The Collector, an unfiltered vintage character port is a blend of several excellent vintages aged in wood for about six years. The wine retains its delicate fruity aromas while gaining the patina of age and roundness.

Blended from several years grapes to create a port of an average of 5 years. Collector port is also unfiltered which is rare for this type of port - Rich intense fruit means that it is one of the rare wines to stand up to dark chocolate, although its more traditional place is with cheese at the end of a meal or, potentially, with a rich duck or game dish.

Ramos Pinto Adriano

Ramos Pinto Housem, established in 1880, today this still holds strong determination of its founder, Adriano Ramos Pinto, to produce and select the best grapes of the Douro Delimited Region for the production of its wines.

Founded in 1880 by brothers Adriano and Antonio, Ramos Pinto is run today by the heirs of these two energetic vintners. The House was acquired by Champagne Louis Roederer in 1990 and Owner Jean Claude Rouzaud calls Ramos Pinto "the jewel of the Douro." A visitor sitting on the porch at Bom Retiro, sweeping his gaze up from the valley floor to the vine covered terraces stepping up steep slopes and culminating in blue sky above, can appreciate his sentiments.

Among Port producers, Ramos Pinto enjoys the distinction of holding the largest proportion of vineyards in relation to its production, giving it a high degree of control over viticultural methods and harvest time. The House tends 187 hectares (460 acres) of prime vineyards in the Alto Corgo and Douro Superior areas of the famed Douro region, the mountainous valley formed by the Douro River and its tributaries.

The four quintas or estates that make up Ramos Pinto's holdings are the Quinta do Bom Retiro, Quinta da Ervamoira, Quinta da Urtiga, and Quinta do Bons Ares. Ramos Pinto blends single quinta ports from Bom Retiro and Ervamoira grapes, and a single quinta vintage character port from Urtiga.

Port wine (also known as Vinho do Porto, Porto, and often simply Port) is a Portuguese style of fortified wine originating from the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties. Fortified wines in the style of port are also produced outside of Portugal, most notably in Australia, South Africa, Canada, India, Argentina, and the United States.

Under European Union Protected Designation of Origin guidelines, only the product from Portugal may be labelled as Port or Porto. Elsewhere, the situation is more complicated: wines labelled "Port" may come from anywhere in the world, while the names "Dão", "Oporto", "Porto", and "Vinho do Porto" have been recognized as foreign, non-generic names for wines originating in Portugal.

Port is produced from grapes grown and processed in the demarcated Douro region. The wine produced is then fortified by the addition of a neutral grape spirit known as aguardente in order to stop the fermentation, leaving residual sugar in the wine, and to boost the alcohol content. The fortification spirit is sometimes referred to as Brandy but it bears little resemblance to commercial Brandies. The wine is then stored and aged, often in barrels stored in a cave (pronounced "ka-ve" and meaning "cellar" in Portuguese) as is the case in Vila Nova de Gaia, before being bottled.

The wine received its name, "Port", in the latter half of the 17th century from the seaport city of Porto at the mouth of the Douro River, where much of the product was brought to market or for export to other countries in Europe. The Douro valley where Port wine is produced was defined and established as a protected region, or appellation in 1756 — making it the third oldest defined and protected wine region in the world after Chianti (1716) and Tokaj (1730).