Quinta and Vineyard Bottlers

At A Glance

Quinta and Vineyard Bottlers is a Portuguese company incorporated on 17 February 1997 and registered for producing ordinary and fortified wines. Its name appears on the Swedish listing for Krohn Colheita Port 2003. That bottle leads into the older Wiese & Krohn story, a Port house founded in 1865 and associated with cask-aged Colheitas, old reserves and Vintage Ports from Quinta do Retiro Novo in the Douro.

The Producer

The name on the product record is Quinta and Vineyard Bottlers, while the wine itself carries the Wiese & Krohn history. Wiese & Krohn began in 1865, founded by the Norwegian cousins Theodor Wiese and Dankert Krohn, and built its reputation on old Ports matured in cask, especially Colheitas. A Colheita is a Port from one harvest, aged in wood until the fruit takes on the flavours of time: dried fruit, spice, tobacco and cocoa.

Quinta and Vineyard Bottlers-Vinhos S.A. entered the Portuguese company register in 1997 with ordinary and fortified wine production as its registered activity. The exact current operating relationship between that company and Krohn is not established here, so the useful connection is the bottle itself: Krohn Colheita Port 2003 is attributed to Wiese & Krohn and the Douro, with Quinta and Vineyard Bottlers named as producer on the Swedish listing.

Place

Krohn's physical Douro centre is Quinta do Retiro Novo, a 17-hectare vineyard estate at Sarzedinho, a small village in the Rio Torto Valley. The property is classified as class A under the Douro vineyard-points system, a legal and agricultural ranking based on the value assigned to vineyard factors. The estate's place therefore reaches the bottle through both geography and category: the wine is Douro Port, while Colheita identifies a single harvest matured in cask.

No grape variety is named for the 2003 lot. Its label vocabulary instead carries the essential map: Douro gives the place, 2003 gives the harvest, and Colheita gives the wine's single-vintage tawny style and long wood-aged path.

Soil And Site

The estate credits soil, altitude, locality, low productivity and sloping vineyards as favourable conditions for quality wine production. These are physical facts with a direct consequence in the estate's wines: the vineyard is presented as a site where small crops and hillside planting support concentrated fruit, while altitude and location sit alongside acidity and freshness in the finished Port. The 2003 carries that combination in its ripe cherry fruit, lively acidity and firm, creamy mouthfeel.

Story

Wiese & Krohn began with two Norwegian cousins in 1865 and grew into a house known for keeping Port in wood for long periods. Its Colheitas became the central historical thread, with rare nineteenth-century wines retained in reserve, while Vintage Ports came from Quinta do Retiro Novo in the Rio Torto Valley. The estate gave the range a fixed Douro address and a 17-hectare vineyard classified as class A.

In 2023, WineStone acquired both the Krohn Port brand and Quinta do Retiro Novo. That transaction changed the ownership chapter around the brand and estate, while the bottle's older story remained visible in the 2003 harvest and the Colheita method. David Baverstock, Krohn's chairman winemaker, brings more than 40 years of experience to the present winemaking leadership.

Vineyards And Cellar

Quinta do Retiro Novo covers 17 hectares on sloping ground at Sarzedinho. Its class A classification records the high vineyard rating assigned under the Douro points system, while the estate's own account puts low productivity, altitude, soil and location alongside the slopes as favourable to wine production. The vineyard supplies the scale and site context behind Krohn's Vintage Ports.

Colheita follows a different path. The wine comes from one harvest and spends its development in cask, allowing ripe fruit to move toward preserved cherry, dried fruit, spice, tobacco and cocoa.

Wines

Krohn's range has two distinct branches. Colheita is the cask-aged, single-harvest side, where the vintage stays visible on the label and the wine develops through time in wood. Vintage Port is the estate-led side, sourced from Quinta do Retiro Novo, the 17-hectare class A property in the Rio Torto Valley.

Krohn Colheita Port 2003 is the most fully documented bottle in the range. It brings concentrated ripe cherry and preserved-cherry fruit, vibrant acidity, a firm creamy texture, and a full finish marked by spice, flowers, dried fruit, tobacco and cocoa. The 2003 also carries dark fruit and a strongly vinous profile, giving this Colheita a more youthful, ruby-like impression than the mature tawny character commonly associated with long-aged examples.

In The Glass

The first lift is dark fruit, followed by ripe cherry and the floral notes that sit above the fruit. With air, the preserved-cherry character becomes clearer, while dried fruit, tobacco, cocoa and spice add the savoury register associated with long cask ageing.

The mouth begins with concentration, then acidity brightens the centre and keeps the sweetness from feeling heavy. A firm, creamy texture fills the palate without becoming thick. The finish is full and persistent, carrying the fruit into dried fruit, cocoa and tobacco before the spice remains longest.

A Bottle To Understand It

Krohn Colheita Port 2003 is the bottle to open first: a single-harvest Douro Port attributed to Wiese & Krohn, with Quinta and Vineyard Bottlers named as producer on the Swedish listing. It combines the style's cask-aged history with a surprisingly youthful profile, bringing ripe and preserved cherry, vibrant acidity, a creamy, firm palate and a long finish of spice, dried fruit, tobacco and cocoa. It gives a clear taste of what makes Colheita different from Vintage Port: one harvest, followed through wood, with the vintage still at the centre of the label.

Anecdote

At a 2013 vertical tasting of Krohn Colheitas, the 2003 showed a surprising side of the style. It was strongly vinous, laden with dark fruit, and closer to ruby Port than to a mature tawny. The bottle carried the density and fruit weight of a younger Port even though Colheita belongs to Krohn's long cask-aged tradition. Its ripe fruit remained vivid, its acidity was still lively, and the texture held firm and creamy across the palate. Among bottles spanning older harvests, the 2003 stood out for looking and tasting unusually young, with dark fruit at the centre instead of the softer dried-fruit profile associated with mature tawny Port.

Final Word

Quinta and Vineyard Bottlers leads to Krohn through a bottle with a clear date, place and method. The Douro gives the address, Colheita gives the single-harvest style, and the 2003 gives the glass its own character: ripe cherry, lively acidity, creamy firmness and a finish that keeps tobacco, cocoa and spice in view.

Quinta and Vineyard Bottlers

At A Glance

The Producer

Place

Soil And Site

Story

Vineyards And Cellar

Wines

In The Glass

A Bottle To Understand It

Anecdote

Final Word

Sources

Where to go next