For The Love Of Port

from after the 2010 Port Harvest Tour
tasted with Goncalo Devesas at the C. da Silva Port Bar in Vila Nova de Gaia

1934 Dalva Colheita Port (cask sample)
bottled the previous week

Color: Tawny tending toward brown. A little sediment floating around in the glass.
Nose: A bit funky and very intense.
Palate: Intense. Good citrus. Some alcohol noticeable but not overpowering. Solid acidity too. Nice balance and flavor - dark toffee, some coffee. Some kind of dark wood - Roy says possibly mahogany?
Finish: Moderately tart and very long. Somewhat funky here too. Nice mix of apples at the tail.

Score: 95 points. Superb. I'd love to get a few bottles, but it's probably out of my price range for now.

That was certainly fun to try, but if you had not known and were tasting this in the Dalva Port bar, would you have thought it was another in their lineup of aged White Tawny Ports (Colheita) like the "Golden White" they produce?

Hmm... I don't know. That's a good question.

My instinct is to say no because it lacked the parafin and light honey-like notes that I often find in white Ports, but I've been fooled into thinking a 10-yr old Tawny was a 2nd-tier '70 VP before so it's far from certain. This also had some small amount of red left in the color which, of course, white Ports don't have.

It would probably depend on the setup. Presented as a test/challenge I think I'd correctly identify it as an old Colheita (or possibly a 40-yr old). But presented casually among other Ports known to be whites I might be fooled. Especially amongst a wide range of whites because, as we saw on the Harvest Tour, they can vary wildly in profile.

I think it would make for a fun tasting theme:

Guess which are the white and red Colheitas


I don't even think that most Port winemakers and master blenders would have a great deal of success doing this in a blind lineup. It would certainly be interesting.

Roy Hersh wrote:I think it would make for a fun tasting theme:

Guess which are the white and red Colheitas


I don't even think that most Port winemakers and master blenders would have a great deal of success doing this in a blind lineup. It would certainly be interesting.

I would have to agree. I wasn't sure (did not want to ask) if it was red or white. I assumed it was white.

I would actually like to try this one again. Very solid, but I still prefer the 1952 overall, regardless of the grape color.

I'd love to try it again some time, too. This time around I preferred it very slightly over the '52 Golden White, but my notes indicate that the '52 had been open for ~2 weeks. A fresh bottle of each might be too close to call!

Solely depending on your penchant for white vs. red Colheita.

I've heard some interesting results in blind testing people with plain white and red wine. You'd think it would be obvious, but apparently not in all cases.

I would be interested to put forth a blind tasting for some folks like Dirk Niepoort, Christian Seely, David Gumaraens, one of the Symington's etc., to put WHITE and RED Colheitas in front of them to see how the experts in their field would be able to determine which is which.

Roy Hersh wrote:I would be interested to put forth a blind tasting for some folks like Dirk Niepoort, Christian Seely, David Gumaraens, one of the Symington's etc., to put WHITE and RED Colheitas in front of them to see how the experts in their field would be able to determine which is which.

Great idea!