For The Love Of Port

This bottle just started leaking a few weeks ago (during shipping). Was concerned since so many tainted bottles and many of those seem to start out as a leaker. Upon opening I was relieved as the wine smelled great right away. Soaked cork.

Decant: 24 Hours: Deep dark purple--it looks like a bruiser of a port. The nose gives dark chocolate and deep grape. Picked up hints of fig, deep dark fruits. Tannic and piquant finish; white spicy pepper hints over the dark fruits. A lot of good going on here; quite a robust port. Has the stuff to evolve--I'd wait 10 years to open again--at least.

93 Points

When this shows well, it is fantastic. Glad this bottle showed so well.

My friend Fernando, (some of you met him during the 2012 Port Harvest Tour and local tastings here in WA) opened a bottle of this last night after the fireworks launched on his beach for 4th of July celebrations. His bottle had zero signs of leakage, but he opened this at the end of a very long day into night and did not decant before uncorking it and pouring for a total of 5 of us that remained. We each had two glasses over a few hours (about 2.5 oz. each). There was some effervescence that lasted about 45 minutes, that I chalked up to 2ndary fermentation in the bottle. After an hour or less, none was still detectable and in its place a supple and smooth beauty emerged. The nose was great from the get go, but the palate improved and the second glass which was poured a couple of hours later, was pretty spectacular. I can only imaging how great this would have been with six hours of decanting ... possibly longer. Either way, similar impressions and like Andy mentioned, when it is from a good bottle without noticeable flaws, it is stunning.

I'm not sure secondary fermentation is possible with Port, can yeast work with sugar at 20% alcohol? Not sure how I would explain it though. I spoke with Dirk recently about the 1997 and he thinks its hard to get a pristine bottle.

I bought 6 a while back by mistake (actually needed the 2000 for Roy's Top 12 but misremembered the year). I opened one when I heard about the issues and it was great, so I have high hopes for the remaining 5.

Frederick Blais wrote:I'm not sure secondary fermentation is possible with Port, can yeast work with sugar at 20% alcohol?

Most yeast can not, but a few strains can go to 22%, and reportedly now there is a strain that can go to 25%:
http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp099-s ... -ale-yeast
http://www.whitelabs.com/wlp099-super-h ... vity-yeast
I may have to try that one some time.
Bacteria might also be a possibility.

Eric Menchen wrote:

Frederick Blais wrote:I'm not sure secondary fermentation is possible with Port, can yeast work with sugar at 20% alcohol?

Most yeast can not, but a few strains can go to 22%, and reportedly now there is a strain that can go to 25%:
http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp099-s ... -ale-yeast
http://www.whitelabs.com/wlp099-super-h ... vity-yeast
I may have to try that one some time.
Bacteria might also be a possibility.

I assume those are very specific strains that have to be added and are not naturally occurring??

There's also the possibility of effervescence being the result of bottling too soon after fermentation, but that shouldn't be an issue with a port that's spent 2 years resting before bottling.


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Andy Velebil wrote: I assume those are very specific strains that have to be added and are not naturally occurring??

Those are strains that have been selected/isolated for their alcohol tolerance. But there are some wild strains and bacteria that can go high. Sometimes home brewers get unexpected carbonation when a wild yeast (say a brett strain) infects the beer after initial fermentation with a more standard strain. Bottle bombs and gushers are the result.

Eric Menchen wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote: I assume those are very specific strains that have to be added and are not naturally occurring??

Those are strains that have been selected/isolated for their alcohol tolerance. But there are some wild strains and bacteria that can go high. Sometimes home brewers get unexpected carbonation when a wild yeast (say a brett strain) infects the beer after initial fermentation with a more standard strain. Bottle bombs and gushers are the result.

Is that a rare occurrence or does it happen fairly often. Also curious if that strain(s) were around almost 20 years ago or is it a more recent "evolution" of the strain (not sure what term to use, so evolution seemed to fit). Did that make sense?

Andy Velebil wrote:

Eric Menchen wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote: I assume those are very specific strains that have to be added and are not naturally occurring??

Those are strains that have been selected/isolated for their alcohol tolerance. But there are some wild strains and bacteria that can go high. Sometimes home brewers get unexpected carbonation when a wild yeast (say a brett strain) infects the beer after initial fermentation with a more standard strain. Bottle bombs and gushers are the result.

Is that a rare occurrence or does it happen fairly often. Also curious if that strain(s) were around almost 20 years ago or is it a more recent "evolution" of the strain (not sure what term to use, so evolution seemed to fit). Did that make sense?

Evolution is the perfect term. Though I have far less experience with yeasts and fermentations than I'm sure Eric has, I've seen some crazy strains develop in the right conditions. Considering how quickly unicellular organisms evolve, I'm sure there have been high alcohol oddballs as long as there have been high alcohol liquids.


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Ok thanks. Anyone who's visted the old Niepoort Lodge back in the day has seen where they had a small bottling machine in the corner of a really typical moldy dirty cellar, which is perfect for aging wine, but probably not the best place to keep bottles and other equipment clean when bottling. So I could see some crazy strain evolving in that old place, lol. No longer the case, as they have a "clean room" bottling line in their newer lodge.

I had not heard of the 25% tolerant strain and think that is a recent development, and even 20 and 22% tolerant strains have for the most part been carefully selected and cultured. But that doesn't mean they don't exist in nature. As Bradley wrote, with the right conditions, they will evolve.

I regularly ask commercial brewers how many times they repitch (reuse from one batch of beer to the next) yeast. Usual answers are in the 7-20 range. Even in the cleanest environments, after repeated reproduction the yeast does mutate and evolve. It doesn't take that long for it to get away from what you originally started with.

I have always been in the camp of it being due to bacterial spoilage, and am sticking with that. Definitely a gaseous emission of some sort whether due to bacteria or fermentation.

Kurt Wieneke wrote:I have always been in the camp of it being due to bacterial spoilage, and am sticking with that. Definitely a gaseous emission of some sort whether due to bacteria or fermentation.

Yep, bacteria is certainly a possibility, which I mentioned a few times above. Google says acetobacter can only tolerate 18%, but some lactobacillus can handle 20%.