“VALRIZ” LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE
PRODUCER: COIMBRA DE MATTOS LTDA
DOC DOURO - PORTUGAL

Port wine (also known as Vinho do Porto, Oporto, Porto, and often simply Port) is a sweet Portuguese, fortified wine from the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is often served as a dessert wine. Under European Union guidelines, only the product from Portugal may be labelled as Port.
Port is produced from grapes grown and processed in the Douro region.
The Douro valley was defined and established as a protected region, or appellation in 1756. Porto produced in Portugal is strictly regulated by the Instituto do Vinho do Porto

Port wine is typically richer, sweeter, heavier, and possesses a higher alcohol content than most other wines. This is caused by the addition of distilled grape spirits (aguardente similar to brandy) to fortify the wine and halt fermentation before all the sugar is converted to alcohol. The wine is then stored and aged, often in barrels stored in caves
It is commonly served after meals as a dessert wine, often with cheese; commonly stilton. White and Tawny ports are often served as an aperitif.

LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE (LBV)

Late Bottled Vintage (often referred to simply as LBV) was originally wine that had been destined for bottling as Vintage Port, but due to lack of demand was left in the barrel for rather longer than had been planned. Over time it has become two distinct styles of wine, both of them bottled between four and six years after the vintage, but one style is fined and filtered prior to bottling while the other is not.

The filtered wine has the advantage of being ready to drink without decanting, and is bottled in a stoppered bottle that can be easily resealed. However many wine experts feel that this convenience comes at a price and believe that the filtration process strips out much of the character of the wine
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Unfiltered wines are bottled with conventional corks and need to be decanted. Recent bottlings are identified by the label wording 'Unfiltered' or 'Bottle matured' (or both). Prior to the 2002 regulations, this style was often marketed as 'Traditional', a description that is no longer permitted.

LBV is intended to provide some of the experience of drinking a Vintage Port but without the decade-long wait of bottle aging. To a limited extent it succeeds, as the extra years of oxidative aging in barrel does mature the wine more quickly.

Typically ready to drink when released, LBV ports are the product of a single year's harvest and tend to be lighter bodied than a vintage port. Filtered LBVs do not improve significantly with age, whereas the unfiltered wines will usually be improved by a few extra years in the bottle. Since 2002, bottles that carry the words 'Bottle matured' must have enjoyed at least three years of bottle maturation prior to release.