Port family, the Symingtons, has released a special Port - Ne Oublie - that dates back to 1882 and the days when Andrew AJ Symington, aged 18, first went to the Douro Valley to work at Graham's.
The limited edition Graham's Port was launched last night at a special event at Christie's in London where 25 members of the Symington family travelled to personally present the new Port to the trade and national media.
The special edition Ne Oublie port
Graham's 1882 Ne Oublie, which means "don't forget", has been released as a tribute to AJ Symington and has been made from one of four barrels that he bought from Graham's in the 1920s that have been with the family ever since.
One of the barrels has been used in special Symington releases over the years and the remaining two barrels are being entrusted to the next generation of the family with the explicit instruction that they must remain untouched until at least 2025.
Paul Symington, joint managing director of the Symingtons Family Estate and grandson of AJ Symington, said Ne Oublie was a deeply "personal" and "emotional" wine for the family and comes from a barrel that spent the first 40 years of its life maturing in the fierce heat and conditions of the Douro valley before residing in the more maritime conditions of its Porto cellars since 1925.
He said acclaimed wine writer Andrew Jefford summarised the beauty of what has become Ne Oublie at an earlier tasting in 2011 when he described it as a "synopsis of life and time".
"We are very lucky that the wine is what it is. We have not done anything to it all. But it is an absolutely magnificent wine," said Symington. "It is not a wine for everyone, but it is for someone with a sense of history, a sense of rarity. It is also a chance to take a look back in to the nineteenth century."
Only 656 bottles of Ne Oublie, which are priced at from £4,500 each, are being released and come in a special individually numbered handmade Portuguese crystal decanter, with three bands of Scottish silver on the stopper, neck and base of the decanter to reflect AJ Symington's original home in Scotland.
Fittingly the decanter is enclosed in a special leather case that has been specially produced by the historic Smythson luxury leather stationery company.
Paul Symington explained how the family still possesses small leather diaries, made by Frank Smythson himself, that their great grandfather wrote whilst in the trenches during the First World War. The Ne Oublie leather case is the first wine project the Smythson's has worked in respect to the history of both families.
Stockists for Ne Oublie include Berry Bros & Rudd, Corney & Barrow, Handford Wines, Hedonism and Selfridges.