Extra dry white port, cloudy

[Jeremy Stratton]

We bought a bottle of extra dry white port at Quinta da Pacheca (where we ran into Roy Hersh, by the way) in early May. After bringing it home (in checked baggage) to the US and opening, it appears to very cloudy with a good amount of sediment at the bottom.

Is this normal?
Should we decant a white port?
Can we drink it as is?
Can we decant just some of it (I assume?)
How long can we keep the bottle around before finishing it?

Thanks.

[Andy Velebil]

Jeremy,

First let me welcome you to . I am glad you have come to visit us here and I hope you had a great time in Portugal. When you get a chance, please post about your trip and download some pictures to our Portrait Section (on the main home page), we always love to hear of others trips to the "mother land" as we call it.

As to your question, I'm not familiar with that particular Dry White Port. Dry White Ports are generally inexpensive filtered Ports, generally consumed well chilled and an apartiff or mixed with tonic and lemon (or fresh mint leaves) for a refreshing summer drink. I'm not sure why it would be cloudy and have sediment unless it was in bottle for some time or only very lighty filtered. Since you bought it at the Quinta, I doubt the previous applies.

Generally these are not meant to age at all. They are to be consumed within a year or two of buying. So no need to cellar them. In my experience, there is no reason to decant them. They are generally "pop-n-pour" Ports.

Can't say I've ever had a basic dry white Port bottle around very long after opening it, but I would say 2-4 weeks and you should be fine. Just keep it corked and stored in the fridgeraor once opened.

Again welcome to the forum and please chime in often, it's good to have you with us.

[oscarquevedo]

Hi Jeremy,

There are some answers for your question. One of these is that the filtering of the wine was not well sized and some proteins remained in the liquid. Since you have the wine at your place, and though you have already opened the bottle, I would suggest you to wait some more days for it to clarify. It can probably take some weeks or months to completely clarify but as we are talking about an opened bottle of White Port, it will oxidize during the next days. So you have a hard challenge between tasting a cloudy Port or an oxidized Port.

Regarding the decanting of part of the liquid, as more liquid you have in the bottle (and consequently few air), the oxidation will occur slower. At the same time it is important that you taste the wine quite often to check how is it evolving.

Good luck and do not forget to let us know your updates!!