Douro and Port

Portugal is, of course, best known for port, the great fortified wine made from grapes grown on steep slopes in the dry, warm Douro Valley. At a Portuguese tasting at the swanky Palace Hotel in San Francisco, I sampled some extraordinary old ports, which showed just how ageworthy the finest ports are. I also tasted a number of table whites and reds from the Douro - in this case demonstrating the quality of Portuguese wines, but also the difficulty in selling them to consumers used to French grape varieties.

the whites

Portuguese white wine has a lot going for it, as the wines I tasted from the Douro confirmed. The grape varieties are fairly aromatic and share a crisp acidity, and blending adds different characteristics and qualities. The wines are refreshing and approachable, with structure added by lees ageing and maybe a little old oak. The downside is that there are so many grape varieties used, often unfamiliar to the consumer, that it's difficult to get a handle on the many subtly different styles of wines. Some wines, grassy and herbaceous, reminded me of Sauvignon Blanc; the most interesting were reminiscent of the best Italian whites, with smoked almond aromas and a really dry, mineral mouthfeel.

Porto Réccua Branco 2015

From a new winery, this was a good example of how Italian the Douro whites can feel, with stone, peach, mineral aromas, and a very refreshing acidity. ✪✪✪✪

the reds

Portuguese - and especially Douro - reds are so distinctive that it can take some getting used to for those trained on New World wines. The tannins are unavoidable, and I have to note that there was a stinky, Brett character to a lot of the reds I tried that wouldn't sit well in California. Furthermore, the many different indigenous varieties don't have an easy international comparison. But these wines are worth persevering with, with ripe red and black fruit and floral aromas and a rich, almost sweet intensity.

There are a couple of important labelling terms that can be easily confused with neighbouring Spain. Reserva simply refers to a wine that's been aged for one year (like Riserva in Italy), without denoting the nature of that ageing. Grande Reserva (pronounced more or less like Gran Reserva in Spain) is a term I hadn't previously encountered; the wines, I was told, must be aged for at least eighteen months. Unlike Spain, this term does not denote a style but refers, a little tenuously, to quality.

adorable representative of J Rosas

Vieira de Sousa Reserva 2014

I preferred the Reservas to the Grande Reservas, as they kept a little more of the youthful fruitiness. This wine had a year's ageing in used oak, allowing the red and black fruits to shine, backed up with dry, grainy tannins and high acidity. ✪✪✪✪

J Rosas Quinta da Touriga-Chã 2013

Tannic, smoky, spicy, with black fruits, and a long, complex finish. ✪✪✪✪✪

the white ports

White port is such an obscure category that it was surprising to see that most producers at the tasting poured it. Not only that, but there were some old, serious bottles too. The best wines were almost like madeira, but without that baked fruit character, and almost like sherry, but much sweeter. I'm not sure when I'd want to drink these intense wines, dominated by fudge and toffee aromas, but they showed an individual quality that in some cases was truly astonishing.

Vieira winemaker Luísa Borges

Vieira de Sousa Fine Very Old White Port

Perhaps one of the most extraordinary wines I have ever tried. With wines up to sixty years old, this was an intense, sweet wine with grapey, aromatic aromas that almost made it taste like a brandy or a grappa - the winemaker commented that the grape spirit in the wine gets more concentrated with time. There were plenty of dried fruit aromas too, with fudge, toffee, and caramel. Like a sweet version of palo cortado, and then some. ✪✪✪✪✪✪✪

the ports

Equally extraordinary were the red ports, both young and old. 2011 is the standout vintage of recent years, and all the producers were sold out. A great alternative to vintage port is Late Bottled Vintage, which spend longer ageing in barrel before bottling. 2011 LBVs are wines I definitely recommend buying to drink now, with intense, rich dark fruits. Older vintage ports were also available to try: the warm 2009 year produced quite hot, but complex wines; 2004 still felt very fresh; 2000 remarkably tannic even now. The best wine of all, though, was Kopke's 1966 Colheita - a vintage tawny, which means deliberate oxidative ageing. Tasting a wine fifty years old brooks no comparison.

Ramos Pinto LBV 2011

An attractive, elegant, restrained, but tannic wine, with intense, sweet red and black fruit aromas. ✪✪✪✪✪

Kopke Colheita 1966

Old, nutty (walnut), spicy, with rich toffee aromas. Like an old, sweet sherry. Intense (a word I repeatedly wrote down during this tasting) and with layers and layers of flavours. Unforgettable. ✪✪✪✪✪✪✪ The 1978 I also tasted was a bit hotter, still very alive with aromas of dried fruits, fudge, and spice. ✪✪✪✪✪

the market

There's no doubting the quality of Portuguese wine, particuarly from the Douro. The wines have distinctive characteristics that distinguish the wines from other countries, although a valid comparison would perhaps be the wines of Italy, both white and red, rather than Spain. But how to market those wines? The grape varieties are numerous and difficult to pronounce; the tannins and acidity are forward; and the fact that the wines are invariably blends makes it awkward to market the wines on the nature of those varieties. And it needs to be said that the Portuguese are not the best at marketing: whenever asked about the price of a wine, the producer had no answer.

There's so much foundation to work with, though. Port is one of the historical great drinks; the dry, table whites are crisp, approachable, with nice complexity; and the reds are great with heavy food. And there are few regions in the world capable of producing fifty-year-old wines that can hold up to further ageing. Explore Portugal: prepare to be perplexed, challenged, and excited, which is how wine should be.

Port

The Diploma is finally nearing its close! I have just one unit left to complete which is on fortified wine, one of my favourite subjects. The main focus of the unit is port and sherry, but I will also be studying madeira, the vins doux naturels of southern France, and the unique and often extraordinary stickies of Rutherglen in Australia. This week I have been focusing on port, its history, and its different styles, indulging in a tasting of five different wines to help understand the varied styles.

a bit of history

Like sherry and madeira, port emerged through trade and war. When England and France were at loggerheads in the seventeenth century, French goods, including wine, were subject to sanctions and high taxes. To sate England's thirst for wine, the English turned to one of its European allies, Portugal. After finding the coastal red wines of Vinho Verde too astringent, English merchants went further inland to the Douro Valley and its rich, ripe, full-bodied red wines. The wines were shipped to England in barrels (the practice of bottling wine on site and shipping it in bottles had not yet been developed); to ensure that the wines arrived in good condition, brandy was added to the wine.

This strong, high alcohol wine proved extremely popular and the practice of fortifying the wines became standard. Although at the height of port's popularity practices were wayward - the wines were fortified to an extra strength for the English market and often had elderberries added - various styles of port emerged which exist today.

the area

Port is made in the Douro Valley, whose boundaries still mostly follow local politician Marquis de Pombal's 1756 designation. The soils are schist, a form of slate, on steep terraced slopes on the banks of the river. The valley is divided into three areas: the Baixo Corgo, which is cool and wet and produces the lightest, most inexpensive ports; the Cima Corgo, which is warmer and drier and produces the most complex wines; and the Douro Superior, which is hot and dry and the focus of recent plantings as it is flatter and easier to maintain.

how it's made

Port is a sweet wine because it is fortified with a grape-based spirit (called aguardamente in Portuguese) during the fermentation. The high alcohol (77% ABV) kills the yeast in the wine with sugar still remaining. There are over 80 permitted grape varieties allowed for port, which were traditionally grown together in vineyards without anyone really knowing what was what. Since the 1970s, five varieties in particular have been identified as being ideal: Touriga Nacional (low yields, high tannins, very perfumed), Touriga Franca (the most planted), Tinta Roriz (Spain's Tempranillo, adding colour and body), Tinta Barroca (high alcohol, low acidity), and Tinta Cão (literally "red dog"). Port is always a blend of different grapes, each of which brings different qualities to the wine.

the styles

ruby

Simple, inexpensive, fiery, fruity, and young, ruby was until the 1960s drunk by the British with lemonade. It's now most popular in France where it's served as an aperitif. There's also ruby reserve, a higher quality version introduced in the late 1960s by Cockburn's after the British taste for ruby and lemonade faded.

late bottled vintage

LBV for short, it's a port which has been aged for four to six years in old oak barrels before release. It comes in three different styles. The most common is filtered before bottling and has a stopper; the second isn't filtered, has a cork, and generally needs decanting; the third is aged in bottle for three years before release and can be similar to a vintage port in style. Like vintage port all the grapes come from one year and the wines have a similar fruity, tannic intensity, but even the best LBVs lack the heady concentration of a vintage port as they are made every year, not just those that are outstanding.

vintage

Made only in years a producer considers outstanding, when a warm summer produces grapes of optimum ripeness. Vintages are declared around three times a decade, although some producers will declare a year a vintage while others may not. The wine is aged in old oak barrels for three years before bottling (unfiltered, which is why vintage port needs decanting). After that, it's up to the customer to age the wine: vintage port can be at its best at fifty years' old even though it's released so young.

tawny

This is my favourite style of port, perhaps because it's deliberately oxidised like sherry. Its name comes from its colour, the deep ruby port fading in the barrel due to the exposure to oxygen. Inexpensive tawnies are put out in the sun to quicken the ageing, but the best wines are aged gradually over time to develop a nutty complexity. These usually have an age indication of 10, 20, 30, or 40 years (which is an indication of the wine's average age, as tawnies are non-vintage). A vintage tawny is called a colheita (Portuguese for harvest), which has to be aged for at least seven years. It displays the character of the vintage as well as the nutty maturity of an aged tawny.

the tasting

 

Passagem Ruby Reserve NV ($18)

Simple, but at this price very appealing. Fruity, jammy red and black fruits with spicy alcohol on the palate. ✪✪✪

Quinta do Infantado Late Bottled Vintage 2009 ($24) 

For a few dollars more and from an extremely good year, this wine offers a lot more complexity with aromas of liquorice and cloves, irises, blueberries and blackberries, and dried fruit aromas of figs and prunes, with a gripping tannic structure. Intense, but very approachable. ✪✪✪✪✪

Quinta do Infantado 10-year-old Tawny ($41)

My wine of the tasting. Incredibly pronounced, concentrated aromas of every dried fruit imaginable: cranberries, strawberries, raspberries, figs, prunes, currants, and raisins, with spice aromas of cinnamon, cloves, anise, and liquorice. The tannins are faded, but the acidity is high enough to balance the sweetness. ✪✪✪✪✪✪

Niepoort 1999 Colheita ($52)

After the tawny, this was somewhat disappointing - perhaps a reminder that just because a wine has a vintage on the label doesn't make it superior (the same is true in Champagne). The aromas were similar to the tawny - floral and with dried fruits - but lacked the same intensity. ✪✪✪✪

Quinta do Infantado 2007 Vintage Port ($50) 

When I bought this wine I knew it would be far too young, but old vintage port is not easy to come by at an affordable price. This wine was really closed and tight and difficult to assess, but nevertheless lots of complex aromas emerged: brambles and blackberries, mint and lavender, cloves and nutmeg, black pepper and liquorice, sultanas and raisins, and strawberries, redcurrants, and raspberries. I'd love to taste this in another ten or even twenty years. ✪✪✪✪✪

It's remarkable how different these styles of port are: the fruity, hot ruby, compared to the closed, difficult, and still young vintage, in contrast to the tannic, concentrated LBV; and then there's the faded colours of the tawny and colheita, offering a reserved, intense maturity. The range of these styles are perhaps confusing to many consumers, but understand the label and there's a wealth of choice in these wines.