Offley 10 Year Old Tawny Port NV In Presentation Box

Product Description

Offley is famed for its association with James Joseph Forrester, the 19th century visionary who played a key role in expanding the Port wine industry. Since its acquisition by Sogrape in 1996, the house has undergone a quality renaissance, led by winemaker Luís Sottomayor, who won ‘Fortified Winemaker of the Year’ at the 2022 International Wine Challenge. Today, inspired by Forrester’s innovative spirit, Offley is renowned for its modern, fruit-driven styles of Port made with fruit from prime vineyard sites in the Cima Corgo.

In 1737, the house was founded in London by William Offley, and, by 1787, was described as ‘one of the most considerable English houses at Porto’. In 1831, Joseph James Forrester came to Porto to join his uncle in what was then Offley, Forrester and Webber. Entrepreneurial, charismatic, and pioneering, Forrester took the company from strength to strength and by the 1850s Offley was the third largest exporter of Port.

Forrester was the first person to map the Douro Valley. He researched viticulture extensively, wrote several essays on the Port trade and painted many of the Douro’s stunning landscapes. In recognition of his vast contribution to the Douro, the King of Portugal granted him the Baron of Forrester title in 1855. Tragically, he died in a boating accident on the Douro River in 1861. Dona Antónia Adelaide Ferreira, a great friend of Forrester, was also aboard the fateful boat, but miraculously survived as her skirts ballooned and kept her afloat.

The grapes for the Offley Aged Tawnies are sourced from prime vineyard sites in the Cima Corgo and Baixo Corgo sub-regions of the Douro. The Douro is the largest mountainous vineyard area on earth and vines are planted on steep terraces sloping down to the Douro river, many of which are supported by ancient, UNESCO-world-heritage-protected dry stone walls. Given the steep gradients and the inaccessibility for machinery, vineyard operations and harvesting are carried out by hand. Soils in the Douro are composed of a dense, slate-like, metamorphic rock called schist. In the Douro, the schist fractures vertically, allowing the vine roots to delve deep to access water and nutrients to sustain them through the hot Douro summers. The poor quality of the soil means that the vines produce low yields – on average 1.5kg of grapes per vine – of intensely concentrated fruit, packed with flavour and able to stand up to decades of oxidative ageing.