Heritage Porto e Douro (Introduction to Tasting Notes)

[Will W.]

I loathe social media: Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and all the rest. This fact might be explained by several considerations, aside from the fact that I am in gainful work. I refuse, for instance, to accept that anything approaching a cogent idea might be expressed in the 280 characters which Twitter now permits its more erudite members - although the average Twitter user apparently employs only thirty-three keystrokes. As for Facebook, it has been taken over by cat lovers; that is, persons with a sufficiency of free time to post endless pictures of housecats and other feral animals, such as their children. Worse than all this is the fact that the gazillionaires who foisted these useless systems upon humanity do not drink port.

But I digress.

The salient point is that the greatest communication tool ever invented is not social media but rather the printed word – which, I concede readily, might today be expressed equally well through online forums such as that found at the brilliant website, www.fortheloveofport.com (FTLOP).

You might sensibly ask, dear reader, how any of the foregoing is relevant to the consumption of port wine. The answer is this: the esteemed founder of FTLOP, Mr. Roy Hersh, acts as the proprietor of the said website whilst concomitantly resorting regularly to Facebook, where he posts all manner of informational nuggets relevant to port wine - and not, one hopes, photographs of his cats. In the event, the said nuggets are nowhere to be found on FTLOP. Mr. Hersh, a good man of sound mind, is manifestly free to communicate with his disciples as he sees fit – just as I am to bemoan his offering of key information to felinophiles rather than FTLOP readers. At any rate, I learned by way of Facebook, thanks to a social media-savvy intermediary, that Mr. Hersh had announced to the Facebook cult the existence of a relatively new producer: Heritage Porto e Douro. My interest piqued, further research revealed ultimately that the Heritage label was founded by Mr. Julien dos Santos, a young producer whom I gather a number of FTLOP stalwarts have had the pleasure of meeting.

Mr. dos Santos purchased Portologia – La Maison des Porto (in Porto, Portugal) in 2015; he has since opened like-named shops in Paris as well as in Lisbon. According to the Heritage Porto e Douro website (www.heritagedouro.com), at some point after Mr. dos Santos purchased Portologia the firm acquired (or otherwise established) Quinta das Roseiras; it is situated near Seixo de Ansiaes in the Douro Superior, across the river from Quinta do Vesuvio. At the present time, the principal wines marketed by Heritage Porto e Douro would appear from its website to be wood-aged white and tawny ports. Given the relative youth of the firm, wherefrom Mr. dos Santos has found the stocks required to produce older tawnies and white blends is a question which requires further investigation. For now, it will be noted simply that, keen as I am to try new-to-market ports, particularly those which have been wood aged, I visited Portologia (Lisbon) with Her Ladyship on 28 November 2019 for a tasting of various Heritage offerings.

It is the rotten luck of Mr. dos Santos that it falls to me to write the first Heritage Port tasting notes to be posted on the FTLOP website. Readers who do not, by this point, need to return to the maintenance of their Facebook accounts shall find the full reviews at the FTLOP tasting notes section. For others, my review scores are set out here:

Heritage 20 Year Old Dry White Port – 87 Points
Heritage 30 Year Old Dry White Port – 86.5 Points
Heritage 40 Year Old Dry White Port – 89 Points
Heritage 20 Year Old Tawny Port – 92 Points
Heritage 30 Year Old Tawny Port – 91 Points
Heritage 40 Year Old Tawny Port – 93.5 Points

[Eric Menchen]

But where is the "Like" button?

[Andy Velebil]

I see you like their red tawny's better...

[Glenn E.]

I see you like their red tawny's better...

I'm not fond of dry white Ports either. A good normal white Port can compete with a Tawny, but they dry whites just can't in my book.

[Will W.]

Thanks, gents, for the comments, for which I am most grateful. Since the tasting, way back in November, I have wondered more than once whether I was doing justice to the “dry” whites. To be honest, Her Ladyship and I were uncertain what “dry” white ports were supposed to taste like; we could not recall having tasted anything so labelled. As such, my intention was, and remains, to return to Portologia to give the regular (if one will) whites a chance. Initially, work got in the way. Now, one has to wait for the viral dust to settle and to see whether Portologia (Lisbon) is still in business. I most certainly hope so, for the firm’s sake; it had done a lovely job with the space, clearly at no small expense, and the staff could not have been more kind. At any rate, as I have noted the tawnies are well worth a try.

[Glenn E.]

I liked your notes and found myself nodding along with them. It may just be that dry whites are not your style, much as they are not mine. I do know other people who are fond of them, though, and one other person who believes they are the spawn of the devil and should be exorcised from the face of the earth.

We all have different tastes!

(I added links to the notes to this post for you, too.)

[Andy Velebil]

With some exceptions, I also am not a fan of most dry white tawny's. They generally just seem to lack the depth of other aged whites.

[Will W.]

With some exceptions, I also am not a fan of most dry white tawny's. They generally just seem to lack the depth of other aged whites.

Why do you reckon this is the case?

[Andy Velebil]

With some exceptions, I also am not a fan of most dry white tawny's. They generally just seem to lack the depth of other aged whites.

Why do you reckon this is the case?

They come off astringent and slightly bitter to me. I think the little extra sweetness of non-dry ones help counteract that component and allow the rest to show.

Last year a few friends and I tried a number of aged whites side by side, dry and sweet. IIRC, with one exception, most strongly preferred the sweeter ones and didn't particularly care for the dry ones.

[Glenn E.]

With some exceptions, I also am not a fan of most dry white tawny's. They generally just seem to lack the depth of other aged whites.

Why do you reckon this is the case?

They come off astringent and slightly bitter to me. I think the little extra sweetness of non-dry ones help counteract that component and allow the rest to show.

Same for me. In a way it almost makes them feel incomplete - like something is lacking (duh, sugar) and that the Port is unfinished.

The first time I had a dry white Port I didn't notice that the label said dry, and I scored it harshly. It was a 40-year old and IIRC I gave it 87 points. But then even after someone pointed out that it was a brand new product and was a dry white, I kept the same score because I just didn't like it that much.

Dry whites might be better with food? Dunno. I think a normal 10 Year Old White Port goes great with food - no need for it to be dry.