Progressive Port - [Wine International] - by Richard Woodard

[Mario Ferreira]

URL: http://www.wineint.com/story.asp?storyCode=2022

Progressive Port
19 January 2006

Alternative styles and experimentation in both the vineyard and the winery are the weapons employed by Port producers to shed the staid image of the drink and avoid the fate suffered by Sherry. Richard Woodard reports

By Richard Woodard

The greatest, most eye-popping discoveries you can make in the world of wine often come from the most unexpected sources, like that stunning tank sample of Cabernet Sauvignon from the most unassuming family winery in the Languedoc, or that humble Touraine Sauvignon that puts Sancerre to shame at half the price.

My latest contender for Wine Discovery of the Year came in the unlikely shape of a lightly chilled bottle of Sandeman Vau Vintage 2000, a relatively new kind of vintage Port that, while it can easily last ten to 15 years, is so vibrantly fruity it’s ready to drink when still in short trousers (the way some New World reds are ascending into the stratosphere in terms of alcohol, it’s not so much of a leap as you might think, even allowing for the extra sweetness).

In the UK, most of the Port we drink is Ruby (basic and cheap), slightly more premium (think Cockburn’s Special Reserve) or Late Bottled Vintage (LBV). Vintage Port, however, is astonishing value compared to the other great wines of the world. Mine was served, in my own dining room, alongside an orange, mascarpone and chocolate tart. Sadly, I can’t claim the credit for this piece of inspired food-matching lunacy, since it was George Sandeman who suggested the basis of this iconoclastic idea. However, I can tell you that it worked, and it showed there’s no reason why Port should be confined to the consumption ghettos of Stilton and Christmas.

A concerted effort

I share the above anecdote with you because Port has the (partly justified) reputation for being one of the most conservative, even reactionary, corners of the world of drinks, but as the decline and fall of Sherry shows, it can no longer afford to rest on its laurels. If it is to avoid Sherry’s fate, it must find, as it has with me, fresh ways of attracting serious and not-so-serious wine consumers.

To be fair, however, much work is being done to broaden the horizons of the typical Port drinker, with Port’s governing body, the IVDP (Douro and Port Wines Institute), increasingly promoting Tawny Ports in British restaurants to show that the Douro has an alternative to traditional dessert wines: a soft, nutty glassful that is worlds away from cheap ruby’s headache-inducing harshness.

Producers are mirroring this strategy, in particular the Symington Family Port Companies. Warre’s Otima, with its elegant, totally un-Port-like bottle, is the market leader in the aged tawny category, and it now has a 20-year-old stablemate, while new launch Graham’s The Tawny is aiming to get supermarket consumers to spend £14.99 for its undeniably appealing ginger-cinnamon almond nuttiness. It’s a brave strategy that deserves to succeed.

Perhaps even more interesting – though hard to find outside specialist retailers – is the Colheita style, a tawny from a single vintage, which is aged for at least seven years but often longer. Cálem’s Colheita 1994 (bottled 2005), adds richness and power to the generic tawny style of dry nuttiness and toffee, while Quinta do Noval Colheita 1974 offers a charming, lifted and aromatic quality that is even better.

Things are also changing in the vineyards and wineries of the Douro. Never has the Port industry been so rooted in its terroir as now, with producers working their socks off to improve the quality of their fruit while keeping an eye on the environment. Experimentation and research – almost unheard of a few years ago – are increasingly coming to the fore. Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha estate includes an experimental vineyard that is studying different clones and rootstocks. Vines are planted ‘ao alto’, or vertically, to produce homogenous results, and Warre’s Paul Symington says tha discoveries have already been made. For example, Tinta Roriz, long thought to be synonymous with Tempranillo, is in fact a very different Clone, with contrasting yields and fruit character. Work is ongoing and, indeed, expanding.

Meanwhile, Cálem is not using any fruit from its recently purchased Quinta do Arnozelo vineyard in the Upper Douro (between Taylor’s Vargellas and the Symingtons’ Vesuvio) until it has finished studying the estate. The varieties planted are fine – lots of Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca, planted separately – but much remedial work is needed (including rebuilding some partly collapsed terraces) before the quinta can realise its full potential.

If Arnozelo is a work in progress, Croft’s Quinta da Roeda shows what can be achieved. The Fladgate Partnership took over the house just four years ago, but it has already transformed its fortunes, giving the vineyard a viticultural overhaul. ‘What we’re trying to do is bring the terroir through and be true to it, says Fladgate managing director Adrian Bridge. There have also been radical changes at the winery, with a swanky new reception area, four separate wineries in one location and new lagares.

Foot treading has returned to Croft for the first time in 30 years, and winemaker David Guimaraens has added his own touch, turning concrete autovinifiers into open-top fermenters with plungers (after a bit of fairly drastic winery DIY, repeated, incidentally, in a slightly different form at Cálem’s winery). The proof of the pudding is Croft’s Vintage 2003. With floral notes and great finesse, it’s wonderfully fresh and aromatic. It’s a stunning return to form and, without a doubt, one of the stars of the vintage. (The use of converted concrete autovinifiers is an interesting digression. More and more producers are coming to see the merits of a material almost ignored with the advent of stainless steel. The Symingtons admire concrete autovinifiers for their consistency of temperature and for producing wines that are ‘phenomenally good’ in the tasting room.)

Developing new styles

This focus on the vineyard is also visible in another relatively new phenomenon in the world of Port: the single-quinta vintage. Apart from being a cheaper alternative to full-blown vintage Port, single quintas have a provenance and grounding in the vineyard that almost no other Port can match.

Suddenly, the soft, floral character of Warre’s vintage Port comes into focus when you taste Quinta da Cavadinha, the vineyard that is its backbone. Quinta da Cavadinha 1996, in particular, is a remarkable wine with lifted aromas and an underlying austerity and structure. Although still a little young, it is drinking beautifully now.Comparisons with the folk of Jerez de la Frontera can be a little facile, but the fact is that people got bored with Sherry because, for the most part, they were never encouraged to discover the full gamut of the region’s wines beyond cream and pale cream.

For Port, LBV has been a great success in recent years, but tawny Ports retain a criminally low profile in the UK (unlike the US, where they increasingly have a cult following), while single-quinta vintages are a great way to appreciate the terroir of the Douro Valley.

All are part of a positive trend for the Port industry. You might not want to chuck a bottle in the fridge to have with your dessert, but then again, if you don’t try these things, you’ll never know…

RICHARD WOODARD is editor of Wine & Spirit International
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Leaving aside the simpler ruby styles (not to mention white Port), there are several special categories in Port:

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV)

Wines from a single harvest, bottled between four and six years afterwards. Ruby in style, but with more concentration and depth. No decanting necessary, unless you buy ‘traditional’, unfiltered LBV, which is more expensive, but worth it.
Benchmark wines: Filtered: Cálem LBV 2000; unfiltered: Warre’s LBV 1995

Aged tawny

Wines with prolonged wood contact,usually in small casks. Tawnies can be 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years old, although the older wines tend to be a bit tired and lacking in fruit. The best have a smooth, soft, seductively nutty style, making them delicious to drink chilled with dessert.
Benchmark wines: Warre’s Otima 20; Taylor’s 30-year-old

Colheita

A tawny from a single harvest, with at least seven years’ aging, but often far longer. The date of bottling will also be on the label. Characterful tawnies are scarce, but well worth seeking out.
Benchmark wines: Quinta do Noval 1974; Cálem 1994

Crusted

A ‘poor man’s vintage’ category now largely supplanted by LBV. A ruby style blended from several harvests, then lain down in bottle. As the name suggests, it throws a sediment and so requires decanting.
Benchmark wine: Graham’s Crusted (bottled 2000)

Single-quinta vintage

Essentially a vintage Port, but from one vineyard and often at about half the price. A great way to learn about the ‘building blocks’ of vintage Port. Single quintas are often, but not exclusively, released from undeclared years.
Benchmark wines: Warre’s Quinta da Cavadinha 1996; Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha 2000; Sandeman Vau Vintage 2000

Vintage

The daddy of Port styles. From one harvest, bottled after two to three years, and usually a blend of different vineyards. Exuberant (but fiercely tannic) when young, often dumb in middle age, it attains complex maturity after 20 years.
Benchmark wines: Where do you start? Much depends on what style you enjoy, but 2003 – the last vintage declaration – was a great year for Croft, Quinta do Noval and Fonseca, among others.

[nicos neocleous]

Mario,

Thanks for posting this. I do think that Port has a wider drinking base than Sherry. However, it is interesting to see the recent changes (last 10 years) that happened with Sherry, in terms of new legal classifications (VO,VORS).

Having said that, new Port products (Warre's Ultima) and demand from the USA in the last 10-15 years have raised the profile for Port. The quality, it would apear, is as high as ever, and I look forward to drinking Port for many years to come.

Abraco,
Nicos

[Andy Velebil]

Mario,

I some how missed this article when you first posted it. A stunning, and IMO, an acurate article. It is great to read what the port industry is doing to move into the 21st century. Thanks for posting the article, and please keep posting more.

P.S. It was also great to read about the Quinta do Noval 1974 Colheita. Since 1973 was a terrible year, I bought this one last month as a self-birthday present. My b-day is this sunday and I plan to open it then.