vintage Port 163The accepted practice in the British market of ‘laying down’ vintage Port to mature has
been confounded by the Americans who, perhaps because of a familiarity with strapping
Californian Cabernet, are prepared to broach their vintage Ports almost as soon as they
have been shipped. A young vintage Port can be extremely satisfying (if mouth-numbingly
tannic) and one shipper has proved to me that it can be a good match for a green-pepper
steak, but I remain firmly of the opinion that it is worth waiting fifteen, twenty years or
more for a classic vintage to develop and mature in bottle. A few shippers have introduced
early maturing wines to meet the demands of the powerful North American market,
but the majority have resisted the temptation to change the style of their wines. From
tasting and re-tasting recent declared vintages like 2000 and 1997, both produced with
the North American market on the ascendant, I am convinced the principal shippers are
standing their ground and making vintage Port, just as they always have, for the long
term. In fact, there are a number of shippers with, by their own admission, little or no
reputation for great vintage Port who are now succeeding in making some classic wines.
By the very nature of the category, there is no excuse for poor quality vintage Port –
but there is a considerable variation between the great, the good and, just occasionally,
the bad and the ugly as well. Individual shippers and different vintages have their own
character and style, which puts some in the premier league while others fall below par.
a guiDe to vintages
The following guide to Port vintages takes each year in turn, noting relevant weather conditions,
market considerations and the overall style of the wines, and highlights particularly successful
shippers. I have assessed each and every year back to 1960, which roughly coincides with the
emergence of single-quinta vintage Port (SQVP) in between fully fledged declarations. Prior
to this, only the more prominent (declared) vintages are listed. As you go back in time records
inevitably become rather scanty, partly because my own experience begins in the early 1980s
and contemporary vintage reports have either been lost or are nothing like as comprehensive
as they are today. I am particularly grateful to the late Bruce Guimaraens, David Guimaraens
and the Symington family for access to vintage reports.
key
as an indication of overall quality, each year is rated with stars (up to a maximum of five):
***** an outstanding vintage
**** very good, some outstanding wines
*** good all-round vintage
** an average year; wines generally sound but unexciting
* generally indifferent
no stars poor