Deep dark-fruited character with crushed oranges, flowers and wet stone character. Full and rich but crunchy with fresh juiciness to it. Wide and compact tannins, yet fine and textured and very long. Firm and structured. Sweet and fruit-forward. A special edition ruby, made with old vines. It’s a crusted port! Mostly 2020 and 2019. Unfined and not filtered. Drink or hold.

Packs a pretty good core altogether, with bramble-laced açaí berry, boysenberry and dark plum fruit notes working nicely with anise and fruitcake flavors. The finish shows sneaky length and is underscored by a subtle tug of earth. Yummy stuff. Drink now through 2025. - JM

The NV Six Grapes Reserve Port (Special River Quintas Edition) is a blend of typical grapes aged up to two years in used wood. It was bottled in February 2017 with 117 grams per liter of residual sugar and a bar-top cork. This starts with dramatic color and then demonstrates the finesse to make you think you're drinking something much more sophisticated. The structure is excellent—it has moderate tannins, is tight on opening and responds a bit to warmth and aeration. In fact, it was one of the Reserves in this report that benefited from being retasted after 48 hours. It was just as solid and filled the mouth even then. The intensity of flavor and the color are both impressive as well. The structure is perhaps the biggest bragging point, but the rest does well, too. The mid-palate expanded with aeration. The aromatics are enticing, and the finish is special for a Ruby Reserva. Overall, this is a Ruby Reserva with more finesse, flavor and structure than most, but it also (almost) doubles the price of many. That will be up to you and your pocketbook, but it certainly delivers. - Mark Squires