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Quinta do Passadouro Vintage Port 2000

Time for a Christmas cliché this week, as I pull the cork on a bottle of Vintage Port. Before you know it I will be recommending pink Champagne and Saint-Amour cru Beaujolais for Valentine’s Day. Watch this space.

Of course, real Port drinkers are ready to pull the cork on these bottles all year round. I do my best; I recall one summer I took a bottle with me on an overnight cross-channel ferry as my preferred tipple to while away the hours; it did send me to bed quite happy, which Hugh Johnson seems to think important. Nevertheless, while I do my best during the warm summer months, I confess it is usually the arrival of wintry weather which prompts me to return to the cellar for my annual Port hunt.

This time I landed upon this bottling from Quinta do Passadouro.

A renowned quinta located in the Mendiz Valley on the Douro, Quinta do Passadouro has a history which can be followed back as far as the 18th century. Despite that, it was only in 1991 that it really came to the attention of Port drinkers – even the cross-channel variety – when it was acquired by the Bohrmann family; Dieter Bohrmann provided the financial muscle, bringing on board Dirk Niepoort to assist with the winemaking. The two worked together for some years, but eventually went their separate ways, the Bohrmann family taking over responsibility for all stages of the viticulture and winemaking. Dirk still bottled and shipped the wines though, so in the minds of the wine trade Passadouro remained a Niepoort quinta long after this was true (if it ever really was).

At the time the grapes for this vintage were picked the Passadouro vineyards covered about 16 hectares, across several parcels, at an altitude of 100 (basically, riverside) to 300 metres (a little more than half way up local slopes) above sea level, the vines rooted in soils of fractured schist.

Quinta do Passadouro Vintage Port 2000

The vines in question were (and still are today) Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Sousão (a teinturier variety) in clearly identified plots, as well as older field blends comprising a broader range of mixed cultivars. The fruit was picked by hand, and trodden by foot in several large, open, stone lagares each holding 55 hectolitres.

To the best of my knowledge this is still how the wines are made today, although it is important to note that since this wine was made the ownership of the property has changed. In 2019 the next generation of the Bohrmann family, Ans Bohrmann, reached an agreement with Christian Seely of neighbouring Quinta do Noval (an AXA Millésimes possession) to sell. The Passadouro purchase brought the AXA Millésimes holdings on the Douro to a whopping 192 hectares, and there was understandable concerns the Passadouro vines would be absorbed into the Noval estate. In the end, however, it has continued as an independent entity, the winemaking now overseen by the Noval team.

Coming to the 2000 Vintage Port from Quinta do Passadouro as it hits 25 years of age, I am immediately convinced by the wine’s appearance in the glass; for its age it still has a great colour, with a dark core surrounded by a vibrant red rim. On the nose I find layers of liquorice and black olives, nuanced with notes of tobacco and antique leather armchair, clearly a richly furnished, confident and expressive style. It is textural and bright on the palate, displaying surprising purity, sweetly textured and rich in blackberry fruit and ripe figs, with cigar box and tobacco notes mirroring the nose, not to mention a twist of spicy black pepper energy which persists long into the finish, which writhes with notes of dried fig and plum pudding. A very decent Vintage Port this, still with much life left it it, should you have any tucked away. Drink or hold. The alcohol on the label is 20%. 94/100 (22/12/25)

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