Tawnies and Colheita

[Keng Yong]

Hi, I wasn't able to find this info online. Are tawnies and colheita always filtered before bottling?

regards,
Keng Yong

[Andy Velebil]

Well the rules aren't always clear when it comes to Port, as you'll quickly learn there are lots of exceptions.

While all Port, and all wine for that matter, is technically "filtered" to some degree it really depends on the product and producer. Typically, wood aged Ports are filtered to some degree to remove any sediment prior to bottling. By "some degree" I mean exactly that, some may do a heavy fining and filtration and some may do just enough to remove any visible sediment which would allow it to continue to age in bottle.

[Keng Yong]

Hi Andy, indeed there's a lot to learn for me. So is it safe to assume they can generally be served from the bottle without additional filtration/straining?

Now I have to open my bottle of 1998 Niepoort Colheita to find out if there're sediments inside! :)

regards,
Keng Yong

[Andy Velebil]

Hi Andy, indeed there's a lot to learn for me. So is it safe to assume they can generally be served from the bottle without additional filtration/straining?

Now I have to open my bottle of 1998 Niepoort Colheita to find out if there're sediments inside! :)

regards,
Keng Yong

Yes, for that bottle you can safely pop-and-pour without any worries of sediment.

Tawny's generally won't throw any sediment unless they have spent a considerable amount of time in aging bottle. And even then they typically only throw a small amount of sediment, but enough that might bother some people.

Niepoort is a producer that believes his Colheita's can and do age for some time in bottle. I've had some older bottlings of Niepoort Colheita's that were bottled in the 1970's and 1980's that have some amount of sediment when opened and needed to be decanted off. Other producers do a more heavy fining and filtration as they believe a Colheita should be consumed close to the date of bottling.

I don't know anyone who makes aged tawnys (10,20,30,40) that are meant to age in bottle. These are probably best consumed within a few years of the bottling date for best results and won't throw any noticable amount of sediment in that time.

[Keng Yong]

Thanks Andy, for the wealth of info!

regards,
KY

[Eric Menchen]

My 20+ year old bottle of 40 year old tawny had a fair bit of sediment

[Roy Hersh]

Yes, you can certainly hold onto or buy Tawny Ports "with an indication of age" (10-40 years old) that will still be able to be consumed years later. That certainly does not mean they will improve. Moreover, they are rarely "better" than when they are young, as has been discussed here on the Forum many times. As Andy mentioned, the Port trade has been clear in its message that it is BEST to drink them closer to the bottling date. Freshness and other factors come into play.

It does not mean that holding onto them and drinking them later on is wrong or "not good." They will certainly be different beasts, even though they're meant to be consumed early on. The same can be said for the bottle of Ruby, old Vintage Character, or Reserve Port bottlings that can wind up misplaced or sitting around for years and then enjoyed later on. These become "interesting" science experiments and can still deliver pleasure for those looking to experience/learn something different. In these types of bottles, it is not uncommon for the dead yeast cells and minute particulate matter of the grape skins that were not removed during fining/filtration to precipitate out of solution and appear as sediment, even in the case of Eric's 20 year old bottle of 40 YO Tawny Port.

[Russ K]

Yep, no reason to strain tawnies or cohleitas most times, drink em when you get em I say and you should be good to go. I have never had a 20 year old 40 year old, and I would think those ought to be pretty rare beasts.... There is little to be gained from the ongoing storage of tawnies or cohleitas already bottled. Value doesn't change on the market, your better off letting the stores or the producer store it for you and yuse your precious storage for VP's and table wines.

[Glenn E.]

Value doesn't change on the market, your better off letting the stores or the producer store it for you and yuse your precious storage for VP's and table wines.

While this is nominally true for Tawnies with an indication of age, it isn't always true for Colheitas. Producers put out a new edition of their TWAIOA every year (or however often it is needed), but once a particular Colheita is gone it is gone forever. So if you have a particular year that you really want for some reason - like, say, your birth year - then at the very least you'll want to pay close attention to price and quantity in the market so that you can stock up as it starts to run out.

I have a decent collection of Colheitas from 1964 for this very reason - I can't be certain that any Producer will ever bottle another 1964 Colheita, so I wanted to get my hands on as many as I could while I had the money and they were available. And in stocking up, I single-handedly raised the price of Noval's 1964 Colheita by $40/bottle as I bought up all the cheaper ones. 2-3 years ago you could find those for $80... now they're $120 or more.

As far as sediment goes... Andy covered it with this:

Tawny's generally won't throw any sediment unless they have spent a considerable amount of time in aging bottle. And even then they typically only throw a small amount of sediment, but enough that might bother some people.

Even when they do throw some sediment, it's usually extremely fine and can just be swirled back into the Port and no one will know the difference. Like Andy said, you'd have to store a Colheita for quite a long time before it would throw enough sediment to need decanting. Even Eric's 20 year old Calem 40 Year Old Tawny Port hadn't thrown enough sediment to really need decanting. We just drank around it for the most part.

[Brian G r a f s t r o m]

Helpful information here, guys. Thanks for teaching this newbie.