vintage Port 187harvest had begun too early. In the event, wet weather returned in early October. High
yields produced undistinguished wines. I have never seen or tasted a Port from 1973.
1972 *
A number of shippers made attractive wines in 1972 in spite of heavy intermittent rain
during the harvest. The vintage was blighted early on by the alcohol scandal that broke
shortly after Dow, Offley and Rebello Valente declared (see page 48). Although rarely
seen, many of the wines are still curiously attractive, retaining their simple, fresh fruit
character. The Casa do Douro still holds a substantial stock of wine from this era which
surfaces from time to time in old tawnies. Drink up.
1971
Hot weather in July was short in duration and the following six weeks were cool and
cloudy. Regular spraying was necessary to combat mildew. By early August, growers in
the Rio Torto could not recall a year when the grapes were so far behind. Nothing of any
consequence was made and no wines were declared.
1970 ***** classic, tight-knit wines; the best with a long future ahead
Early tastings tended to play down the 1970 wines and they are only now being judged in
their true light. January and February were wet, followed by cold, dry weather in March.
April was warm which favoured early flowering. Although May and June were wet there was
very little rain, with the exception of few timely downpours in late August, until October.
In the Cima Corgo picking began on 21 September with temperatures of 35°C. Michael
Symington wrote at the time that ‘fermentations were therefore rapid, but colours are
nonetheless excellent’. There was a high incidence of raisinised grapes which may have led to
some early doubts about the wines. A few wines have developed burnt, high-toned aromas
and, this being the last vintage to be bottled both in Gaia and in the UK, there is inevitably
a certain amount of variation from bottle to bottle (see my qualifying note earlier). There
were some big declarations with Taylor, for example, declaring 31,400 cases of 1970.
In retrospect this was the last old-fashioned vintage where the majority of leading
shippers were still treading their wines properly in lagar. Some, such as Sandeman and
Noval, were already going off the boil. The overall quality is by no means as uniformly high
as in 1963 but there are wines that deserve to be ranked among the century’s greats. Dow
and Graham certainly deserve this accolade, followed up by some undeniably impressive
wines from Cálem and Kopke. Cockburn, Delaforce, Fonseca, Niepoort, Noval Nacional
and Taylor are also very good, displaying the tight-knit concentration that is the hallmark
of this vintage. Taylor’s also bottled some 1970 Quinta de Vargellas, produced from vines
that were shortly to be lost to the river. I suspect that many of the 1970s have been drunk
too early, for the best only recently reached a long plateau that will see them through
much of the twenty-first century. Drink now to 2030 plus.
Pick of the Vintage: Cálem; Dow; Fonseca; Graham; Kopke; Niepoort.