Last weekend I held the tasting for myself and eight good friends. We had a great time and people really enjoyed the event!
I hope that those of you who are thinking of making a tasting for non-Port drinkers can benefit from my experience. I'll be happy to explain further if needed.
Purpose of tasting
The main purpose of the tasting was to let people, who may only have tried a cheap tawny prior to the tasting, taste what 'real' Port is about. I say 'real' as we didn't have a fully matured VP. Also, it didn't really matter if the wines were produced by X or Y, but that they tried the different types and styles.
The wines
The final line-up was as follows and served in this order:
Calem White & Dry (stand alone and as portonic)
Noval Fine White (stand alone and as portonic)
Warre's 10 year old tawny
Warre's 20 year old tawny
Krohn Colheita 1991
Kopke Colheita 1990
Noval Fine Ruby
Quinta do Portal LBV 2000
Quinta do Portal 2005 Vintage Port
Warre's 1980 Vintage Port
The total cost was $40 pr person. I deliberately kept the price low as some of them are students and because it's simply too easy to spend too much money on Port that will perhaps not be fully appreciated. And then there's the issue of availability. A good QPR was the goal.
And the winner is ...
Before going into details about the tasting, we all assigned 1st (3p), 2nd (2p) and 3rd (1p) places to three different wines, and the 'winners' were:
1. Quinta do Portal 2005 Vintage Port (17p)
2. Warre's 1980 Vintage Port (15p)
3. Quinta do Portal LBV 2000 (8p)
Three ruby style Ports! It's interesting that the Port style most people enjoyed was the ruby styled ones, which (almost) none of them had ever tried or knew existed! This is worth giving some thought if you are going to hold a tasting for people who don't know much about Port -- usually beer drinkers. It doesn't really make sense to say that the young VP was the best wine of the tasting. It makes more sense to say that the participants preferred young and old VP over LBV ... and LBV over old tawny etc.
Practical matters
There are unlimited ways to handle the practical matters. I tried to make it as easy and fun as possible. There are pros and cons to this approach. Many of you would not like the way I did things, but you were not the target audience.
Each person had two glasses and that amount seemed appropriate. Place mats would have crossed the t's as it gets a bit difficult to keep track of the wines as people get more and more drunk.
I had made some sheets (
link) where I had made my own scoring system. The scores themselves and how great values each category should have matters less, the important part is that it makes people think about what they are drinking and whether or not they like it. I found that it's much faster and easier to draw a circle around the words put on paper than having to write them yourself.
Example: For "taste" I had put fruits, spices, tree, earth, bitter, sweet, alcohol, one dimensional, complex, in balance, etc.
For people who are not used to put words on the taste of a wine, it's of much help to guide them a bit. For experienced Port drinkers, it wouldn't make much sense. Some of the words may be too specific while others may be too generic ("fruits"). Some of them may even be a bit misleading or make them biased. But it doesn't really matter since the point is not to describe the wine in detail, but to enjoy it and compare it with the other types. The "price" tag was put to let them either put an amount to what they would pay for the bottle and/or what they thought it had cost and then at the end of the tasting I would reveal the price. This would lead to some sort of overall QPR understanding and overview. Some were pleasantly surprised, others not. Some of them did have 'expensive' taste.
The LBV and the two VP's were all decanted about 8-10 hours. This was probably too long time for the LBV, but adequate for the VP's -- especially such a young VP and this specific older VP.
Accompanying the tawnies I served different nuts and for the ruby style Port I served different kinds of chocolate (>60%). Especially the chocolate was a hit. It can be difficult to figure out exactly what nuts to buy. But it all disappeared never the less.
Since we're a bunch of heavy drinkers, there was no such thing as spitting or dumping the remaining Port. This means that we all had about a bottle of Port each, and on top of that champagne, beer and shots. We had a lot of fun.
I was worried that we wouldn't be able to appreciate the 1980 VP after nine bottles, but luckily that didn't seem like a problem at all. At least no-one complained about wines tasting the same and I didn't have any issues with it either.
The tasting, step by step
For details on each wine, see next section.
I had decided that we were not able to taste all the (finer) nuances of the wines, so there was no need to serve only neutral tasting food and other beverages that night. And it turned out to be of no problem. I would say that there were other more severe 'challenges' than this one, e.g. the amount of alcohol consumed!
As a starter I served a bottle of champagne to ease up the tension and just get prepared for the tasting. A fine choice. I guess any sparkling wine or other kind of beverage would do.
Then we opened the two white Ports and tasted them both stand alone and as portonics (with slices of lemon and ice cubes). Then we had dinner, and I made a quite good chili con carne ... or rather a carne con chili as it was hot but definitely not too hot to be able to taste anything afterwards. Yeah, I know - chili con carne at a Port tasting!? You must be nuts! It sounds a lot worse than it was. No-one made any comments about not being able to taste properly afterwards and I know them well enough to say that they would have told me had it been a problem. After dinner we started on the tawnies and progressed to the ruby styled one's. We didn't finish all the tawnies at first and returned to them after we had executed all the ruby style ones. The only bottle that did not get emptied was the White & Dry by Calem.
After eight Port wines it was time to put some water on the table to ease the mouth. This was probably the only 'mistake' of the tasting. It should have been there earlier, preferably all the time. But then again, no-one asked for it and they would have had they wanted some water. We are used to drink quite heavily, which might explain a thing or two. After the 'official part' of the tasting we had more beer, champagne and shots.
My very short description of the wines
Calem White & Dry (stand alone): Not really that pleasant as stand alone. A bit too dry for my taste and the taste was a bit weird.
Calem White & Dry (portonic): As portonic I could easily drink a lot of those as an aperitif or just during sommertime. Nice and easy. But not as good as the real deal, gin & tonic. I've actually had this before, and it need to be drunk right away or it will turn sour and unpleasant.
Noval Fine White (stand alone): Very enjoyable, sweet, taste of perfume/flower and fruits. Summertime in my mouth! I'll buy a few of them for sure. It may stay drinkable for a few weeks if stored in the fridge.
Noval Fine White (portonic): There wasn't more left of the Port to try this combo
Warre's 10 year old tawny: A bit boring and not as nutty as I prefer a tawny. Too much alcohol showed and ... well, I don't remember much more which also says something about it.
Warre's 20 year old tawny: I would rather buy this than the 10 YOT and drink it half as often. Very nice. Lots of nuts and what I refer to as a "classic" tawny taste and smell. There's no such thing as a classic tawny but I think you know what I mean and my Port-o-cabulary is just too weak to express my thougts. Medium lengths if I remember correctly. I would like to have one of these for everyday drinking. I ranked it 2nd. I enjoyed it very much. I would like to buy a 30 YOT but they are quite expensive ... From a cost/benefit analysis they might not be worth the money. Yada yada ... need to try a lot more than just the Dalva 30 YOT to jump to any hasty conclusions! Yummy.
Krohn Colheita 1991: Very nice taste and length. Has this "classic" taste. Definately worth a re-buy. And such a nice bottle.
Kopke Colheita 1990: This was served right after the 1991, and it was half as good. A bit more bitter and had a weird taste. Wouldn't buy it again. And the bottle is ugly!
Noval Fine Ruby: Powerful nose and taste of fruits and fruits and fruits. Although it didn't have a 'frame' to hang on to, it's still fun to drink lemonade with 20% alcohol! It's cheap and I might buy it again. I consider myself lucky to enjoy such cheap wines. May it last! I think I ranked it 3rd because of the QPR relationship. I mean, if the LBV had showed same amounts of fruit in the nose and taste, it would've been a killer for the price of an LBV.
Someone told me that you can blend sparkling water with rubies. It's worth a try.
Quinta do Portal LBV 2000: Compared to other LBV's I've had, it was a bit dull. I blame the 10 hours of decanting and because it was served right after the ruby I almost couldn't smell or taste it! So weird. The others had no trouble so. It's probably just me. I wouldn't mind buying it again to see if my first impression was correct. I've got the 1996 LBV from Quinta do Portal and despite being different vintages it may still confirm or deny my impression of that house's LBV's. More LBV for me, please! I like the QPR relationship of LBV's.
Quinta do Portal 2005 Vintage Port: Ahh yes! Purple and black and wonderful. I really like young VP and this one was right down my alley. Lots of fruit and well balanced with tannins. I ranked it 1st.
Warre's 1980 Vintage Port: I knew the cost and couldn't keep from thinking that it didn't show value for the money. It may still be too young to show what it's capable of. I did enjoy it, but would never buy it again. I'd rather drink 2-3 young Portal's or 3-4 LBV's. But what do I know about older VP - this is in fact the oldest VP I've ever tasted! (Luckily it was ok
despite some worries when it was decanted.)
Next tasting
I think the next tasting will focus on one or two styles, e.g. pure ruby and/or LBV. Maybe throw in a young VP to show who's the boss. Focus should still be a sound QPR.
Had it not been for this introduction to Port, and thereby convincing the vast majority of the attendees that Port is truly lovely, I wouldn't be able to attract any of my friends for more specific tastings but now I think I have a bunch of people to share the Port with, which is exactly what I could have hoped for. Actually none of my friends disliked any of the wines ... erhhhh perhaps with the exception of Calem's White & Dry
but that's not real port, is it? ![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)