For The Love Of Port

Which style of Portuguese wines do you like? A more rustic traditional or a modern polished style? Which side do you lean on? I suppose this goes beyond just Portugal, but with wines in general.

Rustic/traditional all the way for me. Traditional wine styles were developed regionally to suit local cuisine, which was often a bit rustic. Polished modern styles were developed internationally to suit critics who play to an overly broad and dumbed-down audience, much of which can't perceive beyond the pretty polish.

It's "rustic" for me though I prefer the term traditional. The polished or modern style implies oak and international varietals. Gave an inexpensive Estremadura wine a second look the other day because it was an '05 but gave it a miss because the back label mentioned cabernet and another international varietal.

Mahmoud.

It's rustic or traditional for me too; all the way. Actually, I was kind of disappointed in a few expensive Douro's that have come out over the years. Amazing grapes and the care are easily apparent in the wine, but style is just too much for me. Not mentioning names on either side of this fence.

With other wines, when I hear/read descriptions like, "Not your dad's Barolo..." makes me not too interested.

This is a tough one for me. I say that as most older Portuguese wines have not held up well with age, especially from the Douro. Yes, there are some exceptions, but those are rare and the overall majority of the older "upper end" wines haven't had great track records. Even some of the Barca Velha's from the 70's, 80's and 90's are getting long in the tooth and should be consumed soon. As things have started to change in the Douro since the late 1990's, there has been a huge step up in quality. That necessitated a change in how things were done. Is that bad? Yes and no. Yes, in that they most likely aren't the same style as they were previously. No, in that now they are better wines that show better and should live to be fine old Clarets with time.

All that said, I do tend to prefer a more "traditional" style of wine no matter the region. I generally am not a fan of high alcohol wines with low acidity, over ripe fruit, and tons of oak that will never integrate.

I prefer the wines I can definitely recognize as being from the Douro. Polished can be good, but I have to recognize that Douro quality.

Andy Velebil wrote:This is a tough one for me. I say that as most older Portuguese wines have not held up well with age, especially from the Douro.

Is that really a problem, though? Why does a wine (or a Port) have to live for decades in order to be considered top flight?

Older != better. It seems to me like part of the point of a more "rustic" style of wine is that it reaches its perfect drinking age sooner. Or am I misunderstanding something?

Glenn E. wrote:
Older != better. It seems to me like part of the point of a more "rustic" style of wine is that it reaches its perfect drinking age sooner. Or am I misunderstanding something?

I'd say the opposite. Look at rustic styles of Spanish and Italian wines; they can age for decades like nothing yet when new they may come off a little simple or crude by today's standards.

Glenn E. wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:This is a tough one for me. I say that as most older Portuguese wines have not held up well with age, especially from the Douro.

Is that really a problem, though? Why does a wine (or a Port) have to live for decades in order to be considered top flight?

Older != better. It seems to me like part of the point of a more "rustic" style of wine is that it reaches its perfect drinking age sooner. Or am I misunderstanding something?

A excellent red wine should hold up and get better with some age. If a wine can't last beyond 10 years without serious signs of decay then there is an issue. Not many Douro wines pre-2003 have held up well. That's a wine making issue. Fixing that may require tweaking things a bit and that may change what some people's idea of a "typical" wine from that region is. At some point you have to move forward in your wine making and that means change. The issue is some wine drinkers don't always like change, just saying