For The Love Of Port

Alex et al;

A small aside, Port shippers always try to get their containers in the hold of the ship. This protects the bottles in wooden cases from baking, while non-perishable containers are stacked closer to the aperture of the cargo compartment through which loading takes place.

I have wondered if shipments that arrived late at the quay, (containers of either 1200 cases or smaller ones with 800 cases or so) wound up closer to the opening of the hold and since these are/were not temperature controlled ships, could this have had any effect? I realize they do ship during the cooler months and also know that most of the Port takes a circuitous route through Rotterdam and occasionally Brussels if I am not mistaken.

The rules with the dates of when bottling takes place changed back in 2005. Look at my article in the archives for specifics.

Bottling lines in Gaia and the Douro vary by age and size and some can handle as few as 10 bottles per minute, while some can handle closer to 200 per minute. Back only three decades ago, the majority of bottling lines in Gaia were quite primative (besides slow moving, most shippers relied on capsules and labels that were applied by hand, as well as the filling of cases and palletizing) and the top agents in Great Britain had considerably more sophisticated equipment. That did not always translate into better product though, as there are documented stories of ruby being added to bolster the quantities available, hygiene issues which I won't bore you with, the occasional mishap with Port being inadvertently (supposedly) fined and/or filtered, and the timing of the bottling being of great question.

Fortunately, the upgrade of bottling lines in Gaia and the Douro continues today and I can't wait to see the new beauty that Dirk is installing in the Douro which will be state-of-the-art like the rest of his Napoles project. The vast majority of lines I have seen in the recent past are more modern than my first visit in 1994, but some are older machines that are still clunking along.

Does anyone know if any producers ever bottle their VP's over an extended period?

I have asked this before while in Portugal and was told ... and have seen ... that once the final blend has been assembled, it is typical to run the entire vintage all at once and then store the bottles to allow them to rest, prior to their release. Of course, during the bottling they only label what they plan to market for their first release. Later the bottles may be re-released at the Shipper's choosing, to refill the marketing pipeline. They clean up these "shiners" and then apply the labels. This last step can happen even decades later.

If you want to compare a port aged in Porto with one aged in the Douro (showing douro bake) take the Graham 10YOT and compare it to The Tawny of Graham.

The first is a classic 10YOT, aged in the lodges in Gaia. The latter is a rather new product, actually younger than 10 years of age, but showing older because of its ageing in the Symington's wine facility in the Douro, Quinta do Sol. It's very interesting to taste these side by side and see which one you prefer.

Roy, although I'm not aware that it ever happened with Vintage Port, I do know of one example of 'extended bottling' with LBV. Niepoort bottled a part of his LBV 2000 production in 2004, but this was only sold to the English market (IIRC). The rest of the production was bottled in 2005. I would not be surprised if this had something to do with the lack of space on Niepoort's beautiful old, but somewhat small and slow bottling line. The new one at Napoles will be very welcome I guess.

Interesting points Alex.

Lets start by saying that normally one Port producer is bringing back his Port from the Douro the spring following the harvest to Gaia to avoid the heat of the summer.

It would be hard to say that one Port bottled 3 months later than another one has suffured more. There is so much to consider when comparing ports. One thing is sure, from the same producer in the same condition either in Douro or in Gaia, one Port bottled 3 months after the same source will be different.

About Port producers bottling later than earlier according to the law, I can say I have a reliable one. I've seen producer like Niepoort and Feist so far bottling 2 winter after the harvest(3 years after vintage date). I'd say that this must be analysed differently for each Vintage and there is no rule of thumb for any producer.

I'd thend to say that Douro bake is a term used for the extended aging in barrels happening in the Douro and it concerns exclusively the Tawny type of Port.