First Vintage Port Bond launched

For the first time it is possible to buy vintage port in the year in which the wine is made.

The Graham’s Vintage Port Bond enables people to purchase vintage port in the year in which it is harvested. These bonds are now available for purchase at several leading UK wine merchants (including Berry Bros. & Rudd, Jeroboams, Selfridges, Tanners, and Vintage Wine & Port) with an RRP of £360.

For generations in the UK there has been a great tradition of laying down vintage port for a child or a godchild or to commemorate a wedding or other important family occasion. However as vintage port is traditionally only ‘declared’ and offered for sale in the spring of the second year after the harvest, this has made it difficult to make a gift of vintage port in the year of birth or family occasion, unless done retrospectively, which severely limits the opportunity.

To resolve this dilemma Graham’s Port is the first ever Port Company to offer a Vintage Port Bond for one case of vintage port in the year of the harvest, to be redeemed once the wine is bottled and shipped some 18 months later. The buyer will receive a Vintage Port Bond certificate with personalised calligraphy that parents and godparents can gift to the child in the actual year of birth, or gift to a married couple at their wedding, despite the wine still being on the vine.

The number of Vintage Port Bonds available each year will be limited due to the scarcity of such fine wines, making such a gift even more pleasing for the recipient.

Dawn Davies, wine and spirits buyer for Selfridges says: “We are really excited to be working with Graham’s Port on the innovative Vintage Port Bond project. Vintage Port is the perfect way to mark a special occasion, and now our customers don’t have to wait to gift it to their loved ones. ”

Paul Symington comments: “Vintage port is the ultimate gift for marking special family occasions, particularly the birth of a child. Port has an extraordinary ability to age gracefully for 75 years and more, developing from a structured, powerful and robust young wine into a sophisticated and elegant wine in middle-age and then on to a delicate and almost ethereal beauty of wine that will continue for decades. Our Vintage Port Bond offers an innovative and practical solution to a problem we have long noticed and allows our customers to enjoy a Vintage Port that holds personal significance to them, at special occasions throughout their life. No other wine has such an extraordinary evolution, maturing superbly throughout a person’s lifetime.”

Tom Cave, manager of customers’ private reserves at Berry Bros. & Rudd comments: “This is a wonderful opportunity for customers to secure one of the world’s greatest wines as a very special gift, and we are thrilled to be partnering with Graham’s on this fantastic initiative.”

13 April 2015 - Felicity Murray The Drinks Report, editor