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2005 SINGLE QUINTA VINTAGE PORT OFFER - April 2008

Our annual Iberian buying trip, which now also encompasses producers in Portugal, represents a marathon car journey of around 2000km in around 4 days to reach these far flung regions. The diversity and beauty of the surrounding countryside en route does however compensate somewhat and tapas is my favourite style of eating out. This year we made it out in June hoping to avoid the climbing temperatures of high summer, although the Douro can often be very warm even in this month.

The consensus of opinion from our own particular producers bodes well for the 2008 vintage, as they all felt it had generally been a good harvest for them. Amezola had avoided some localised rain in Rioja and a cooler end to August had provided some welcome ripening conditions in La Mancha. Harvesting at Belondrade was later than usual from 25th September and early tastings have shown quality is excellent. Rainfall in July reduced final yields in the Douro due to mildew. However, my lasting impression from this trip was the quality, finesse and elegance shown by wines from the 2007 vintage in both Spain and Portugal.

Hopefully this report will provide those of you less familiar with our Iberian range with a useful introduction to our small but perfectly formed selection of producers. This year we have a new producer from Arribes del Duero, Charlotte Allen, a name which may well be familiar to some of you and added some new wines from existing producers.

Karen Jenkins