Fine particles in a 20 tawny

[John F. Newman]

There is another thread on this forum about cloudy port, and I did not want to hijack that thread as I think my recent experience is different.

My father had a 20 year Presidential Porto sitting around, and it had been opened (this bottle is shaped like a decanter) and probably was half way empty. I cannot say how long it was open, but I assume 6 months to maybe a year. There was a large amount of sediment on the bottom of the port.

The port tasted fine: pretty flat but definitely drinkable. I removed the particles by slowly pouring it into another container then back into the original (washed out) container, but the next week when I came back around, there was a large amount of sediment again.

Any thoughts why this was? is this a normal process for aged tawny port from excessive oxidation?

As to further questions about the bottle... I considered it my duty to dispose of the port and finished her off, and the bottle has since been recycled.

[Andy Velebil]

Port, unless very heavily finned, filtered, and cold stabilized, will eventually deposit sediment. I suspect when it was poured from one container to the other some of the sediment was stirred up. When it was repoured and later settled, you could then see it again.

As to further questions about the bottle... I considered it my duty to dispose of the port and finished her off, and the bottle has since been recycled.

[Andy Velebil]

As this was most likely wasn't cold stabilized or heavily fined/filtered. Another potential issue could be the haziness was caused by tartrate crystals, which can cause cloudiness in wines.