Croft Pink bears all the hallmarks of a beautifully made
light ruby with fine berry fruit flavours but with a
contemporary twist and a light cherry colour. It exudes
vibrant freshness which is lighter in style than other
ports to appeal to a new audience of consumers.
With red ports produced at around 20% alcohol, this new pink
proved a challenge for winemaker David Guimaraens and his team
at Croft from the outset. How to create a rosé style with
a light, bright pink colour which is soft and approachable but
with a crisp light finish?
The solution was to use traditional red port grapes, extract a light amount
of colour from the skins and produce a pink version using white port
technology. The grapes were pressed before the juice was cold fermented
for 7 days off their skins. This slow fermentation, which is twice as long
as standard port, produced these fine berry flavours with the crispness
required to produce a light, refreshing style.
Adrian Bridge, Managing Director of Croft Port stated: “The port industry
needs innovation to raise awareness of port as a contemporary product
which is why, three years ago, I came up with the idea of producing
a lighter style of port. This will attract new consumers to the port
category and at the same time de-seasonlise consumption.
It has been a lot of work for the winemaking team
but they have now produced this outstanding new wine.”
