For The Love Of Port

In general, i know port changes colour as it ages, with aged wines lighter and more red/orange than younger wines. I am wondering if there is an accepted science as to why certain ports mature more quickly or more slowly. For example, Warre 1980 is still very dark and seems much less mature than a few bottles of 1990s ports that I have had, despite the 10-15 year difference.

Or perhaps the colour isn't the best way to describe maturity? The Warre in my example might be more developed, but has kept it's dark appearance.

I think 1980 as a vintage in general sits as a bit of an outlier in terms of port aging/development, when viewed against the decade before and after. Many ports I have tasted from 1980 including Dow, Graham, Warre, Gould Campbell, Taylor to name a few, are much darker in colour and show much younger than their age suggests. Way different to the 1977 vintage just 3 years before. Others can give better view on this, but I believe there were some shifts in winemaking technique at the beginning of the '80s for many shippers, and this could be a factor in the way these wines now show.

1977 (front row) vs. 1980 (back row), from left to right, Dow's, Graham's, Warre's, Smith Woodhouse.
There is a lot of difference between the 1977s vs. 1980s, with the 1980s showing a lot younger than just three years different. But then there is that 1977 Smith Woodhouse, which you could serve along with some 1985s or 1994s. While production methods have and will continue to change, I think the difference in these wines for how they've aged and their potential to age further is more about the climatic conditions, grape selection, and application of the processes. How much tannin is in the grape, how concentrated is it, and what did you do to get it out of the grape and into the wine?

I believe that 1977 is an excellent vintage, but no as great as originally touted by some of the critics, especially Suckling. I am fully in agreement that across the board, the 1980 vintage may be the dark horse between 1970 and 1994, certainly the top 10 VPs of 1980 are pretty great. I'd add the Sandeman, and especially the Ferreira and Smith Woodhouse to the list that was already mentioned by Mike M. They've held their color and flavors and are aging slowly compared to some like the 1977 vintage, those Ports seemingly with more inconsistencies and the anthocyanins precipitating out of solution, which is not good.