Port?

[newsbabe]

My friend and I shared a flight of port at a tapas place last weekend and LOVED it! Had tastings of 10 year, 20, 30 and 40 year. Quite the difference between them.

So I'm thinking I'd like to serve some after our Thanksgiving dinner, but am really a novice here. Could anyone make some recommendations for brands? I liked the 30 and 40 year best. 10 year was like drinking maple syrup. sweet, but better on pancakes.

[futronic]

I assume you were drinking a tawny port and not Vintage?

Tawny ends up being more on the nutty side in comparison to Ruby, and people often recommend Graham's or Taylor's.

[budrichard]

Since there are so many different Ports and you will get many different reccamandations, I would go to my local wine staore and purchase a good late bottled vintage Port. You will avoid the sediment in a vintage Port and will have a reasonably priced product. Without a lot of history in Port, I think the older Tawny's may be too much at this time. Work your way up as you taste and come to understand Port. -Dick

[Craig Camp]

Graham's. It is impossible to go wrong with Graham's anything.

[Sweet Willie]

anyone try any of the white ports?

[Mark Sommelier]

Graham's. It is impossible to go wrong with Graham's anything.

I agree with Craig. Graham's is consistently good. I use more 30 year old tawny than anyone in town, and it always pleases people. Not cheap, though. Retail is around $100 a bottle. The 10 year is always the sweetest and best served chilled. 20 year is a good middle ground in that it is not too sweet and not too expensive. If you liked these tawny ports, you should also look into Madeira. Good Malmsey has similar qualities and is a whole lot less expensive.

[primowino]

anyone try any of the white ports?

Yes, they can make great aperatifs and are relatively cheap. However they range from very dry to fairly sweet and don't usually let you know on the label. I like them dry and the best examples I've had were from Fonseca and Niepoort.

[Brad S]

Graham's Six Grapes and Fonseca Bin 27 are a good place to start in regards to understanding some of the qualities of a vintage Port.

[Carema]

maybe a small explaination of Port is in order. Tawnies see time in cask (thus 10-20-40 years) and achieve a brown, oxidized color and quality. Be careful here because there are commercial Tawny ports which are a blend of cheap ruby port and white port- not as good.

Ruby port is a blend of grapes from various years then bottled and sold after about 4 years. It is a smidge high in alcohol sometimes.

Vintage port is made from grapes all from one year then cask aged for two to three years, but often requires cellar aging for a long time. Caution, vintage ports usually throw a serious sediment.

Colheita ports are tawny ports made from a single vintage and cask aged for a minimum of seven years (by law) but can go in cask for longer if the producer makes the choice.

Single Quintas are vintage ports made in years that are not declared vintage years but can be great values if you know the producer and perhaps know the year was not really bad but not enough of the consortium got together and declared a vintage year.

Late Bottle Vintage ports are vintage ports (from declared and non declared years) that go through 4-6 years of wood cask aging.

after 1975 all ports had to be bottled in portugal.

You can find all this info in basic wine books, maybe perhaps it was helpful. I apologize to all you found this info redundant.

What I have found for the most part, is that in the States you are usually faced with less variation and higher quality in Port categories that almost any other. Since most places (stores and restaurants) carry only an example or two of each- they usually buy the best for the money.

Storing vintage ports until they are ready is an unrivaled experience. It is really worth the wait. A lot of things are not.

[Jason Perlow]

I have a couple of bottles of Dow 1977 that I bought a few years ago for under $100 apeice. I tried one last year and while it was excellent, it still had a few more years to mature.

I recently had one of my 1963 Cohelitas and it was mature.

[docsconz]

maybe a small explaination of Port is in order. Tawnies see time in cask (thus 10-20-40 years) and achieve a brown, oxidized color and quality. Be careful here because there are commercial Tawny ports which are a blend of cheap ruby port and white port- not as good.

Ruby port is a blend of grapes from various years then bottled and sold after about 4 years. It is a smidge high in alcohol sometimes.

Vintage port is made from grapes all from one year then cask aged for two to three years, but often requires cellar aging for a long time. Caution, vintage ports usually throw a serious sediment.

Colheita ports are tawny ports made from a single vintage and cask aged for a minimum of seven years (by law) but can go in cask for longer if the producer makes the choice.

Single Quintas are vintage ports made in years that are not declared vintage years but can be great values if you know the producer and perhaps know the year was not really bad but not enough of the consortium got together and declared a vintage year.

Late Bottle Vintage ports are vintage ports (from declared and non declared years) that go through 4-6 years of wood cask aging.

after 1975 all ports had to be bottled in portugal.

You can find all this info in basic wine books, maybe perhaps it was helpful. I apologize to all you found this info redundant.

What I have found for the most part, is that in the States you are usually faced with less variation and higher quality in Port categories that almost any other. Since most places (stores and restaurants) carry only an example or two of each- they usually buy the best for the money.

Storing vintage ports until they are ready is an unrivaled experience. It is really worth the wait. A lot of things are not.

Great summary!

Fonsecas have benn the ports I've called on most frequently, especially the Bin 27 and vintage ports. I am holding '77, 85, 92 and 94 in my cellar. I've had some of the '77 and it is excellent, although I am in no hurry to drink the rest.

[estufarian]

Had tastings of 10 year, 20, 30 and 40 year. Could anyone make some recommendations for brands?

By now, you're probably more confused than ever - way too much information.

The reality is that 30-yr-old and 40-yr-old are very fine and rare ports, and will cost in the $75-150 range. But the good news is that I've never had a bad one! So buy the cheapest you can find. Graham's is good - but I find it the sweetest of all the 'aged' tawnies, and you specifically identified that you didn't want them too sweet. The other commonly found 40-yr-old is Taylor, Fladgate - and this is usually even more expensive. The producers with Portuguese sounding names are usually less expensive, but rarely seen (at the 40-yr-old level).

The key to all these is that they are aged in wood for 'many' years (the 40-yr-old can be thought of as average age 40 yrs - but that's not the legal definition). This means that you like wines 'bottled after 25(say)+ years in wood'. So don't get 'bait and switch' to another wine without checking the bottling date (all of LBV, Colheita and Vintage are required to include both vintage date and year of bottling - the latter usually in smaller type).

[ctgm]

Just a little tip that I adhere by. When drinking LBV's I always buy those that need to be decanted. You can usually find out whether you need to or not from the back label.

I find Taylors and Fonsecas LBVs very disappointing. I had a Smith Woodhouse 1986 LBV on the weekend and was pleasantly surprised.

[winebill]

Another wonderful Port house to seek out is "Ramos-Pinto" Their ports are all very good and fairly priced. They own most of the vineyards that produce their wines.

Particularly good is the 20 Year Old Quinta do Bom Retiro

[Carlovski]

Once at college I was invited to the senior common rooms port tasting - really gave me an appreciation for the stuff. We started with the bog standard Dows ruby port, then tried a white port (Makes a good aperitif, served chilled) then moved on to an LBV, an aged tawny (Which is pretty much my favourite style) and finished with a 1977 vintage. The guy leading the tasting was pretty excited, he hadn't tasted that one before, and was prety impressed with it. We all were two, as it happened that 1977 was the year nearly all of the undergrads who were there were born!

Unfortunately, it then all got a bit messy - being poor undergraduates, and being offered free booze we proceded to 'Taste' all the leftover port - of which there was quite a lot. Considering we had all just had at least a bottle of wine each with our meal you can imagine the result!

I did catch our senior tutor ordering 6 cases of the stuff for the senior common room drinks cabinet though!

[theakston]

I don't drink port very often but I usually get a bottle at Christmas to go with the Stilton. What is the best match for Stilton? or is it one of those traditions that doesn't really make sense? I usually enjoy the paring but feel they tend to work against each other a bit, perhaps I'm not buying the right port?

[Jason Perlow]

I don't drink port very often but I usually get a bottle at Christmas to go with the Stilton. What is the best match for Stilton? or is it one of those traditions that doesn't really make sense? I usually enjoy the paring but feel they tend to work against each other a bit, perhaps I'm not buying the right port?

Blue cheese also goes VERY well with vintage Pedro Ximenez sherry. Its dark brown and has almost a syrupy consistency, but its wonderful stuff. I had a old PX, I think it was a 1972, at a cheese and wine tasting about six months ago at Artisinal cheese center in NYC, it was wonderful with Valdeon, a very stinky Spanish blue cheese similar to Cabrales.

As to ports you really need a vintage, very sweet port with jam-like and leathery overtones to go up against a serious blue like a stilton. Something 20 years or better. Or a good 20 or 30 year old tawny. A young port like a ruby or a vintage that isnt ready to open (20 years is the earliest you should open a vintage, in my opinion) just isn't going to do it, it will get overwhelmed by the pungency.

[Bill Klapp]

I am a vintage port dude. I concur that Graham's is generally the best choice, simply because it drinks well earlier than Taylor-Fladgate or Fonseca (although I popped a 1948 Graham's for a port-loving client last Saturday night, and the damned thing was almost too young to drink!). The 1985 Graham's is a thing of beauty, occasionally found at reasonable prices. The 1992 Graham's, Taylors and Fonsecas are also drinking well now, as that vintage was not equipped to age for a century as some are. That said, I believe that the best prices on older vintage ports will be found on Graham's.

[clifford]

I had a 20 tawny from a producer named Burmester (sp?) at a tasting five years ago that was to die for. Never seen it,or anything else from the producer, since.

Has anyone ever heard of this producer?

[fresco]

I had a 20 tawny from a producer named Burmester (sp?) at a tasting five years ago that was to die for. Never seen it,or anything else from the producer, since.

Has anyone ever heard of this producer?

Here is their site:

http://www.burmesterporto.com/en/historia/historia.htm

[primowino]

The 1992 Graham's, Taylors and Fonsecas are also drinking well now, as that vintage was not equipped to age for a century as some are.

I have three bottles of 1992 Taylors that I was hoping to keep till my eldest child was at least 18. I have heard more than once that it is drinking well already. Do you think there is a risk that it will be past its best at 18-21 years old?

Edited December 22, 2003 by primowino (log)

[Bill Klapp]

A risk, I suppose, but probably not much of one. With Taylor ports, early drinkability does not necessarily mean early deterioration.