For The Love Of Port

Is Colheita the same as LBV? If not whats the difference?


David Wästberg

No, they are not the same -- or even similar.

Vintage Porto, by law, age for two years in wood (round numbers for the sake of discussion), and then will age and improve for a long time in the bottle.

Late Bottled Vintage Porto ages in wood for not less than four, nor longer than six (again, round numbers), in wood and then are bottled; these may or may not improve, depending upon its production method.

With me so far?

Tawny Porto ages in wood for not less than seven years (round numbers), and is typically a) a blend of wines from different harvests, and b) not likely to show significant improvment once bottled.

Colheita Porto is a Tawny -- aged in wood for at least seven years -- and is NOT combined with wines from any other harvest; in other words, it is made from the wine of a single harvest.

Bottling dates are essential, of course, when it comes to Colheitas. You could, for example, have a 2010 Colheita bottled in 2017, bottled in 2025, bottled in 2033, and so on and so on and so on -- in each case, the wines will be quite different from one another.

Cheers,
Jason

I'm with you. A Colheita is pretty much a LBV that has been in the cask longer.

The reason for me asking is that I'm thinking of buying some
1986 Quinta do Noval Colheita. Just want to know what I'm buying.

David

David, a Colheita isn't anything like a LBV AT ALL. To put it very simple: LBV is a fresh fruit style of Port (as is Vintage and Ruby), and Colheita is a Tawny Port - more nutty and dried fruit flavours. They cannot be compaired, style-wise.

I guess Jason's comment about the time spend in barrel made you think LBV and Colheita are similar (correct me if I'm wrong), but it's the barrel size that matters here: Colheita is aged in small pipes, while Ruby style Ports spend the few years they have on cask in huge vats (and yes, I know this is a generalisation).

This explains the legal definitions that segregate the Ports from the various "special categories" and should hopefully provide some futher insight.