Tawnies with an indication of age question.

[Mike J. W.]

I know 10, 20, 30, 40 y.o. TWAIOA's are a blend and are what a Port producer feels that a tawny of a particular age (like a 40 y.o.). should taste like. I also know that the IVDP regulates and approves the TWAIOA's like they do with other types of Ports. My question is, when approximately did this come into play? By that I mean, was there a time when a 40 y.o. tawny was simply a tawny that had been aging in the cask for 40 years? If so, when did the rules change? I guess it wouldn't make sense that a 40 y.o. would have ever simply been 40 years of age when they bottled it, because then wouldn't it just be a Colheita?

[Andy Velebil]

I don’t know exact year. However, many of the regulations were updated shortly after WW2.

When the IVP (now IVDP) was established there was a window of time when producers were allowed to “declare” their old tawny stocks as a Colheita. Many didn’t as they were not popular back then. Hence why a lot since then now can’t be bottled as such.

But Yes, in theory someone could simply bottle a 40 (or whatever year) colheita as a TWAIOA, submit it for approval and sell it.

[Glenn E.]

I've tasted TWAIOA well back into the 70s, but I can't recall having seen one from the 60s. As Andy said, there were a lot of changes after WW2 so that's probably when it happened, though given my (lack of) experience with anything older than the early 70s it's also possible that the category was instituted in the late 60s around the time that Taylor "invented" LBVs.

[Frederick Blais]

I have asked this question many times to different Port producers. It definitively did not happen before the 60's.

Many houses were releasing Tawny Port calling it Adamado or Aloirado, synonyms for Tawny color or style in Portuguese. You then had to know the brand to know how old it was. For example Burmester Tordiz was and is still the brand use to design their 40 year old Tawny