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The Styles of Port

The styles of Port are many and potentially confusing. Whereas it is perhaps not too difficult to grasp the difference between a Vintage Port which will age in bottle for many years and a Tawny which will see many long years in wood, the myriad of other styles and categories are not always so easily defined. Late Bottled Vintage provides enough of a challenge for most I suspect, but who can remember the definition of Crusted versus Vintage Character?

Broadly speaking, there are two styles of Port, those that see a significant amount of time in wood, and those that spend more time in bottle. The former includes the Tawny Ports (obviously) but also the Colheitas, most Late Bottled Vintage styles, Vintage Character and many entry-level wines - be they Ruby, undated Tawny or White. In the second group, we have the traditional Vintage Ports and also the increasingly commonly encountered Single-Quinta Ports, some Late Bottled Vintage wines and also Crusted Port. This subdivision into two is a useful start when considering the wines in question, but even this overly simplified list can be confusing. Fortunately for me, however, a recent tasting provided a good opportunity to examine and in several cases compare and contrast some of the common styles from two of the leading Port houses, Dow's - a longstanding member of the Symington Group - and Taylor's.

The tasting opened with a selection of Tawny Ports, starting with two 10 Year examples. Tawny wines that bear an indication of age such as these are produced from some of the best wines of the harvest, although the very best will of course go into the Vintage Port. The wines go into wooden casks, typically holding about 600 litres, where they undergo a process of slow oxidation and esterification, accompanied by evaporation. The rate of evaporation and maturation is dependent on temperature; wines held up in the Douro Valley will develop quicker than those in the lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia, and may also show a rich toasted character known as the Douro bake. Blending is a complex process, which aims to generate a continued production of wines of a variety of ages, up to 40 years old in some cases, which maintain the house style. Of the two 10 Year wines here, the Dow's had a very typical appearance and archetypal character for such a wine, whereas the Taylor's showed a less affected colour and had more richness. I found I preferred it to the Dow's. Thereafter greater excitement came with greater age, with the most exciting wine being the 40 Year example from Dow's.

Next came two examples of Late Bottled Vintage Port, sadly not from the same vintage, one having been born in 2001 and the other in 2002. It seems very appropriate to review the LBV style using at least one wine from Taylor's, however, as this house is widely credited with its creation. When times were hard, during the first half of the 20th Century, a shortage of willing buyers meant that many houses held vintage wines in wood longer than would have usually been the case. Although technically these wines would today be regarded as Late Bottled Vintage, it was the addition of a Vintage Reserve to the range by Taylor's that was the real kickstart. Regulations for the new category for soon drawn up by Port's governing body, the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto, and the 1965 Taylor's Late Bottled Vintage was the first such wine to be released.

The regulations stipulate a bottling time which ensures the wine remains in vat, which may be wooden or stainless steel, for a minimum of almost four years following the date of the harvest. The earliest date of bottling is July 1st four years after the year of harvest, and the latest is December 31st six years after the harvest. There are, however, two different paths that may be followed at this point, producing two distinct styles of wine. The first path adheres to the Taylor's methodology, which is filtration, fining and cold stabilisation, producing a wine which is ready to drink and which will throw no sediment. The second, designated Traditional LBV, involves bottling with no such interventions; these wines will often throw a crust in the bottle, and will also frequently improve in bottle for several years. They are also distinguished by being sealed with a driven cork, rather than the cork stopper which is associated with the former method. Of the two tasted here, I held a preference for the Dow's, although as the wines encompass two vintages the comparison is not really a fair one.

Crusted Port is a style that I have not frequently encountered, no doubt as it is a minor component of the Port firmament, a fact mirrored by the presence of just one example in this line-up, from Dow's. The style evolved as a blend across vintages, aged in wood for just a few years and then bottled without any treatments such as filtration, hence the wines are prone to developing a crust. Today many houses produce a single vintage example as an alternative to the blended non-vintage; in both cases, as these wines have been less manipulated than their LBV counterparts they are much closer to a Vintage Port in style and should not be overlooked. I was certainly impressed by the example presented here, which was a non-vintage blend. In this case it is the bottling date that becomes important; the example here was bottled in 2002, and so has had about five years further ageing since then.

Moving on, although every Port savant looks for news of a vintage declaration, today the Single-Quinta wine has eradicated the famine of the intervening years that would otherwise exist. Many houses now take the produce of their top vineyards and bottle these in years where a vintage Port is not otherwise declared. As far as the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto is concerned, these wines are subject to the same stringent regulations as the more widely known Vintage Ports. Of those tasted here, there were three Single-Quinta examples presented, and two Vintage Ports, both of the 1985 vintage. In each case the wines will have been assessed by the Instituto between January 1st and September 30th in the second year after the harvest. This is also commonly the time when the wines are bottled and shipped. The line-up featured wines from Quinta do Bomfim and Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira, both sources of top quality wine for Dow's, destined for the Vintage Port in a declared year, as well as Quinta de Terra Feita and Quinta de Vargellas, which serve the same role for Taylor's. These wines preceded a tasting of the 1985 Vintage Port in each case, a year which produced many good wines although about which some in the trade still hold some reservations. (29/4/08)

The Styles of Port - Tasting Notes

Tasted in London in November 2007. Click to locate stockists.

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