As multi-lingual wordplay goes, O-Port-Unidade is not bad at all, referencing the famous eponymous liquid together with an aspiration to unite the growers of the Douro and, importantly, an opportunity to help those less well-off in the valley.
The project is the brainchild of the German, Axel Probst, creator of the World of Port website and author of the seminal work of reference, Port Wein. Axel, a former fighter pilot and European 100-meter backstroke champion, was born in 1970, a notable Vintage Port year. Somehow, this comes as no surprise.
Serendipity and the wise sororal influence of Sophia Bergqvist and Louísa Amorim dictated that Axel’s plan should unite the great and the good for a photograph to appear his then-imminent book, a photograph that would be taken in an historic granitic lagar. This soon, and maybe inevitably, transmogrified into the project of persuading his captive audience to make a Vintage Port together… and then to sell it for charity.
Axel selected September 22, 2013 for the photograph (not an auspicious vintage as it turned out) and had asked each grower to provide grapes to fill the Niepoort lagares in Vale de Mendiz, thereby instigating the first vintage of O-Port-Unidade. It was the hottest day of the year and something of a miracle, Axel concedes, that the resulting Port turned out as well as it did. The vast majority of the €100,000 income was donated to the local charity, Bagos D’Ouro, which had been set up by Louísa to help underprivileged children in the region.
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Axel considered that this was to be a project best entertained every ten years, but also decided that in 2023 he would not leave anything to chance. This time, the growers (their number increasing from 25 to 28) would be invited to submit vinified Port rather than grapes, thereafter to be blended by a panel of their number on the basis of blind tasting. The panel, which included luminaries such as Nick Delaforce from Niepoort, Ana Rosas from Ramos Pinto, Carlos Agrellos from Quinta do Noval, Ricardo Nunes from Churchill, and Charles Symington from Symington Family Estates, were able to pre-blend in the Spring of 2024 and then to finalize the assemblage at the beginning of 2025.
The wine was registered and approved by the IVDP in May 2025, despite the multiplicity of provenance and any incipient confusion as to whether or not it is a “genuine” Vintage Port—the more so given that 2023, once again, was not a widely declared year. The 5,000 liters of the final blend is expected to double the income of the 2013 launch.
With the notable exception of the Taylor Fladgate group, the project has been embraced by all of the leading houses. The blend therefore covers key locations across the Valley, from Quinta dos Avidagos in the Baixo Corgo, all the way up toward the Spanish border with Quinta do Vale Meao in the Douro Superior. The grape varieties, unsurprisingly, are all-encompassing, up to half of them identified as co-planted Vinhas Velhas. Of the “balance,” the key components come from Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca, with smaller contributions from Touriga Francesa, Tinta Amarela, Tinta Barroca, Sousão, Alicante Bouschet, and Tinta Roriz. The wine, self-evidently, does not lack for complexity.
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Nor, despite its youth, for class. Axel, his spirit of innovation notwithstanding, is something of a traditionalist when it comes to taste. He even uses the word “rustic” to describe the new wine, somewhat disingenuously perhaps; he refers, I imagine, to the impetuous spirit of youth, a little fiery and eager to please, ready for the transformative balm of bottle age. The tradition is also evidenced by the label, with its Roman numerals and elegant ur-stencilled facia. It most certainly looks the part—indeed, so much so that one is momentarily tempted to overlook the radical impulse behind its genesis: A Vintage Port made by a collaboration of 28 growers, all accepting the flight to anonymity in the name of a greater good. Quite an achievement.
Tasting
Tasted October 22, 2025
2023 O-Port-Unidade
Midnight-black, with the faintest concession to a deep purple at the rim. A somber evanescence. The nose is a little more forthcoming, a sweet blue-fruit character recalling loganberry, sloe, and youthful fig. A sappy energy can be detected behind the polish and the plush. A sweet floral backdrop belies any intimations of overbearing austerity, for all the power and vigor of the stentorian tannins and the deep core of dark fruit. The spirit and the acidity offer counterpoint to the tannins but are in themselves not lacking in severity. This is a forebodingly young wine, let us remember, its prehensile grip redeemed by the prospect of a sweeter future. The runes thereof promise a great deal. | 93
