Celebrate Father’s Day with a perfect pair of Tawny Ports, from The Last Drop Distillers
Cultivated by family, and matured with great care by two pioneers in their field, this is an ideal duo to gift to the all-important man in your life
Words: Josh Lee
Fatherhood can be a complex, multi-layered path in life, with seemingly open definitions – but, widely speaking, it often entails the notions of love, attentiveness and seeing the potential in those who you cherish. So, this Father’s Day, which lands on Sunday 18 June, why not consider a gift from The Last Drop Distillers, a brand which itself applies the spirit of nurture and care to its pursuit of curating and creating the most remarkable bottlings in the world.
Founded in 2008 by two pioneers of the drinks industry, Tom Jago and James Espey, The Last Drop Distillers revolves around the idea of searching for, and discovering, the finest and rarest spirits, from bourbon to Japanese whisky. And, among the label’s 31-bottle portfolio – such a tight focus on limited numbers ensures a premium end product – it is release No.11, the ‘Centenario’ Very Old Colheita Tawny Port 1870 & 1970 Duo, that we think is best suited for gifting to that all-important father figure in your life.
Our starting point here is the notion that Tawny Port is widely considered the father of aged liquids, a fortified wine that can spend a lifetime (or several) in a barrel and develop its complexity, unlike a vintage port, which spends just two years in cask before bottling.
And, in 2016, for its own Tawny Ports, The Last Drop Distillers, encouraged by Ben Howkins – a feted authority on Port who convinced the company that a fine Tawny Port belonged in its esteemed line-up – ventured to one of the oldest wine regions in the world: the Douro Valley, in northern Portugal. This esteemed area has built a centuries-old reputation for its grapes; luscious vineyards; and, rather importantly for this bottling, generations of farmers who held on to stocks of their best wines.
With his close friend and contact to call upon, Cristiano van Zeller, whose family came to Portugal in the mid-17th century and later set up the famed Quinta do Noval port house, Howkins was able to find something unique and wonderful – a pair of ports, one from 1870 and the other from 1970.
Though both ports were made from different harvests (the older from pre-phylloxera grapes and the more modern one from new vines planted after phylloxera had devastated the vines of Europe) and are made a century apart, they are from the same vineyards, resulting in a similar taste and structure, like two generations of the same family. Moreover, this idea of resemblance was simply enhanced by the fact that they were identified, looked after and nurtured properly by van Zeller and Howkin, both of whom have only the highest reverence for the materials with which they deal.
When it comes to the taste itself, each bottling is defined as a celebration of two dramatically different chapters in the history of winemaking.
With the 1870, drinkers will be hit with the rich fragrances of black plum, rosehip syrup, and Manuka honey, which are all offset by a balanced, fresh texture, before dwindling into a complex arrangement of eau de vie, Chinese five-spice and mulberry notes. Meanwhile, its younger counterpart opens with heavy scents of toffee, wild fennel, clove and smoke. The taste, a counterbalance of crisp and sweet, plays out in a strong, tangy slap of Seville orange marmalade and quince.
Cultivated by family, and matured and ‘finished’ with great care by two pioneers in their field, this is an ideal duo to celebrate Father’s Day.
Want more drinks content? From Scotland via the Caribbean to Japan, and back again, The Last Drop Distillers’ 2023 Collection is a celebration of global spirits…
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