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Port Club

Churchill's 2020 Vintage Mixed Case

£340.00£420.00

Mixed case of Churchill's 2020 Vintage and Quinta da Gricha 2020 Vintage

This unprecedented year for the world and unusually difficult harvest has produced two spectacular and different wines from Churchill’s.

Johnny Graham describes Churchill’s 2020 Vintage Port as: “A powerful and vibrant Vintage Port”.

He says: “This is a big, ripe year where the natural acidity of Quinta da Gricha plays an important role in the Vintage blend. With a powerful ox-blood colour, this muscular Port has a fresh vein of tannin that
enhances its fruity aroma, bringing vibrancy to its rich, jammy palate and ensuring a balanced and elegant finish. This is a concentrated but fresh Vintage Port with an intrinsic quality to age beautifully in bottle for several decades.”

By contrast, he calls Churchill’s Quinta da Gricha 2020 Vintage Port: A seductive and beautiful Vintage Port with vibrant acidity and lovely precision.”

He continues: “It is in ripe years like this one where Quinta da Gricha comes into its own, with its mineral soil and North facing vineyards. This Vintage Port has a deep black colour to the core with a violet blue rim, an exuberant and concentrated berry nose with aromas of herbs, flowers, and tropical fruit. Fresh and spicy on the mouth with hints of gum cistus, wild berries and eucalyptus. The amazing vibrant acidity reveals a final palate full of grip and intensity.”

While the 2020 harvest was particularly challenging across the region, our winemakers were excited with the quality of the young wines when they first tasted them soon after the vintage. 2020 turned out to be a hot year, with early ripening and very low yields; the month of July was the hottest month since 1931. When comparing with 2019, the crop yield was 30% to 35% lower.

We were one of few port companies to continue foot treading grapes during the pandemic, instituting measures to protect the team whilst ensuring the quality and culture of foot treading carried on. Every year, all our port grapes are foot-trod at Quinta da Gricha in ancient granite lagares (treading tanks), that date back to 1852. To keep this method alive during these unprecedented circumstances, we instituted strict physical distancing protocols across the production and viticulture teams – keeping the winery, vineyard, and treading teams separate. Happily, due to these policies none of the team became ill, and the results speak for themselves in the quality and character of these vintage ports.

While 2020 will go down in the history books as the year the world came to a standstill, these Vintage ports are a testament to the power of Nature and the human spirit to endure.

Churchill’s 2020 Vintage Port production is 3200 cases (6 x 75cl) and Churchill’s Quinta da Gricha 2020 Vintage Port is 600 cases, representing 10% of the estate’s port production that year. Initially, 300 cases will be released on allocation en primeur, with the remainder to be aged in our lodge for a future special late release bottling.

Churchill's 2020 Vintage Mixed Case

£340.00£420.00