For The Love Of Port

Hi all,

I was recently browsing Amazon UK trying to select a 10 year and a 20 year tawny, and I realised that a lot of the big names have very similarly priced products yet there is no real way to distinguish between them, apart from the ratings on Vivino. I'm thinking Taylors, Grahams, Sandeman, Niepoort, Dows etc.

I was wondering if anyone has come across (or written) a guide to the most popular 10 year and 20 year tawny ports out there, and how they differ?

We have done a couple of 20-year Tawny reviews here on FTLOP, here is a link to the more recent article that Rune Gustavsen wrote:

https://www.fortheloveofport.com/ten-tawnies-twenty/

I'll have to dig through the newsletter archives to find the article that I wrote - it was a while ago!

What you will probably find is that the "big names" that you find easily in grocery stores are rarely the best. So your question can be interpreted two ways: 1. what is the best 20YO amongst those regularly found in supermarkets, or 2. what is the best overall 20YO?

It appears that the 20-year old Tawny Taste-Off article was never written! I found a couple of email threads talking about it, but no actual article.

One of those threads contained results from two tastings that were held, however:

Sammamish, Washington
3-2-1 voting with 8 tasters, 1 of whom did not award a 1st place

Ramos Pinto - 11 pts
Sandeman - 8 pts
Taylor - 7 pts
Andresen - 6 pts
Ferreira - 5.5 pts
Portal - 3 pts
Noval - 2.5 pts
Fonseca - 2 pts

Graham, Infantado, Kopke, and Niepoort all received 0 points.

High Bridge, New Jersey
reverse rank scoring (i.e. 6-5-4-3-2-1) with 13 tasters

Ramos Pinto - 61.5
Ferreira - 51.5
Niepoort - 49.5
Sandeman -44.5
Noval - 37
Taylor - 29

Other than Ramos Pinto doing well in both blind tastings, as you can see preferences were all over the place. So I guess you could say that there's no clear "best" 20 Year Old Tawny Port!

The Ramos Pinto and Ferreira are both top notch 20 y.o. ports. I also like a lesser known 20 y.o. produced by Quinta da Pacheca.

My favorites for 10 and 20 are Maynards, Ferreira, and Noval.

Maynards has them beat with being near half the price of the other two.

Off the top of my head...Mine are, in no particular order and note they can be quite different in styles;

10 yr:
Ferreira
Niepoort
Ramos Pinto


20 yr:
Niepoort
Ramos Pinto
S. Leonardo
Sandeman
Smith Woodhouse (available in the USA only and a good QPR)
Fonseca
Ferreira
Quevedo

you'll notice I am more miss when it comes to 10 yr old tawny's. For me, it's a tough

I'll throw in Veira de Sousa for 10 year old and Bulas for 20 year old as well.

10YO I'd go with Blackett, DR or Warre's

20YO my top selections would be Bulas, Ramos Pinto and Dona Otília

Today I tasted the Broadbent 10yr old Tawny. I was very impressed and it’s among the top of the heap for that category.

10 Year Old:

Quinta da Romaneira
J. H. Andresen
DR Port

Steven M wrote: ↑Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:38 am Hi all,

I was recently browsing Amazon UK trying to select a 10 year and a 20 year tawny, and I realised that a lot of the big names have very similarly priced products yet there is no real way to distinguish between them, apart from the ratings on Vivino. I'm thinking Taylors, Grahams, Sandeman, Niepoort, Dows etc.

I was wondering if anyone has come across (or written) a guide to the most popular 10 year and 20 year tawny ports out there, and how they differ?

For me , Dows , Graham's or Taylor are not top 3 in 10 or 20 yr old tawnies
Ramos Pinto , Andresen and Sandeman always represent , just my 2 canadian cents worth