Rather like Champagne, Port wine (or simply Port or Porto, whichever you prefer) can only be named as such if it comes from the hallowed stretch of land on the Upper Douro River called (immaginatively) The Douro. Any other (upper case) Port wine is either fake or illegal. And the Portuguese government controls this like hawks.

With such stringent control over the 19,000 hectares of land, it is not surprising that there are only a handful of Port wines that can legally claim the title. And even if the estate can claim authenticity, you then have the minefield of dividing into the four main types: ruby, white, rose and tawny. Suffice to say, when it comes to investing in Port wines, nothing is simple.

So it comes as a welcome relief that there is nothing complicated about Quita Do Vallado. With one of the longest histories in the Douro valley, one can point to the page in the 1716 official records where they are mentioned. As with Quinta Do Vesuvio (and around 30 other Port wine estates), Vallado was once under the legendary Antonia Ferreira’s management, which has much to do with its redoubtable reputation. Today the estate is run by the sixth generation of the Ferreira family with cousins Francisco Ferreira and João Ferreira Álvares Ribeiro at the helm.

The cousins have managed the estate together since xxx, and have brought 300 plus years of tradition into the 21st-century. While Vallado ports had always been well-received, Ferreira and Ribeiro moved from the centuries-old tradition of selling the farm´s production to the Ferreira Portwine House to the production, bottling and marketing of their own-label wines. This decision saw an increase in price for both their 20 and 40 Year Old Tawny Ports, with average prices today reaching around €50 for a half-litre in Europe for the former and up to €180 overseas. In 2015, renowned wine critic Robert Parker gave the 20 year old Quinta do Vallado Tawny Port a score of 93 points, while its 40 year old sibling stole the show with a score of 95 points out of 100. This, of course, has affected the wine’s secondary market value positively.