Sandeman Founder's Reserve Ruby Port NV
Intense ruby red in colour. The nose is bursting with aromas of ripe and juicy red and black fruits. On the palate, the sweetness and the grippy tannins are balanced by a refreshing acidity which carries the flavours of ripe strawberry, blackberry and blackcurrant onto the lingering finish.
The Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Amarela, Tinta Barrica and Tinto Cão grapes that make up the Sandeman Founder's Reserve blend are sourced from vineyard sites across the Douro Valley - the largest mountainous vineyard area on earth. The vines are planted on steep terraces which slope down to the Douro river. Soils are composed predominantly of schist – a dense, slate-like metamorphic rock which fractures vertically, allowing the vine roots to delve deep to access water and nutrients to sustain them through the hot Douro summers when temperatures can often exceed 40ºC. Once they have reached optimum levels of ripeness, the grapes are carefully harvested by hand.
Upon arrival at the winery, the hand-picked grapes were destemmed and crushed before fermentation at controlled temperatures, with a vigorous maceration on the skins and frequent punch downs to extract tannin, a deep ruby colour and plenty of flavour from the grapes. The ferment was closely monitored to determine the ideal moment to halt the fermentation by fortifying with grape spirit, leaving some of the grapes’ natural sugars. The wines remained in the Douro until the spring following the harvest, when they were transported downstream to the Sandeman lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia for ageing in large oak casks. Throughout this time, the wines are regularly tasted and analysed by Luís and the oenology team. They prepare the final blend to retain Sandeman Founders Reserve's characteristic style. The wines selected are usually between three and five years old, resulting in a Port with an average age of four years. The final blend is filtered and cold-stabilised prior to bottling.
There are few more iconic images in the world of wine than the ‘Don’, the logo created for the Sandeman family in 1928 by George Massiot Brown. The cape was modelled on the attire worn by students at the University of Porto, while the sombrero was a nod to the family’s presence in Jerez.
Bought by the Guedes family in 2002, today Sandeman Ports are every bit as famous as the image of the Don. In the last two decades, significant investments have been made in both the vineyards and winery, ensuring Sandeman’s reputation as one of the world’s leading Port houses. The fact that their winemaker, Luís Sottomayor, was crowned Fortified Winemaker of the Year at the 2022 International Wine Challenge is a testament to this.
The state-of-the-art Sandeman winery, built in 2007, is at the beautiful Quinta do Seixo, situated on the south bank of the Douro, just downstream from Pinhão. The winery is perched on top of a hill, surrounded by vast terraces of vines, some of which are over 100 years old. Quinta do Seixo comprises 108 hectares, 71 of which are planted under vine. Many plots here boast the highest ‘A’ classification under the ‘Cadastro’ (or ‘vineyard register’) system, which ranks the quality of Douro vineyards based on 12 parameters, including locality, elevations, yield, soil type, grape variety, and vine training, age and density.
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