A blogger's post on Port basics

[Roy Hersh]

http://bbblog.org.uk/2011/04/porto-ho-p ... d-vintage/

[Billy Abbott]

Thanks for the link. I did a short trip to Porto in February and spent as much time as I could learning about port (from knowing pretty much nothing) and have a few posts to write up so that I don't forget.
If you see mistakes please let me know - the information I've got is cobbled together from talking to the guys at Vinologia and tours at Ferreira and Sandemans with a sprinkle of searching on the web, so any corrections are much appreciated.

[Glenn E.]

So far you've posted the most accurate information we've seen about Port on the internet in a long time. Wine writers don't have the greatest track record when writing about Port - they're always getting something slightly off.

[Eric Menchen]

Nice blogs, and much more accurate that a lot of other things we see on the web about Port. On the ruby page there were a couple of very minor things I might have argued, but nothing glaring as I recall. On the tawny and colheita blog, I saw:

The sediment removal can become quite important as while the wine has to sit in the barrel for at least 2 years (with no age statement required for these young wines) it can be aged for upwards of 60.

I believe both tawnies and colheitas must be aged at least seven years. (See articles 4 and 7 here.) Also, as we've discussed around here before, the indication of age tawnies aren't strictly required to have an average age of that stated, but according to the regulations, must have the character of the age indicated. In practice we are led to believe the average age is usually higher than that stated.

[Glenn E.]

Colheitas are 7 years for sure, but I'm not certain about plain old tawnies. In fact I'd be very surprised if a basic tawny had to be aged for 7 years, as that would make them virtually impossible to produce at current price points. I think that I've read somewhere that basic tawnies are actually blends that contain white grapes, but that's not something I'd put forth in an article without lots of digging to make sure.

[Glenn E.]

Just read your tawny entry - sounds like you guys had a great time at Vinologia!

You did get to sample some of the best TWAIOA available (Tawny With An Indication Of Age, the "proper" term for the 10- through 40-year old tawnies). The S. Leonardo 30 Year Old is probably the best 30-yr that I've ever had. Noval's 40-yr old is among the top 3 in that category, and the Romaneira 40-yr old is in my opinion the best. (Just to round out the top 3 40-yr olds for you, try the Kopke some time. Brilliant stuff.)

I hope you got to try some aged whites as well. I noticed that you tried the Ste Eufemia Tawny Reserve - they also make very nice 20-yr olds and 30-yr olds and a "Special Reserve" white Port that in reality is a White Colheita, but they don't have the proper paperwork to bottle it as a Colheita so the bottles just say quietly on the back label that the contents are "over 30 years old." It's an excellent old white Port. There are two Ste Eufemias that derive from the same original estate - Quinta de Ste Eufemia, and Casa de Ste Eufemia. They share some of the same old stocks and as I understand things are two sides of the same family. But I digress.

I'm looking forward to the rest of your Port entries!

[Eric Menchen]

Colheitas are 7 years for sure, but I'm not certain about plain old tawnies. In fact I'd be very surprised if a basic tawny had to be aged for 7 years, as that would make them virtually impossible to produce at current price points. I think that I've read somewhere that basic tawnies are actually blends that contain white grapes, but that's not something I'd put forth in an article without lots of digging to make sure.

I agree on the colheitas, and my reading makes me just as sure about reserve tawny. Now the reason I think any tawny must be aged at least seven years is from Article 7, paragraph 4. This states that to use the word "tawny" these wines, which in Article 7 are reserves, must be aged at least seven years. No where else do I find mention of when the word "tawny" can be used. But this suggests that in a sense all tawnies are in fact reserves, even if they aren't labeled as such. But that doesn't seem quite right. This is from the 2005 version of the regulations. I recall there is a new version in the last year or so. I'll see if I can dig that up.

O.k., dug up the 2010 regulations, and they aren't any more clear, although they reduced the 7 year reserve requirement to 6. There is something in the annex about plain tawny, but it doesn't mention anything about the age.

Where are our industry folks to chime in? Oscar?

[Billy Abbott]

Thanks everyone, glad to see I didn't make too many mistakes. Every now and then my obsessive note taking comes in handy :)

Digging back through my notebook I've found a selection of different 'legal minimum ages' for tawnies from the various people I asked, with Sandemans claiming 5 years and Ferreira 4 on their tours. No clue where the 2 years came from so I've done a bit of tweaking in the post.

I've got a couple more to write: one on the lodge tours I did and one on the white ports I tried. It seems my taste in port veers towards the expensive end of the whites, which is worrying...

Annoyingly I can't find my notes on them but I did try the Quinta de Ste Eufemia selection - the guys at Vinologia were fans and made sure that everyone who had any white port tried a bit, along with the Quinta das Lamelas 40+, and Dalva 1963 and 1952. We were rather spoiled.

I'm kicking myself now for not picking up some bottles while I was there - we ended up shipping a couple of cases back to the UK and I turned down my chance to grab a few slots in the box. Luckily I know a few people in the wine trade in London and will hopefully be able to convince them to help me find some interesting bottles.

[Roy Hersh]

The fact is that a basic Tawny has no regulation for the amount of time it must stay in wood.

Eric's use of the word "Reserve" is what the British used to (some still do) call Colheitas. So that's why he initially saw the "7 year" regulation.

A basic Tawny may or may not even see wood, but those following the rules do put Tawny Port into wood. See my article on Tawny Ports if you are seriously interested. There are different ways to tweak their color:
a. adding some caramel coloring - illegal but it has been known to happen in the past
b. fining - the material that is used can change the color and darken it, sometimes very negatively
c. Douro Bake - is still used on occasion to change coloration quickly, think of Madeira's estufagem system, in cement tanks or even stainless for Tawny. Shameful but some does get approved.