For The Love Of Port

Obviously port-style is not PORT -- anymore than some random CA brandy is equivalent to Cognac. That said, with all of the port-style bottlings out there ... which comes closest to the real deal?

I think you've asked two different questions.

In my limited experience, a couple of companies in California make port-style wines that come closest to the real thing. Ficklin makes a good-in-its-own-right port-style wine that might fool some people. I had to flip back through my tasting notes to find the name Miller Teodoro which I recall also being very close.

But the best port-style wines? I think I'd have to go with Aussie tawnies on that one. No, they're not going to fool anyone familiar with the real thing, but they have their own unique style that I really like and can appreciate.

From here in Auastralia I have to say that the sum of my experience with with port styles other than the Australian stuff and the real portuguese stuff is a single glass of French fortified grenache so I'm in no position to judge. We just don't see much else here.

Glenn - I'm interested to know whether those Californian style wines are being made with Portuguese grape varieties? The serious makers in Australia have been introducing the main port varieties into their blends for a few years now which is seeing them move to a drier style. I'm interested to know if this is a trend in other parts of the world as well.

Agree with Glenn. For me, California makes the best port-styled wines using Portugese varieties. For fortifieds using other varieties, I'd go Rutherglen in Australia.

Some of the California producers are using Douro grape varieties, with this becoming more common I think. There are also a lot of things like "Zinfandel Port." Some of these are nice, but not to the Portuguese style.

Paul Fountain wrote:Glenn - I'm interested to know whether those Californian style wines are being made with Portuguese grape varieties?

The ones I mentioned are made with Portuguese grape varieties, but not all of the California producers do that.

I've noticed that more & more California producers are using Portuguse grapre varietals for their port-style wine. The folks at Davis are playing a big part in this process and I'm looking for quite an upswing within the next few years. With that being said, in my opinion the port-style wine coming from Australia is currently the closest thing to REAL port. Although that may change in a few years...

The home vinyard for Ficklin in Madera, California was planted to Portuguese varieties in the late 1940's. Still going strong. They were founded on making fortified port-styled wines and have stocks of quite old wines still in cask.

I'd have to go with California. Aussie port-style wines don't have the acidity and are very sweet, sometimes too sweet for me.

There a number of Cali producers (such as Roxo, Ficklin, Prager Port Works) using traditional grape varietals that taste very close to the real deal.

I've got to speak up in favour of the fortified winemakers in South Africa. These wines are made from the same grape varieties as in the Douro and often by the same wine-makers.

Others disagree with me, but I find that these wines are the closest that come from outside the Douro.