maceration and 2 days on fermentation.  The grapes’ must not destemmed.

 

Tasting Note

 

The Barão de Vilar Ruby Port is a blend of selected young ports matured in large oak vats "tonels" keeping a young, fruity character.

 

Ready to drink, can be enjoyed on its own or as an accompaniment to cheeses and desserts.

 

Alcohol:  19,5%

 

Winemaker:  Álvaro van Zeller

 

 

Barao De Vilar

 

Established Since 1715

 

Barão de Vilar – Vinhos, SA is the most recent company of Port wine, established in January 1996 from a small stock of wine bought by Fernando Luis van Zeller and given to his sons Fernando and Álvaro. 

 

The company’s institutional name recovers a noble title granted by the Queen of Portugal D. Maria II to Cristiano Nicolau Kopke, the 1st Baron of Vilar, back in 1836, which remains, by legacy, in the family’s rightful heir possession.  Before Barão de Vilar – Vinhos SA was built, the van Zellers were owners of Quinta do Noval, one of the most iconic and renowned estates of the Port Wine business sector and from where comes the mythical "Vintage 1931 Nacional”, considered one of the two best wines of the world in the 20th Century by Wine Spectator magazine.

 

It was also at Quinta do Noval that the current winemaker of Barão de Vilar – Vinhos SA, Álvaro van Zeller, initiated his professional career in the wine industry.  

 

Expansion To Douro

 

In the year of 2007, Barão de Vilar – Vinhos, SA decided to expand its range of products to the production of Douro wines.  It then set off an investment project related to the construction and equipment of a modern winery in Santa Comba da Vilariça, in the heart of Douro Superior, assuming direct management over all technological variables essential for the production of top quality Douro wines.

 

Nowadays, the Barão de Vilar – Vinhos, SA, built upon the experience and knowledge acquired over 14 generations of wine producers, presents itself as a modern company with a sound financial structure and a management team with a proven track record, endowed with the most advanced technology.  With a full range of Port and Douro wines, Barão de Vilar – Vinhos, SA is currently present in a significant number of international markets. 

 

Saião Estate - A true rough diamond…

 

The 80 ha of Saião Estate is located in Vila Nova de Foz Côa, in the Upper Douro.  As it is situated nearby Pocinho Village and the Rock Art of Côa Valley Archaeological Site, this area is two times declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

 

In a glance, the Saião Estate is an idyllic place for quietness and introspective time, delighting with remarkable sights and privileged conditions for Port and Douro wine production.

 

From the 80 ha, 9 ha are dedicated to vineyards, which 5 ha were planted recently and equipped with irrigation system.  But the Saião soil has potential to extend its vineyards up to 40 ha. 

 

Saião Estate gathers high quality conditions, not only for wine production but for olive oil and other products made with olives, as in the Estate premises there are over than 450 olive trees.

 

Origins

 

The known origins of the van Zeller family refer back to the 13th Century, to the Flemish cities of Mechelen and Nijmegen, where they held several properties, namely, in the village of de Zellaer.  During the 17th Century, in the rouse of the religious wars that ravaged the northern and central Europe at that time, the van Zellers migrated to Spain and Portugal, countries where they came to settle.

Their connection to the wine business dates back from the beginning of the 17th Century, according to the wine records Livros da Imposição (1620-1640) that refer to the trader Jorge Fernandes and his son-in-law Francisco da Silva Moura, ancestors of the Portuguese legacy of the family, as the biggest wine traders registered at that time.  These ancestors of the van Zeller family are the first known members of an uninterrupted series of 14 consecutive generations devoted, to present days, to Port and Douro wine trade, an unprecedented fact in any other Portuguese family "dynasty” involved in the wine business.