South African Ports

[Al B.]

After the fortified wines of the Douro region, my next favourite "port" wines are probably those from South Africa. However, I know so much less about these and their styles than I do about those from Portugal.

The bottle in front of me, which is about to be opened, is an example of this. It is made by the company Landskroon, from the Paarl district and is made by Paul & Hugo de Villiers - who have a good reputation for making quality wines. The vintage is 2002. It comes in a 750ml bottle, but this is a dumpy bottle, not the normal bordeaux style bottle. The back label reads "A dark coloured fortified wine with beautiful aromos of spicy black prunes and tobacco. Rich and smooth with flavours of concentrated berries. Serve on its own or with matured cheese and fresh nuts after dinner. Enjoy now or over the next 5 years. 19,5% alcohol."

This back label makes me expect something in the style of a vintage port, or perhaps an LBV with a reduced barrel contact time.

However, the reason that this bottle of 2002 vintage has made it onto death row less than 1 month after I bought it is that it started to leak. Drips of fluid were coming out of the bottle so I decided to open it to investigate.

What puzzles me about South African ports is that so many of them are stopped with T corks. The one in this bottle is the shortest I have ever seen and is less than 2cm in length.

So if anyone knows about South African ports, please could they explain what the different styles are, how I go about telling what style is inside a bottle and how I store them - should I be storing my dumpy South African bottles upright like a madeira and allowing air to get at the contents?

Note that this is not a criticism since the wine is delicious, just confusion on my part as to how to store and mature this as I believe it will be even better in 5 years time.

Tasting note will follow on the TN thread.

Alex

[Michael C.]

I can't speak for this particular wine, but it sounds as though you have a ruby-like South African port. What makes this a "port" is the fact that it is a fortified wine. The reason you have a T-cork is because it isn't long-term age-worthy. This is a wine that was made for "immediate" consumption (as they say, within 5 years of bottling). It would be interesting to see what the winemaker's notes say about this bottling (and why he/she decided to make a "port" with the grapes from that harvest).

I've seen similar wines coming out of my home state of Oregon and I haven't been particularly impressed. Like Roy, I have a problem with these wines being labeled "port", but that's another issue...

[Todd Pettinger]

However, the reason that this bottle of 2002 vintage has made it onto death row less than 1 month after I bought it is that it started to leak. Drips of fluid were coming out of the bottle so I decided to open it to investigate.

What puzzles me about South African ports is that so many of them are stopped with T corks. The one in this bottle is the shortest I have ever seen and is less than 2cm in length.

So if anyone knows about South African ports, please could they explain what the different styles are, how I go about telling what style is inside a bottle and how I store them - should I be storing my dumpy South African bottles upright like a madeira and allowing air to get at the contents?

Note that this is not a criticism since the wine is delicious, just confusion on my part as to how to store and mature this as I believe it will be even better in 5 years time.

Tasting note will follow on the TN thread.

Alex

Alex, I would guess that you may have to make like a Madeira bottle and go with the upright storage, particularly if any more of your bottles begin to leak while "turned down." It is odd that the cork would be SO short... less than 2 cm doesn't bode well for any type of horizontal storage for any wine.

Todd

[Al B.]

I can't speak for this particular wine, but it sounds as though you have a ruby-like South African port. What makes this a "port" is the fact that it is a fortified wine. The reason you have a T-cork is because it isn't long-term age-worthy. This is a wine that was made for "immediate" consumption (as they say, within 5 years of bottling). It would be interesting to see what the winemaker's notes say about this bottling (and why he/she decided to make a "port" with the grapes from that harvest).

Michael

I think you are right, I suspect that this is a "vintage ruby" style wine. Its quite heavyweight compared to a ruby from one of the traditional Portuguese shippers, with a lot more extract than you would find in, say, a Bin 27. On the other hand there seems to be a smoothness and reduced level of fruit that I would expect to see in a wine that had an extended barrel maturation compared to a traditional "2 years in the barrel" vintage port. I'm also not sure about the aging potential. It has quite a lot of tannin and acidity in the wine and seems to me that it would be quite capable of maturing in the bottle for longer than the 5 years suggested on the label. Slightly frustratingly, there is no bottling date to be found anywhere on the bottle and nor does the Landskroon website give any details of the winemaker's thoughts on this particular wine.

This sort of thing does frustrate me when it comes to South African fortified red wines. There just doesn't seem to be the same approach to providing the consumer with information as we see coming out of Portugal.

And as for the naming of the South African fortified wines - I would prefer that they were called something other than Port, but I can live with that name provided the approach to grape growing, grape types and vinification is consistent with their bretheren from the Northern Hemisphere. It should be in many cases since the winemakers are the same people!

Alex

Late edit: I've just found a link to some more information about this particular wine. We were right, extended barrel time (45 months) but otherwise a blend of traditional Port grape varieties and could be a "vintage" port - so why doesn't it come in a bottle that doesn't leak?

[Michael C.]

And as for the naming of the South African fortified wines - I would prefer that they were called something other than Port, but I can live with that name provided the approach to grape growing, grape types and vinification is consistent with their bretheren from the Northern Hemisphere. It should be in many cases since the winemakers are the same people!

No kidding? There are wine makers from Portugal making wines (in particular, "port") in South Africa? Now I'm really curious to read up on these wines.

link

I almost missed your link since it was in such a small font... Am glad I was able to get the page loaded ... was surprised to see that these guys are using a blend of Tinta Barocca, Tinta Roriz, Souazo and Touriga
Nacionale. I had my doubts that they were using any of the typical port grapes, but I can't knock 'em for at least trying with the right set of ingredients (though I can't say I've heard of Souazo).

This thread raises some interesting points -- primarily, what is the general consensus about non-Portuguese port-style wines? I've made my opinion pretty clear, but I'm curious what others think. I'm sure this has been discussed before ... perhaps someone could post a link to the appropriate article or thread so newbies like myself can read up on past discussions? Thanks...

[Todd Pettinger]

This thread raises some interesting points -- primarily, what is the general consensus about non-Portuguese port-style wines? I've made my opinion pretty clear, but I'm curious what others think.

Well, I also would prefer that non Portuguese fortified wines call themselves something other than 'Port' but in the end, it is just semantics... I suppose I can overlook this small travesty.

I have not tried any South African "port" (have not seen ANY in my local market) but have tried a few Aussie ones. The problem is that most of the Aussie ones use the Shiraz grape and this fact frustrates me because I cannot easily tell whether I dislike this style (when compared to Real Port) because of the use of this grape, or whether it is other factors (bad wine, etc.)

I tried a Canadian imposter, and although I don't remember whether it called itself "port" (I don't think I did... IIRC it called itself "port-style" wine) it was very good.

Hard to paint all "imposters" with the same brush.

Todd

[Roy Hersh]

Alex,

As you know, I am a huge lover of SA wines in general and also appreciate their stickies and port style wine. Have a look at my recent posting in the OTHER DISCUSSIONS area of the Forum, re: SA wines/port.