1880 Colheita Port - Pereira Lopes

[Alan Gardner]

1880 Colheita Port – Maria Amélia Pereira Lopes(Régua) – although the label calls this Vinho Fino Do Douro Garrafeira Particular Velhíssimo Tawny/Doce. A strip label identifies it as Reserva Particular Do Duque De Palmela, and the wine (bought at the British Columbia Liquor Board in early 1990’s) was accompanied by a letter of authentication from ‘O Duque’ attesting to the ‘vintage’ being 1880 and being bottled in 1986. The IVP strip carried the identification # 310719 – which is very close to the numbers on the rare Internet sightings of this wine.

Level just into neck with driven cork and gold coloured foil. My records show the wine originally had a neck label with 1880, but this has disappeared between purchase and consumption. The wine was decanted and served immediately.

Appearance: Medium tawny/chestnut but very clear with some sediment and traces of tartrate on the bottom of the cork (none identified in the wine, which had been stored on its side since purchase). On the edge, the colour was a lighter lime green (definitely ‘brighter’ than the olive green usually seen in Madeiras). In refracted light, there were yellow and gold rosettes (like the asterisk sign above the keyboard 8, but with a more solid centre like a flower), although that could have been caused by the glass shape (does Riedel make a 100 year-old tawny glass?); but different from the ‘highlights’ that I usually find in old Madeiras.

Aromatically, very sweet (vanilla) and slightly burned notes that were reminiscent of cotton candy, rather than burned sugar. A hint of apricots and a slight nuttiness (close to, but not quite, toasted hazelnuts).

On the palate – perfectly balanced. Alcohol (not stated on label but clearly fortified as subsequent giddiness attested) was perfectly integrated with no extraneous ‘hotness’. Initial impressions of creamy toffee, which evolved into crème brûlée with the crème part having an equal role with the brûlée. Combined with a creamy mouth feel, overall this reminded me of a childhood taste memory: Toasted crumpets with butter and Lyle’s Golden Syrup – albeit the flavour in the wine was shot through with a lemon streak which offset the sugary sweetness. But I emphasise ‘toasted’ rather than ‘burned’.

The aftertaste was both buttery and sweet with a backbone of mellow acidity that left the finish really clean. The remaining liquid in the bottle after decanting was filtered (non-bleached paper) and tasted separately. The only difference I detected was in the finish, which also had a few orange marmalade notes and a touch of dried apricots. Overall scored this 95 points, but the filtered I gave 96 points because of the additional flavours and complexity in the finish!

Should hold for another 10 years, but drinking perfectly now.

And a second opinion from my partner-in-isolation – “if I hadn’t known, I would have thought this was an old Madeira – probably Bual”. My reaction: not enough overall acidity to be a Madeira, but probably the finest tawny I’ve had – my first 1880 (and hopefully not my last – an easy hope as I do have the ‘Millenium’ 1880 as well!).

A post-tasting assessment – the still lively fruit notes suggest to me that the wine was possibly (might even lean to ‘probably’) topped up before bottling. The tartrate crystals on the base of the cork (extracted in one piece) are unexplainable (to me) from a 100 year-old wine. The sediment could have come from ‘stirring or disturbing’ the wine before bottling. If it was topped up, then almost certainly a wood-aged port with good fruit, rather than tannins (e.g. 1966, or even 1955 or 1945 – but that’s based on my tastings of vintage ports, rather than wood-aged).
Another ‘clue’ to the origin is that this was bottled in 1986, which was when Portugal joined the EEC. That was when Portugal was required to align its wine rules with the EEC and there was a rush of bottlings in 1986 to get wines in bottle that wouldn’t qualify under the ‘new rules’. Although I’m not suggesting this was a ‘solera’ there was also a plethora of Solera madeiras bottled in 1986 as they wouldn’t have qualified under the new rules. If anyone has the Whitwhams Millenium ‘1880’ – the story on that shows the hoops that were necessary to jump through as the only ‘legal’ category was “Over 40-years-old” (and even to get that the top-up wine had to be over 40 years-old (and it was from 1945)).

[Eric Ifune]

Sounds fantastic!