After dinner port? The easy part is saying yes. Understanding the differences and nuances among ports is more challenging; ergo a quick guide for the discerning port lover.
Portugal: Port
Port is produced by interrupting the fermentation of red wine grapes (there is a small uninteresting category of white ports) with a dose of brandy (which is technically alcohol distilled from grapes), leaving a strong, sweet, fruity and flavorful, but undrinkable wine. After that, winemaking techniques and aging result in what is often considered the world’s most remarkable and complex sweet wine. The production of port is highly regulated by the Portuguese government with arcane rules as strict as any in Europe.
Even on the consumer level, port can be highly confusing. I’ll point out some of the basics, but when you are buying, put yourself in the hands of a reliable wine dealer, suspend normal logic, and keep asking questions. The problem is that once you understand the way things are usually done you’ll soon find a whole network of subcategories and exceptions that can stump the experts. Even a wine geek will have a hard time mastering it all.
Vintage port is the most famous, rare, and sought after among the port categories. It sounds deceptively simple to produce. After two years in casks, the wine is bottled. Or sometimes several wines of that specific vintage are blended by specialists and then bottled. Only time can now improve a vintage port, bringing it a unique richness and fragrance. You wait twenty years or so for the port to reach its prime. During that period, the port throws off thick sediment, so it must always be carefully decanted.
Vintage port is produced only in years that the winemakers “declare” a vintage, usually about three times each decade. It might sound self-serving, but with long term reputations at stake the port houses would be foolish to abuse the privilege of declaring a vintage. Each port house uses what it considers its best grapes from prime locations in optimal growing seasons. But the declaration is an individual, not a collective decision, although it must be evaluated and approved by an official bureau. Recent vintage ports sell for about $100. Older ones can be quite a bit more expensive.
Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) is the product of a single year, and uses a different winemaking method. The aim is to emulate, or at least approach, the taste of vintage port. It is sometimes successful in achieving that. At a significantly lower price than vintage, it can be worth buying.
Aged tawny port is the other important category. And aged is the key word here. The term tawny comes from the color, which fades from the original deep purple to more of an amber in the aging process. Aged tawny will always be a blend and be labeled with an average age of the wines in the blend, specifically 10, 20, 30 or 40 years old. (I should have said almost always. Colheita, a tiny but valued category, is a tawny from a single vintage.)
The 10 and 20 year olds are the best bets for your money. These ports are aged in wood for the designated time, and then bottled. Interestingly, they should be drunk within a few years of the bottling date. They matured in the wood, and gained their character there. Rather than improve in the bottle, they lose freshness and fruit, and become cloudy and flabby.
Tawnies are mellow, soft, gentle, and spicy, as opposed to vintage ports, which are more intense, saturated and lush, sometimes described as fiery. My own taste runs to a good tawny, as does my budget. A ten year old tawny generally costs $25 to $30.
Plain tawny (or the word tawny modified by any adjective but aged) does not offer nearly as much of a taste experience. Nor does ruby port. At one time they were best left unopened, but I think the quality of these wines, which sell for $15 or less, has improved in recent years. Or maybe my after dinner mood did. They should be consumed when young and fruity. And like all ports are best at cellar temperature or just slightly chilled.
“Vintage Character,” or other proprietary names, in the $20 range, can vary from dull to youthful and pleasant, depending on the label. On the whole, I would not recommend them. An LBV, for just a few dollars more, is probably more dependable.
The differences among the major port houses, by the way, have more to do with style than quality, and next week I will comment on some popular brands.
