Ne Oublie – Do Not Forget

“This wine dates from the time Andrew James Symington arrived in Portugal to work for W. & J. Graham’s in 1882. Our family has cherished these three barrels resting in the Graham’s Lodge because they embody the legacy he left us. We have bottled only one, into individually numbered, handcrafted decanters, presented by craftsmen from England, Scotland and Portugal: the three nations of our family’s origin. The remainder will pass into the guardianship of our children.”

A good wine always has a story behind it. Well, the story behind Ne Oublie is just extraordinary.

Andrew James Symington's family

It all began in 1882 when Andrew James Symington, an 18-year old young man from Scotland, went to Portugal and worked for W &J Graham’s, a general trading firm and port producer. In 1891, Andrew James married Beatrice Atkinson, a lady of English-Portuguese descent whose family had been in the port business since 1652.

Andrew James and Beatrice, together with their three sons, focused on restoring port’s position in world markets after World War I. In 1920, Andrew James bought four casks of tawny port made in 1882 from a Douro farmer to commemorate the year of his arrival in Portugal. These casks were then transported by ox cart and boat from the Douro Valley to the cooler Vila Nova de Gaia where the wine could age gracefully. While the family continued to build the port business over the past century, these few barrels of 1882 wine rested silently in the port lodge carefully tended by generations of winemakers, cellar masters and coopers. Every year, a small percentage of wine was lost through evaporation—this is known as the angels’ share—and the original four casks were reduced to three.

To pay homage to Andrew James, the family has named this 1882 Single Harvest Tawny Port ‘Ne Oublie’, meaning Do Not Forget, after the original Graham family motto and the company where Andrew James started his life’s work. The name reflects the respect with which the family members regard their great-grandparents’ decision to commit themselves and their descendants to Portugal, to the Douro and to Port.

Now, four generations and 132 years after Andrew James landed in Portugal, the family has decided to bottle one cask of Ne Oublie. The remaining two casks, stamped and sealed, have been entrusted to the next generation who will decide their future in 2025 at the earliest.

But that is not the end of the story.

The family believes they owe their success to their Scottish, English and Portuguese heritage–Scottish for a rational and hard-working approach, English for common sense, and Portuguese for a flamboyant and romantic style. Therefore, they see it as only fitting to package these 656 bottles of Ne Oublie with the finest works of these three nations.

The wine has been bottled in individually numbered hand-made crystal decanters from Atlantis, a leading Portuguese glass manufacturer. Each one is decorated with three sterling silver bands weighing 250gm, moulded and engraved by renowned Scottish Silversmiths Hayward & Stott and carrying the mark of the Edinburgh Assay Office. Finally, the bottle is presented in a handcrafted, lockable leather box made by one of the world’s oldest luxury leather goods companies, Smythson of Bond Street in London. The wine, together with the packaging and presentation, sums up the passion and dedication of Andrew James and the family.

And how about the taste?

The taste is as incredible as the story. Paul Symington, present chairman of Symington Family Estates, remarked that it is hard to imagine how four or five generations ago, in the conditions of the time, they could have made a wine better than most being made today, probably without electricity for instance.

Because of the age, the wine is a dark brown colour with a greenish tinge at the rim. It is complex and rich with layers of aromas of marmalade, nuts, and herbs. Surprisingly fresh, the wine has a mellow mouth feel and an amazing length. Smelling and sipping the wine is like a glimpse into the family history.

Although 656 bottles were released, only 655 bottles will be available as the family is keeping bottle number 1. Asked if the family expects buyers to drink the wine, Euan Mackay, Sales Director of Symington Family Estates who was presenting the wine, said, “The wine is certainly a collector’s must-have but the family is expecting the wine to be drunk and enjoyed, especially among friends and family who appreciate the passage of time and family heritage.” Well, I have to agree that enjoying the wine is surely the tribute that Andrew James would have liked to see.

Only 25 bottles were allocated to Fine Vintage at HK$55,000/bottles. It is also available at Grahams’ Port Lodge at Oporto or via an online application list.

And if you miss this chance, there are still those two remaining barrels in waiting…but you will have to wait until at least 2025.

Symington’s perfect Vintage - 2011 Port

It’s official. The Port Wine Brotherhood has declared 2011 a Port Vintage year. I can’t say how fortunate I was to be one of the first in Asia to taste Symington's range of 2011 vintage ports back in mid April, even before they were bottled. I still remember the taste and the different styles now as I write this!

The Symington team was very excited about the 2011 vintage. The last time they declared a vintage was 2007, a four year gap. Unlike 2007, which was more about finesse and elegance, the 2011 vintage was a classic, old school style with opulent fruit concentration and marked minerality from the terroir, not dissimilar to the 1994 vintage, according to Euan Mackay, Symington’s Sales Director.

The prime factor that contributed to the perfect 2011 vintage was the weather. The Douro had been very harsh and dry in the past few years with minimal rainfall. The 2010 winter final saw above average rainfall that replenished the water table. Flowering, though, was difficult because of high humidity, resulting in lower yield. Summer was hot and dry and saw the grapes ripening a little too fast but heavy rain in the third week of August followed by an Indian summer delayed picking until the third week of September. The result? A small harvest—about 30% lower than average—but ripe grapes with good concentration and balanced acidity, with Touriga Franca, a late ripener, particularly shining.

Port houses only decide whether to declare a vintage after the wine has spent two winters in barrel in order to assess the quality properly. However, there are always tell tale signs of a potential vintage as early as harvest time. Jorge Nunes, winemaker at Symington, said the first sign was the unusually deep colour of the wine, a prerequisite of perfect phenolic ripeness. In fact, the entire Douro community had a feel good factor back at harvest in 2011, so it was clearly something exceptional.

Like Bordeaux, port has en primeur purchase. But unlike Bordeaux, where en primeur wines are sold in the spring following the vintage and when still ageing in barrels, en primeur vintage port is already bottled and ready to be delivered once sold. In other words, en primeur is more like an announcement of the release of a vintage rather than a cash flow management tool as it is in most Bordeaux chateaux. Once the en primeur offer is finished, the price of the vintage port will go up. This is logical since vintage port is rare. A vintage is declared only when quality is outstanding—about three times every 10 years—and vintage port averages less than 1% of total production. Graham’s only made 8,000 cases of its 2011 vintage out of a total production of 88,850 cases.

Symington is the biggest vineyard owner in the Douro and has been making port since 1882. It accounts for over a third of all premium port production. All its vintage ports come from its 100% owned and  managed vineyards, guaranteeing provenance. The five vintage ports it released this year are all of superb quality, yet each has a distinctive style:

Warre’s: Made from some of the oldest vines, yielding only 600g of grapes per vine, the wines shows a depth of fruit yet have great finesse with a lifted palate and minty nose. 3,000 cases made.

Cockburn’s: The family is particularly proud of this because 2011 was the first declared Cockburn’s vintage since the brand became fully owned and managed by Symington. Black fruits and coffee aromas, elegant and a lingering length. 3,000 cases made.

Graham’s: Violet, smoky with rich tannin and a firm structure: a classic Graham’s. 8,000 cases made.

Dow’s: Bright fruits and blackcurrant aroma with a chocolate finish. Tight and austere in structure with a long life ahead of it. 5,000 cases made.

Quinta do Vesuvio: With the highest percentage (45%) of Touriga Franca in the blend, this wine has pronounced violet and blueberry aromas with smooth tannin. 1,250 cases made.

Port fans are definitely going to love the 2011 vintage!

Paul Symington, the family man

It was absolutely fascinating to have the opportunity recently to talk to Paul Symington, the chairman of Symington Family Estates in the Douro, Portugal. We discussed everything from the future of port and climate change to history and the Queen’s jubilee celebrations.

What struck me was Paul’s emphasis on family values. Symington has over 350 years of history in Portugal and Paul is the 13th generation. He runs the company together with his two cousins Johnny and Rupert. When he was informed that he had been voted Decanter's Man of the Year 2012, he told Decanter he would only accept the award if he could mention and extend the honour to the family. He may be the face of the company, but it is the joint effort of all family members that makes Symington what it is today.

Paul firmly believes in the synergy between wine and family. Wine is long term and fits well with the time horizons of a family, especially for port and other premium wines that can evolve for half a century. He is proud to be selling today wine that his father put in barrels some 20 years ago. Big corporations, notably the public ones, often focus on the short term with today’s profit outweighing long term investment and heritage. To preserve and promote the moral values that are the backbone of family businesses, Symington joined with eleven other top international family estates to establish Primum Familiae Vini (PFV), the First Families of Wine, in 1993. PFV membership is by invitation only and is limited to a maximum of 12 families.

Being a family estate with long traditions does not mean lack of vision. Paul knows that the future of port lies with the premium sector—tawnies and vintages where Symington has a 34% market share—and the new consumers in the UK, US and Asia, and that the traditional image of cigars, port, gentlemen's clubs and copa (small port glasses) does not fit the lifestyle of today’s customers. To modernise port’s image, the three port houses under Symington—Dow’s, Graham’s and Warre’s—partnered with Croft, Fonseca and Taylor’s (The Fladgate Partnership) to establish the Vintage Port Academy. Its purpose is to promote the appreciation and knowledge of vintage port among fine wine consumers, collectors and wine professionals around the world. Some outside-the-box appeal includes pairing hairy crab and Peking duck, both Chinese delicacies, with tawny ports. To reinforce tradition and evolution, Symington launched Graham’s 1952 Tawny Port to celebrate the Queen’s 60th anniversary jubilee. The wine was served to overseas dignitaries at Windsor House. Paul’s ideal port scene is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie sitting in front of a big flat screen television in their posh Manhattan apartment, enjoying port from a Riedel wine glass!

The Douro is home for the Symingtons. Paul grew up there in the vineyards with his brothers and cousins, and joining the family business was a natural thing for him. Today, Symington is the biggest landowner in the Douro with over 974ha under vines. Each family member also has his own private vineyard. Sales of Port  may be declining but the Symington family believes in the Douro’s terroir. Rather than investing overseas like other families such as Mouton or Mondavi, Symington only focuses on the Douro, expanding its portfolio into Douro AOC still wines. In 2010 it bought Cockburn’s Port from US company Beam Global Spirits & Wine in order to rebuild this 200 year old brand. Climate change, however, is a challenge as the average temperature has increased1.3ºC in the last 50 years. New planted vineyards are at higher altitudes and mostly north-facing. Luckily Touriga Nacional, the flagship grape of the Douro, is heat resistant and its sugar level does not increase as fast as in other varieties in the soaring temperatures.

Of course there are cases of family disputes leading to the collapse of great family empires such as Gucci. Paul understands the importance of keeping the family unified. All Symingtons start by doing basic work on the estates, then gain experience outside the Douro before joining the company. He is not worried about not having enough successors. There are enough daughters and sons—14—in the next generation, but it is up to them whether they want to join the family business. If you have a chance to visit the estates, keep an eye out for the young lads cleaning the table or serving you port, they may well be the next Symington Chairman, or the next Decanter Man/Woman of the Year.

Abridged version was published in the South China Morning Post on 26th July 2012

Single Quinta Vintage Port

Some months ago, The Vintage Port Academy held a series of masterclasses and tastings in Hong Kong. Not only were we treated to several wood aged and vintage ports, but selected writers and journalists were also invited to a rare tasting of Single Quinta Vintage Ports from six different port houses: Croft's, Dow's, Fonseca, Graham’s, Taylor's and Warre's. As the name suggests, single quinta vintage port is made with grapes from a single estate, as opposed to classic vintage port which is a blend from different estates. It is not made every year; only in good but not declared years (all the grapes will be used to blend classic vintage port in declared years). Single quinta is usually the backbone of any classic vintage port blend and is made in exactly the same way - aged 2 to 3 years in casks then bottled without filtration. In a sense, single quinta vintage port is the expression of a particular quinta, while classic vintage port reflects the style of a particular house.

According to Euan Mackay from Symington Family Estates and Nick Heath from Fladgate Partnership, who led the tastings and masterclasses, Douro is probably one of the most difficult places for grape growing. It is very hot in summer and very cold in winter. The mountainous vineyards mean that all operations have to be carried out by hand. Water is precious but luckily the soil is mainly schist, which is not only great for drainage but also good for preserving water. Having said that, soil is actually not the major factor in differentiating single quinta styles. Rather it is the climate, landscaping, slope facing and grape varieties that make the difference.

This tasting was both educational and fun. All six ports had subtly different characteristics. The most interesting were the Quinta do Bonfim and the Quinta da Roêdo, which are next door to each other but the easiest to tell apart. The tutored tasting was followed by a blind tasting in a different order, and, not surprisingly, none of us got them all right.

Here are the characteristics of each port:
• Fonseca Quinta do Panascal: 1/3 Tinta Roriz. Dense rich fruit character, opulent.
• Warre’s Quinta do Cavadinha: Relatively cool site (250m above sea level), 37% old vines. Fresh and elegant.
• Dow’s Quinta do Bonfim: South facing site with prolonged exposure to the sun. 50% Touriga Nacional and Touriga Francesa. Structured, complex and austere.
• Croft Quinta da Roêda: South facing. 50% Touriga Francesa. Ripe plum fruit, jammy, soft and round mouth feel.
• Graham’s Quinta do Malvedos: Younger vines (about 20 years old), fruity and floral, less austere.
• Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas: North facing site, strong floral character, elegant and refined.

For those who like port but don’t want too tough a challenge, try a blind tasting game of Ruby Reserve, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV), Single Quinta Vintage and Classic Vintage. Ruby Reserve is more vibrant with fresh fruit character. LBV is richer, softer and rounder because of spending more time in oak. Single Quinta Vintage has more personality and develops earlier. Classic Vintage is more balanced and complete and can age for over 20 years in bottle. You can also put a 10 or 20 Year Old Tawny Port into the blind tasting but the colour will be a giveaway if you don't use black glasses. Tawny’s structure is provided by its acidity, not (perhaps surprisingly) by tannin, and it has more of the prune and coffee kinds of oxidised aromas.