vintage Port 1991851
Produced from pre-phylloxera grapes, I tasted this wine at the birthday celebration organised
for me by members of the Port Forum. According to Michael Broadbent this was a year
tainted with mildew although oidium only made its presence felt a year later. From an
unknown shipper, this wine was still deep and amazingly youthful in the centre of the
glass, browning on the rim; subdued, a touch high-toned but still fine and focused; dusty
cherry fruit still evident, a touch of coffee, bitter-sweet cherries with some sweetness coming
through again on the finish. Still retaining its youthful grip, amazingly fresh if quite dry in
style. An astonishing wine that illustrates the staying power of a good vintage Port.
1844
The oldest Port I have tasted. From Quinta de São Martinho (a Rebello Valente property):
pale mahogany colour with an olive green rim, high toned but ethereal; very, very delicate,
light and just off-dry but still fresh with searing acidity keeping the wine alive in the mouth.
This wine was fortified but almost certainly made to a much drier style than is customary
today (see Chapter 1).
storing, ageing anD serving Port
So much has been written about the rituals of storing, serving and drinking Port that
people are sometimes deterred from opening a bottle. In reality there are no hard and fast
rules, just practical suggestions that help you to enjoy a wine to the full. So-called ‘wood-
matured’ Ports (ruby, reserve, all tawnies, colheitas, white and the majority of LBVs) are
bottled ready for drinking and should be stored upright. With the possible exception of
some colheitas, they do not benefit from keeping and will begin to deteriorate with bottle
age. Aged tawnies, however, are fairly resilient even though they may lose some of their
freshness if kept for too long.
Given the correct storage conditions, bottle-matured Ports (vintage, crusted and
unfiltered LBVs) will evolve in bottle over the medium to long term, gaining character and
complexity with age. The ideal cellar for all wines is a cool, dark space with a reasonably
even temperature of 10 to 12°C, winter to summer, day to night. Port is more resilient
than many wines but will still be damaged by excessively high or fluctuating temperatures;
seepage around the cork and capsule is often a symptom. Bottles should be laid on their
side to maintain the elasticity of the cork with the label uppermost so that the sediment
or crust falls to the underside. Vintage Ports are often marked with a splash of whitewash
that survives even after the label has disintegrated. If the bottle is moved for any reason it
should be returned to its original position with the label or white splash facing upwards.
As a rule of thumb, wood Port intended for early drinking is bottled with a stopper
cork whereas bottle-matured Port for laying down has a driven cork.