The wine of the month

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Churchill's, Late Bottled Vintage, 2018

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5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP

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Januari 2024: Churchill's, Late Bottled Vintage, 2018 (21 EUR/23 USD in Sweden) port wine, Porto, Douro, Portugal, 5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (100 points of 100 points) (14-01-2024 by Nenad Jelisic)

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It is extremely fascinating that a winery can succeed in producing a wine that five years in a row receives 5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (100 points of 100 points). In my 41 years as a wine lover/wine connoisseur, this has never happened before. I cannot either recall that during these 41 years as a wine lover/wine connoisseur that I have once tasted a wine that has received 5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (100 points of 100 points) two years in a row. That Churchill's manages to produce a wine that five years in a row receives 5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (100 points of 100 points) proves again that they are pure geniuses when it comes to producing port wines. Here I must emphasize that producing a sweet wine that has a brilliant tartaric acid and brilliant tannins that together brilliantly meet the high sweetness of the wine is extremely difficult. Over the past 41 years, I have tasted hundreds of Port wines and can say that extremely few Port winemakers have managed to miraculously produce sweet wines (Port wines) that have brilliant tartaric acid and brilliant tannins that brilliantly counter their high sweetness. Of the extremely few Port winemakers who had succeeded in this miracle, none of them had managed to produce a Port wine that received five consecutive vintages of 5,0 NJP of 5,0 (100 points of 100 points). If this vintage is compared to the four previous brilliant vintages (2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017), what characterizes it and also the other vintages is the perfect balance between tartaric acid, tannins and sweetness. The probability that NJ Wines would give 5,0 NJP of 5,0 NJP (100 points of 100 points) to five consecutive vintages (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) to the same wine is as great as someone wins 100,000,000 SEK in a lottery. With this vintage, Churchill's confirms again that it produces the world's best Late Bottled Vintage port wine. Bravo Churchill's! The wine can be drunk with great pleasure now, but it can also be aged for at least 20 more years, i.e. until at least 2044.

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An explosion of both aromas and flavours, especially flavours. The balance between the fabulous acidity, the fabulous tannins and the fruitiness is absolutely incredible. The aroma is big, complex, sweet spicy and peppery. In it one will find dried dark cherries, Crème de Cassis, white pepper, sweet spices, cocoa-rich dark chocolate and dried dates. The taste is big, complex, sweet spicy, fresh and sweet fruity. In it one will find cocoa rich dark chocolate, black pepper, ripe dark cherries, walnuts and Crème de Cassis. The aftertaste stays in the mouth forever. It is peppery, sweet, spicy and a little bitter.

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You can enjoy this fabulous port wine without anything or with dates stuffed with walnuts or with dates stuffed with feta cheese or with cocoa-rich dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) or with a lot of different cheeses like Castello Blue, Gorgonzola, Parmigiano Reggiano, Roquefort, Stilton, and Västerbotten or with less sweet cherry pie, blueberry pie and apple pie or with pancakes filled with Nutella, very fine grated dark chocolate and walnuts or with Swedish kladdkaka (sticky chocolate cake), but so little sweet as possible.

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The wine is a blend of six different grape varieties: Tinta Barroca, Tinta Francisca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão, Touriga Franca and Touriga Nacional. The grapes for the wine come from a 50 hectare vineyard (Quinta da Gricha) that is located 150 to 400 meters above sea level on the south bank of the river Douro. The oldest vines are more than 60 years old. The wine's production process is as follows: the grapes are harvested and selected by hand, after the harvest, the grapes are delivered to the winery where they are destemmed and then placed in the low stone tanks (lagares) where they are treaded (crushed) by mechanized feet. After the destemming and crushing process, the grape must, which consists of pulp, skins, juice and seeds, is fermented in the stone tanks until it has an alcohol strength of 6 to 8% when it is fortified to 19 to 21% with 77% grape spirit. Then the wine is separated from the grape must and aged in large oak barrels 4 years before it is released on the market. With Late Bottled Vintage, it is meant that the port wine comes from a single vintage and that has been aged in oak barrels between 4 and 6 years. Do not worry about the sediment of the wine in the second to last or the last glass. The sediment only shows that the producer has not filtered the wine at all.

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I recommend that you start to drink this fabulous port wine at 8°C (unlike what most of wine websites and the producer itself recommend) and let it slowly grows/opens in the glass while you drink it. If you can drink Churchill's Late Bottled Vintage 2018 from Riedel Vinum Port or Orrefors Difference Sweet or Orrefors Elixir.