Welcome to the Vinum wine list To celebrate the 130 th anniversary of our family’s involvement in the Douro, we opened the VINUM Restaurant & Wine Bar at our Graham’s lodge in 2013. By opening VINUM, in association with the Basque company SAGARDI that specializes in gastronomy at the very highest level, we intend to present visitors with ideal food pairings for our Douro wines and our Ports. The lodge which is home to VINUM, was built in 1890 and contains no less than 3,700 seasoned oak pipes (casks) full of our very finest Ports, together with the equivalent of a further 2,300 pipes in oak tonels and vats. In this lodge we mature Graham’s Six Grapes, Late Bottled Vintage, the Tawnies of 10, 20, 30 and 40 years of age and also a few casks of the rare ‘Colheita’ wines (Single Harvest Tawnies) such as the 1952 and the 1961. These Colheita wines have been ageing here in this lodge for many decades. Such wines are only bottled to commemorate special occasions such as HM Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee and to celebrate the 50 th Birthday of President Barack Obama of the United States. Within this lodge we have the Graham’s Vintage Port cellars, with bottles that date back to the very rare Graham’s 1896 Vintage Port and the great 1904 and 1908 Vintage Ports. These cellars contain our reserve stocks of virtually every Graham’s Vintage Port made throughout the 20 th century, right up to our most recent "declaration". At VINUM you will be able to taste some of these wines as well as others produced with grapes grown on our family’s 28 "Quintas" (Vineyard estates), all of which are situated in the best areas of the beautiful Upper Douro valley. All the entrées, main courses and desserts are specially created to accompany these wines. In addition to the Port and Douro wines produced by the Symington family, this list also includes a careful selection of other wines. These wines are made by friends of the family from various regions around the world, and in particular from the Primum Familiae Vini, of which the Symingtons are proud members. At VINUM we strive to create wonderful food from all the best natural ingredients that can be produced in the North of Portugal, including of course, the Douro valley and from the clean and cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Paul Symington. Chairman, Symington Family Estates.
Transcript
Welcome to the Vinum wine list
To celebrate the 130th anniversary of our family’s involvement in the Douro, we opened the VINUM Restaurant & Wine Bar at our Graham’s lodge in 2013.
By opening VINUM, in association with the Basque company SAGARDI that specializes in gastronomy at the very highest level, we intend to present visitors with ideal food pairings for our Douro wines and our Ports.
The lodge which is home to VINUM, was built in 1890 and contains no less than 3,700 seasoned oak pipes (casks) full of our very finest Ports, together with the equivalent of a further 2,300 pipes in oak tonels and vats.
In this lodge we mature Graham’s Six Grapes, Late Bottled Vintage, the Tawnies of 10, 20, 30 and 40 years of age and also a few casks of the rare ‘Colheita’ wines (Single Harvest Tawnies) such as the 1952 and the 1961. These Colheita
wines have been ageing here in this lodge for many decades. Such wines are only bottled to commemorate special occasions such as HM Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee and to celebrate the 50th Birthday of President Barack
Obama of the United States.
Within this lodge we have the Graham’s Vintage Port cellars, with bottles that date back to the very rare Graham’s 1896 Vintage Port and the great 1904 and 1908 Vintage Ports. These cellars contain our reserve stocks of virtually
every Graham’s Vintage Port made throughout the 20th century, right up to our most recent "declaration".
At VINUM you will be able to taste some of these wines as well as others produced with grapes grown on our family’s 28 "Quintas" (Vineyard estates), all of which are situated in the best areas of the beautiful Upper Douro valley.
All the entrées, main courses and desserts are specially created to accompany these wines.
In addition to the Port and Douro wines produced by the Symington family, this list also includes a careful selection of other wines. These wines are made by friends of the family from various regions around the world, and in particular
from the Primum Familiae Vini, of which the Symingtons are proud members.
At VINUM we strive to create wonderful food from all the best natural ingredients that can be produced in the North of Portugal, including of course, the Douro valley and from the clean and cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
Paul Symington. Chairman, Symington Family Estates.
THE WINES AT VINUM
We begin with Douro wines, our home vineyards. We offer the wines produced by the Symington family, such as those from the legendary Quinta do Vesuvio, one of Portugal’s greatest vineyards. We also list the wines produced by Prats & Symington, a joint venture between the
Symington family and the Prats, a renowned Bordeaux wine making family. Since 2000 this partnership have been making some of the Douro’s finest red wines, in particular Chryseia, the first Portuguese wine ever to be listed in the
Wine Spectator’s top 100 wines of the world.
The Altano wines are also listed, coming from the historic Quinta do Ataíde in the remote Vilariça valley. Most of Ataíde’s lovely vineyards were planted in the early 1980’s, so the vines are now some 30 year’s old and are producing wonderful fruit. We would like to highlight in particular the Altano Quinta de Ataíde ‘BIO’ wine made from organically farmed vineyards. This wine is typical of the New Douro wine style that is achieving
such success around the world.
The wines from the Douro valley are produced from a wide selection of indigenous and traditional grape varieties. The Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca stand out for their extraordinary quality, and are used in many of the red
wines produced.
The Douro is best known for its red wines which are normally deeply coloured, full-bodied, with firm ripe tannins and are the perfect accompaniment to game and red meat dishes. In recent years the white wines from the higher lying
and cooler areas of the Douro have also been recognized for their wonderful quality.
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In the second part of The Vinum Wine List we present the wines from other wine producing regions in Portugal and from around the world.
This list has been organized to help you with your choice of wine.
Since many of our visitors are from different parts of the world and possibly less familiar with Portugal’s numerous wine regions, we have decided to organize the Wine List according to the style of the wine as opposed to the region.
We feel sure that by organizing the Wine List in this manner it will make your choice of wine easier when pairing with the dishes that you have ordered for your meal.
However, all the members of the VINUM team are always available to help you to make the most appropriate choice.
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In the third part of the Wine List we present our Ports and the wines of Madeira. We have a significant number of wines served by the glass form all sections of this wine list.
The rest of the Vinum Restaurant & Wine Bar menu is made up of wines from wineries that are friends of the Symington family, among them the association Primum Familiae Vini - PFV.
The PFV is an association of some of the world’s leading wine families. Membership is restricted to a maximum of 12 companies and each must be entirely family owned, with several generations of family ownership. Each PFV member must be amongst the very finest producers of their wine region and only one producer from each region is allowed. Each member must have a long-established and world-wide
reputation for outstanding quality.
All PFV members share a passion and commitment to their respective wine regions which is virtually without parallel.
The members of the PFV meet regularly at each other’s homes and vineyards to exchange information and experience. Many of the younger generation of each family take the opportunity to work in another
PFV member’s vineyards and wineries.
Today, Primum Familiae Vini has 11 leading wine families as members:
Marchesi Antinori — Tuscany
Château Mouton Rothschild — Bordeaux
Joseph Drouhin — Burgundy
Egon Müller Scharzhof — Saar, Mosel
Hugel & Fils — Alsace
Champagne Pol Roger — Champagne
Famille Perrin — Rhone-Sul
Symington Family Estates — Douro
Tenuta San Guido — Bolgheri, Tuscany
Miguel Torres — Penedès
Vega Sicilia — Ribera del Duero
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It is with great pride that VINUM lists a number of wines from PFV members.
The Symington Family have been producing the finest Ports in the Douro for over 130 years, but one of their ancestors, Beatrice Leitão de Cavalhosa Atkinson (great-grandmother of the current generation of Symingtons), was descended from one of the very first Port producers who is recorded as having shipped
Port in 1652.
More than three centuries of experience and tradition is incorporated in these Ports.
We have desserts and cheeses that perfectly match our Graham’s, Dow's, Warre’s, Quinta do Vesuvio and Cockburn’s Ports.
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— VAT included at current rates —
WHITE PORTS
The white grapes of the Douro produce a Fine White Port as well as a delicious Dry White Port . Dry White Ports are served chilled between 6º and 8º Centigrade and are normally enjoyed as an aperitif .
White Port & Tonic is highly popular in the Portuguese summer and is now becoming better known in many other countries . Mixing a third of Graham’s Dry Port with two thirds tonic water and adding a few ice cubes, a slice of lemon and a few mint leaves, makes a very
refreshing aperitif .
"Lágrima" is a traditional and rich White Port that is also excellent served chilled .
Aged Tawnies and Colheita Ports are aged in seasoned oak casks . Over time they gain great complexity and elegance and acquire a burnished copper colour . Key to the quality of our wines is the care given to the maintenance of the oak casks by our team of ‘tanoeiros’ (coopers) . Our coo-
pers know and care for every individual barrel, many of which are over 70 year’s old, some are over 100 year’s old .
In the Graham’s tasting room, all these wines are regularly tasted and assessed in order to select the very best wines . When the Graham’s tasters, led by Charles Symington, arrive at what they consider to
Colheitas are dated wines from one specific vintage and are aged in seasoned oak casks . A classic example is the Grahams 1952 that was bottled to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II of England .
•All Grahams Tawnies are aged here in the Grahams Lodge
— VAT included at current rates —
LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE AND RESERVE PORTS
Late Bottled Vintage Port and the Reserve Ports are full-bodied wines with fine red-fruit flavours, great complexity and rich purple co-lours . These wines are aged in seasoned oak and then bottled relatively young, and are ready to drink once they are bottled . Six Grapes
is Graham’s oldest brand and dates back to the mid-19th century . Some of the very finest wines produced on the Graham’s Quintas are selected to produce Six Grapes . This is one of the very few Reserve Ports made from some of the same vineyards that also make the
From the vineyards of Quinta das Lages, in the Rio Torto valley, this young and vibrant Reserve Port is produced from organically far-med grapes . It is a full bodied, dark, elegant and rich .
Vintage Port wines are produced only in exceptional years, generally three or four times a decade .To make a Vintage Port certain climatic conditions must be met throughout the vitivinicultural year . 18 months after the wine is pro-
duced, it is declared as Vintage and bottled .It ages slowly in bottle, developing unique complex characteristics .
Vintage Port wine can be taken young, when it is opaque with an exuberant concentration of fruit . Over time, Vintage Port ages slowly but surely in bottle, its fruity flavor softening over time to acquire secondary aromas that confer
outstanding characteristics and an exquisite elegance which is almost silken in mouth .
The Symington family has produced some of the best Vintage Port wines of the past 100 years .
Ne Oublie dates from 1882, the year in which Andrew James Symington arrived in Portugal . Just three casks of this extraordinary Port wine were handed down to his great grandchildren who have now decided to bottle one, entrusting the other two casks to future gene-
rations .
‘Ne Oublie’ means do not forget and bears witness to this family’s commitment to the Douro and to Port through four generations . It is a journey in time, a guardian of the Symington family’s memories, in liquid form .
When you savour this wine with more than 130 years of history you will share one of this family’s most treasured heirlooms; a wine that symbolizes more than any other the rich legacy they have built, and continue to build, in their Douro Valley vineyards .
Ne Oublie: “A synopsis of life and time” (World of Fine Wine).
Blandy’s Madeira’s are made by the Blandy family, who have lived on the island of Madeira since 1811 and still own and manage their own Madeira Wine Company . The Symington family owns a small share in Blandy’s Madeira, and are close personal friends of the
Blandy family .These wines are some of the finest that Madeira produces and are amongst the world’s greatest fortified wines .
