Vintage Ports from Ramos Pinto 2025 - 1923
This tasting was held in London at the end of 2025 to launch Ramos Pinto’s 50-Year-Old Tawny Port. The main part of the tasting gave a valuable insight into the Port house and, in the words of Jorge Rosas (the family member who directs Ramos Pinto) ‘the sense of place [that is] paramount in crafting a Vintage Port’.
That sense of place encompasses two main estates, Quinta do Bom Retiro and Quinta da Ervamoira. Situated in the Rio Torto, the history of Bom Retiro goes back over two hundred years whereas Ervamoira dates back to the early 1970s when José António Ramos Pinto Rosas identified the virgin territory in the Douro Superior as the perfect site for a vineyard. Between the two estates there is a variation in altitude of between 110 and 400 metres with Ervamoira having a more continental climate with higher summer temperatures rainfall reaching around 300mm per annum. Ervamoira currently has nearly 153 hectares of vineyard, just over 40% of which is Touriga Nacional. The two estates complement each other and provide a fascinating contrast, as in 2025, a promising year that is yet to be declared. With over 250 ha of vineyard in total, Ramos Pinto is self-sufficient when it comes to fruit for its Ports.
The wines below were presented in four flights, comparing the two estates followed by Ramos Pinto Vintage Ports. The house still refers to the grape variety Touriga Franca by its old name, Touriga Francesa and I have respected this in my notes. I have not awarded marks to the two 2025s which are the first wines from this vintage that I have tasted and are effectively unfinished cask samples.
Quinta do Bom Retiro 2025 (cask sample)
From a challenging and rather erratic year that nonetheless produced some very promising wines, this is a blend of Touriga Nacional and vinha velha (old vine fruit) from three plots including centennial vines from the Vinha do Rio plot: lovely purple-‘blue’ hue, already with a beautiful ripe, heady perfume showing minty ripeness on the palate, still a bit raw as you would expect from a Port that is just a few months old but with lovely dense, dusty-spicy tannins rising in the mouth and long fine-grained finish. Certainly, promising.
Quinta da Ervamoira 2025 (cask sample)
Picking began in the Douro Superior as early as 13th August though Touriga Nacional and Touriga Francesa were harvested in early September, after successive heatwaves (the temperature rose above 40ºC for three-and-a-half weeks). This cask sample is 100% Touriga Nacional although that doesn’t show though on the nose at this stage (Touriga Nacional is usually very open and aromatic at this stage). Not quite as deep or ‘blue’ in colour as the Bom Retiro with a restrained, scented graphite character, showing similar restraint on the palate, nothing hot or jammy about this despite the year, linear with firm tannins and a soft, supple ripe finish.
Quinta da Ervamoira 2020 ***/****
From a hot year and an early harvest, hastened by rain in late-August with Touriga Francesa succumbing to the heat and ripening earlier than usual: still deep and opaque in colour, obviously rich but still internalised and sullen on the nose with the same dusty graphite character that I picked up in the 2025 (above), rich yet restrained with firm, spicy tannins mid-palate leading to a softer, supple silky finish with evident ripeness and natural sweetness. 16.5
Quinta da Ervamoira 1994
From a classic, widely declared year, with ripe fruit picked under ideal conditions (Ramos Pinto also made a full declaration alongside this single quinta Port): now mid-deep in hue, just starting to show its age on the rim, open, minty aromas with a stony character underlying, slightly casky or possibly a touch of TCA?, mentholated character on the palate, mid-weight with soft, smooth tannins. The softer approachable style of Ervamoira is evident but the wine is marred by that woody character. Mark withheld.
Quinta do Bom Retiro 2023 ****
A wet winter, followed by hot dry weather in July/ August and a harvest interrupted by rain with (in this case) the picking of Touriga Francesa brought forward: deep in colour and on the nose with a lovely floral character, integrated richness all the way through, quite dense yet mid-weight with lovely purity of fruit and gentle peppery tannins. Fresh and vibrant yet elegant in style. 17.5
Ramos Pinto 1923 (from Quinta do Bom Retiro) ****
The only wine that I have tasted from 1923 (1924 was widely declared), apparently 1923 was ‘a very dry year that produced low yields but grapes of good quality’: now very pale tawny-amber with a very evocative Port Lodge nose, wet, peaty earth, leather chair but with plenty of underlying scent and subtlety including dark milk chocolate; still sweet and balanced, delicate dried fruit, yet gloriously alive with a thread of peppery tannin evident all the way through to the finish. Funky, yes but remarkable at 102 years of age! Difficult to award a mark but for persistence and longevity: 18
Ramos Pinto 2017 ****
This was the last generally declared vintage until the recent 2024s; a wine from a very dry and early harvest with low yields. Unsually for Ramos Pinto, picking at Bom Retiro and Ervamoira began almost simultaneously: deep, opaque and still youthful in hue with lovely sprightly, scented aromas redolent of an English rose garden; well-structured and dense with ripe peppery-minty fruit backed by fine-grained tannins and a long, fresh, sappy finish. Needs more time but sure to be a classic. 18
Ramos Pinto 2000 ****/*****
After a very dry winter, the spring was wet leading to poor flowering and low yields, summer was variable but a burst of heat at the start of September brought rapid advancement and some slight raisinisation of the grapes, ‘as good Port grapes should’: still deep and dense after a quarter of a century, rich and multi-layered, more expressive on the palate than on the nose with big, ripe fleshy fruit, broad, supple tannins and a similarly broad finish. Only just at the start of a long life…this wine will last for decades. 18.5
