Dalva Colheita 2004 Port

94 points - Decanter
92 points - Winemanual
91 points - Ekstra Bladet

Dalva's ultra-harmonious Colheita 2004. Slow development in wooden barrels has created a completely balanced and truly finesse port wine. The many years in barrel have rounded off the wine, which now appears in perfect balance between power and elegance.

The flavor nuances are almost queuing up to spill out of the glass. Orange peel, figs, licorice, caramel, sweet tobacco and roasted nuts. A fine balance between youthful juiciness and the complexity of age.

Barrel-aged port that is sublimely rounded and yet still has plenty of character and vitality to handle even heavier desserts or strong cheeses.

Dalva is an old port wine house with a long tradition, founded in 1862. Until the 1920s, when Brazilian C. Da. Silva bought the house through his wife's family, the house had gone under a different name and had primarily sold their port wines in Portugal. But with Da Silva at the helm, the house began exporting to both Brazil and North America, and later also to Asia and Europe.

The production of port wines at Dalva took a U-turn in the early 1970s. Up until then, unaged wine had been purchased from other producers, which was aged and bottled. But over the next decade, Dalva began growing its own grapes, built a winery directly on the Quinta and generally focused hard on raising the quality. This paid off in particular in 1978, when the house produced its first "homegrown" vintage port.

Dalva is now a highly respected port wine house, specializing in tawnies and white ports from the last century.