Passing the port from generation to generation
I’m often amazed at the reaction of friends when I pull out an
old bottle of wine for dinner or dessert. Now by old I mean 10 to 20 years. It
is hardly old by wine collector standards, but when you consider the average
drinker purchases his or her wine about 20 minutes before they drink it, a
decade of cellar aging is impressive, to say the least.
Do you remember all the hype surrounding the millennium
celebrations and which wines were likely to be open to mark the day? Big
bottles and old bottles were all the talk, but it never really came to pass. I
remember thinking that as a wine collector, I would love to be opening and
sharing something with my friends from the previous century on that celebrated
night.
Alas, my relatives were not in the wine business and no one in
my family had considered laying down wines for their
great-great-grandchildren’s enjoyment at the turn of the 20
th
century.
I did manage to get back as far as my birth date, but no
turn-of-the-century wines graced my table. That could all change next century
for my ancestors and maybe yours, if you are willing to take a chance on the
future.
Vintage port has always been a long-lived wine and in exceptional
years, when the weather is perfect and the yields are low, it can live for
many, many decades. Indeed, the best bottles from the finest vintages will keep
comfortably into the next century. You only need the willpower to buy and hold
these wines for future generations.
I’m more bullish than ever about vintage port after attending
two separate tastings of the fortified elixir in Oporto late last year where
the finest years of Croft and Taylor vintage port, spanning the last century,
were opened.
It’s difficult to explain how satisfying it can be to taste a
wine from 1927 or 1934 or even 1900 that is still in terrific shape for its
age. Imagine your relatives opening a bottle of 2003 vintage port, 100 years
from now. One can only hope you will be fondly remembered for your foresight
and largesse.
Port’s ability to go the distance starts in the steeply
terraced vineyards of the upper Douro Valley. The vines themselves grow out of
near solid, stone soils in a climate frozen much of the winter and scorched all
summer.
Strange sounding grape names such as tinta cão, tinta barroca,
touriga nacional, tinta roriz and touriga franca have survived from an ancient
list of hundreds of varieties to form the basis of the modern-day port blend.
Interestingly, all port, whether crushed by man or machine,
begins its life with a short, violent fermentation that can last as little as
30 hours. The still fermenting grape must, with an alcoholic content of six to
seven degrees, is then “run off” into large wooden casks.
At this point, the winemaker blends one part neutral grape
brandy for every four parts of partially fermented must, raising the alcoholic
content to port’s traditional level of 20 per cent. The fortification process
proves lethal to the still active yeast cells, halting the fermentation in its
tracks. What is left is port: strong, sweet, fortified, and built to age.
To prepare for its upcoming marathon inside the bottle, vintage
port is removed from the barrel at the earliest possible moment on or about the
age of two. After that, the longer and cooler the sleep in a still, dark
cellar, the better the possibility the bottle will keep perfectly for a century
or more.
So how can your ancestors pass the port a generation or two
from now?
My strategy is to zero in on the best wine you can and then
purchase a half dozen bottles. Plan on drinking or opening three or four of
those bottles with your kids, maybe one every decade, and then leave the last
two for your grandchildren. They will be happy you did, and you will ensure the
wine culture you have been busy building will survive another generation or
two.
As mentioned, it is the top names and top vintages that you
should be cellaring for the long haul to ensure your gift to the next
generation has the best chance of surviving the next 100 years. Today we
explore some possibilities with the knowledge there is much hype about the
soon-to-be-declared 2007 vintage, making it a fine candidate for future
generations as well.
A Port-able Wine Cellar for 2100
Croft 2003
– Now under the Taylor Fladgate’s regime of care and
attention, Croft is resurfacing. This is a deliciously sweet port, with big
fruit and finesse that will hold for decades. $124
Dow's 2003
– The palate is concentrated with black cherry,
liquorice, tea, clove and candied fig flavours all inside a fine tannic frame.
$84
Fonseca 2003
– Super ripe black cherry, fruitcake, licorice
aromas and flavours. Rich, fat and concentrated, this is one to keep forever,
especially in magnum. $130
Graham 2003
– Big juicy blackberry jam, spirity, chocolate,
peppery, mineral, licorice flavours. A very rich, warm, sweet style that will
need years to come around. $100
Niepoort 2003
– A legendary effort by Dirk Niepoort: rich powerful
lush and sweet with a big glossy spicy finish. One for the ages. $94
Quinta
Vale D. Maria 2003
– Big, round, fat, concentrated with intense black
cherry jam, orange, plum, peppery, licorice, spicy mint flavours. Very good
acidity. Big potential. $66
Smith Woodhouse 2003
– Ripe, rich, concentrated palate with spirity black
berry, licorice, peppery, pruny flavours.
Fine finesse and style with solid backbone. $77
Taylor Fladgate 2003
– Interminably long in the mouth showing off a
youthful finish packed full of plums, chocolates and raisins. Lock and load this
into the cellar for the next century. $136
Warre's 2003
– Licorice, blackberry jam, black cherry, sweet fig
and chocolate flavours with a bright fruit streak. A very fine effort that will
require two decades to settle down but will hold much longer. $82
Anthony Gismondi is a globetrotting wine writer who makes his home in West Vancouver, British Columbia. For more of his thoughts on wine log onto www.gismondionwine.com .