For The Love Of Port

It is rare for anyone to write a reference book on any particular subject based solely on the results of their own first hand research and experimentation.

The writer, learns facts (or copies them from elsewhere) and incorporates them into his or her work without personally checking them.

From this was borne the many myths and legends of history..

- and today...

Over the last year I have established that almost all the published advice on decanting times is complete baloney - that most VP's need much more time in decanter than is generally advised, and keep much longer than is sometimes suggested as well.

Well, here's another bit of repeated wisdom that I'm beginning to have doubts about:

'Tawnies and filtered LBV's do not improve with age after bottling'

Over the last couple of weeks I've worked my way through a bottle of 10yr Warre that was bottled in 1986.

This was markedly better than my experiance of a 10yr Otima a few months back.

Dropped standards? - or bottle maturation? It's hard to know for sure.

I have just opened a 1982 Graham LBV.

Bottled with a stopper, and from a shipper that as far as I know has never dabbled with unfiltered LBV.

I decanted the bottle, although this should not have been necessary, to reveal a fair amount of sediment. This is not the first time I have spied significant sediment in an old bottle of a filtered wine.

After 3 hours the wine is light and spiritous, with a colour that is not unlike some '75 VP's. Aside from the spirit, which is a little aggressive to both nose and palate, it is smooth and shows it's age. Hopefully the spirit will blow off.

Was this wine like this 20 years ago? No chance.

Was it better then? I very much doubt it.

Food for thought!

Tom

Interesting thoughts. When we did the vitrtual tasting of the Bin 27 a few months back I decanted the port and left it to stand in the decanter for a few hours before I tasted my first glass. I did this to give the wine as much chance to blossom as I would have given a VP.

I did not do it to remove sediment - but I was very glad I had decanted it because there was a fair amount of very fine sediment. The nature of the dediment reminded me of the very fine particles I had seen in a bottle of Vesuvio '96 that I opened recently. There was a lot less sediment in the Bin 27, but I was surprised to find any at all.

Given that the Bin 27 wine would not have contained sediment at all when it was bottled, the mere presence of the sediment demonstrates that the wine had changed while in the bottle. Had it improved - I can't say as that is the one and only time I have tried the Bin 27. Maybe one day I will buy a bottle of Bin 27 and keep it for 10 years before opening it and comparing it to a bottle of Bin 27 bought on the day of opening.

Personally, I believe that filtered wines do continue to evolve once bottled - whether that evolution leads to something that is better is probably a matter of taste. Fruit bomb vs tertiary flavours.

Alex

Tom I've had a mixed half case of old ruby's and one 20 year old Osborne all from the 70's three were drinkable including the Osborne but they were quite poor most had stoppers in, which broke off.the exception was Taylors Nectar which was from a friend in Oporto I don't know how old it was only that it was top class for a ruby.

Tom, interesting thoughts, I'd say that these are not myths but mainly basic recommendations for the beginners. Once you get hook by Port you soonly realize if these recommendations fit your tastes or not. Then from your own experimentation you can chose when and how to drink your wines.

Once opened, port can be preserved for years if you want. It will be still drinkable, again it is just a matter of taste. A friend of mine recently kept a bottle of Vesuvio each from 97 and 2000 in its fridge for 1 months, he was still liking it a lot.

For old filtered LBV that trows sediment, this does not surprise me. Even the greatest Bordeaux are filered wines, and they drop sediments with time.

All that does mean, don't stick to the book, don't hesitate to make your own experimentation to discover what is your own taste!