Tawny Port, Quinta de la Rosa, Douro, Portugal, Porto

Quinta de la Rosa has been in the Bergqvist family since 1906, although they have been in the port trade as shippers under the family name, Feueheerd, since 1815. Nowadays Sophia Berqvist runs the domain. It currently has around 55 hectares under vine and produces around 50,000 litres of port and 160,000 litres of table wine each year.

Quinta de la Rosa was given as a christening present for Claire Feueheerd, Sophia's grandmother, in 1906. The family port shipping company, Feueheerd, was sold in the 1930s but La Rosa was kept and run by Sophia's grandmother, Claire. In 1988 Sophia and her father, Tim Bergqvist, decided to restart the family business and launched Quinta de la Rosa as a top quality port producer onto the market place.

Quinta de la Rosa is situated in Northern Portugal, 100kms inland from Porto. It is set in the heart of the Alto Douro 'A' grade port growing area and is located along the banks of the river, near Pinhão.

This port is made from traditional port varieties, mainly Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Barroca and Tinta Roriz.

Quinta de la Rosa's Tawny Port is unique in that it comes from A graded grapes all grown on the Quinta. Most other Ruby blends come from further down the river closer to Regua where there is higher rainfall and most grapes are B to D quality so the resulting port tends to be less concentrated. Some of the Ruby is still made in the traditional way: trodden in granite lagares.

The Ruby is blended from own stocks of Porto stored in large “tonels" or vats to give a young, fruity, vibrant wine with an average age of 3-4 years. The blend will have the same style from year to year. As with all La Rosa products, this Tawny is bottled at La Rosa, allowing them to ensure quality from grape to bottle.