For The Love Of Port

Forgive me for posting so many notes on un-Portly topics, but these older Portuguese wines I think have been some of the most unique and personality infused wines I have ever tasted. And since I expect there are people here who like Portugal as a whole, not just Port or Douro reds, I will continue posting these great finds. FWIW, I have bought these wines via internet at garrafeiranacional.com.

Serradayres Colheita 1947 Ribatejo

A picture of the bottle.

I have no idea what grape(s) are in it, but it was quite potent stuff. The core was black, the rim had some orange in it. The nose is tarry, dark toned in its fruit, leathery, earthy - it all so savoury and unique as I hope to find. The palate was very concentrated and powerful with lovely, high acidity and still a fair amount of tannins. It is very dark toned and even a bit mineral. Though not a fruit forward wine, the fruit is in no danger of dying soon. I love Portugal for this sort of surprises; this really was a beautiful wine if you like a rustic style. At a price of 25€ I would back up the truck - except yet again only one bottle was available.

Cheers,
Otto

Otto,

Glad to see the cork in the picture

I am surprised to see the word Colheita used in the name of a Portugues wine that is not port - I was not aware that this term was used for dry red wines. I have come across Garafierra on a dry red label but not Colheita - is this common?

Derek

I have actually seen this a number of times, in wine and Madeira as well. As the term means Harvest in English, it's perhaps not surprising, although having a completely different meaning when not applied to port.

Jay

Derek, the use of 'colheita' in Portuguese table wines is pretty common. Many producers use 'Colheita Seleccionada' (selected harvest) for wines that are supposed to be a bit better than standard.

Most of these grimy old bottles I've bought have had Colheita on them. I simply assumed, as confirmed by Jay and Ronald, that it meant roughly what "vintage" does in English! :)

-O-