For The Love Of Port

For this year though ... actually, I really like Glenn's idea that we've been talking about, a comprehensive 40 Year Old Tawny Port tasting. That would be killer! We could combine this with the 10th Anniversary and do one of each over the course of the weekend in late July; date still TBD. Sounds l...

It is reasonably important, but I also buy ports that won't be as long lived so that I have stuff I don't need to be as patient with. The idea is that I will always have something optimal maturity.

I got this one in an unreserved auction at bargain basement prices, mainly because nobody knew what it was. There was a fair bit of Quinta de la Rosa stuff (which I believe is where this was made) as well. I think an importer brought a whole lot in then had trouble selling it to retail here. It's a ...

Nose smells of tar, and hint of tobacco. A touch earthy with a little mint freshness from the acidity. Medium bodied and It presents as a little savoury and integrated. Not a lot of primary fruit to be found here. The finish has some length without being overly long. Ultimately it is quite a service...

Claret is a term I rarely hear spoken in the context of its original meaning these days. Instead, it is most commonly used by sports commentators to describe blood in rugby or Australian rules football any time a player ends up cut or bleeding. Back to the original question though... I don't really ...

So I think it will be an uphill battle for Port makers to develop a significant market in China. I would guess that Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines might be better options, with more Western-influenced dining patterns. As for Singapore, Port is not popular. Liquor is quite expensive and the...

I've just bought some 08s of this wine at auction so I'll be hoping for a bit more. It's a better vintage, and I paid next to nothing for them so it is worth the risk.

Merry Christmas and general tidings of the season. It is the tail end of Christmas day here and I'm feeling pretty lethargic right now, but I'm looking forward to a few days without work with a gig to see on Boxing day, and a day at the cricket on Sunday. I hope you all manage a bit of R&R over ...

Douro table wine is extremely important to the future of Port, as it can provide volume with a quicker turnaround which will underpin the port production, with more consistent revenue streams. I'm sure that table wine will continue to grow in both volume and quality and it will probably overtake por...

For me it would have to be
2011 Fonseca VP
1985 Grahams VP
1977 Gould Campbell VP
1974 Kopke Colheita

I've followed Sarah Ahmed's work for a number of years now. Unlike many wine writers, she has chosen to specialize in particular regions. She used to do South Africa and the Loire as well but she has paired it back in recent years to mostly cover Portugal and Australia (which covers about 95% of wha...

I've just been at a Portuguese wine tasting today and 3 of the Esporao wines (a white, a red and a rose) were under screwcap. They certainly aren't the higher end Esporao wines but it is interesting none the less that they are even prepared to do it. The importer said that they go to 3 different mar...

I'm not at all surprised by that. While Europe generally isn't too interrested (although I have seen a few German rieslings under screwcap recently) my understanding is that in the US, there is a lot of high volume, low price gear that is under screwcap. I don't know the stats for Australia I'd be s...

Funnily enough, I've just been invited to a blind tasting today. It is for Pinot Noir rather than Port but I thought it was worth mentioning as it is a really interesting concept. Two winemakers from the region I grew up in (the Mornington Peninsula, which is south of Melbourne) have put together a ...

None for me too. I've got nothing against blind tasting, but I don't think novices get more out of a blind tasting than when they know what they are tasting, because you lose the ability to talk about the port and the shipper as you are tasting the wine. Everybody I have opened bottles for in the la...

Mahmoud - TWAIOA - Tawny With An Indication Of Age.
I'll have to give this a go, now that I can actually buy it locally. I'm not generally fond of 10 yr old tawny but a few of the descriptors in the note suggest I might like it more than most

A good 20 year or youngish Colheita, I'd be relying heavily on a good high acidity and relatively lighter profile to juxtapose a reasonably sweet and heavy custardy textured pie. Plus, the lemon and nutty flavors of a fresh tawny are a perfect match. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkz. U +1 Person...

I can't say I've seen that one before Mahmoud! It might have been a a first and a last. I'm not sure I have a definitive opinion. If I broke down my entire cellar, it is probably close to about 50/50 cork to screwcap, and if I was guessing I'd say about 90% of the Australian industry now uses some f...

I'm aware of Galloni and Tanzer and I think the move makes sense, but neither are particularly relevant to me. I admit I don't follow any critics (present company excepted) and have barely heard of most of these people...but in my experience bigger is almost never better in most aspects of the wine ...

I think, too many categories could be confusing for the market, but it does seem silly that blends of older material can't be recognized. How about we get rid of the categories all together, so the producers can release whatever they want, but they should be legally bound to put the average age of t...