Port and the Douro (Infinite Ideas Classic Wine)

vintage Port 167

Pick of the Vintage: Quinta do Noval; Fonseca Quinta do Panascal; Taylor’s Quinta
de Terra Feita; Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos; Churchill Quinta da Gricha; Quinta
do Vesúvio; Vista Alegre.

2007 ** / *** relatively cool growing season, great purity of fruit;
widely declared

The widespread declaration of a new vintage immediately evokes comparison with an earlier
year but in a quarter of a century of visiting the Douro, I cannot recall a year like it. A good
Port vintage is usually thought of as a product of heat (as 2003) but in 2007 the wines were
shaped by a long and relatively cool summer.
The winter was wet and even more rain fell in June and July, reducing yields and
raising the threat of disease. August was unusually cool. At Quinta do Vale Meão in
the hottest part of the Douro the thermometer never rose above 37°C. ‘At the end of
August’ remarked Johnny Symington, ‘no one could see a great vintage in prospect.’
Rain in September would have been disastrous (and this was certainly a challenge for
growers in the south of Portugal) but the Douro remained dry. The harvest, which
started ten days later than usual, finished in mid-October and was the driest since 1985.
Charles Symington wrote this on 15 October: ‘It is another beautiful clear day with
mild temperatures, we have become so used to this type of weather over the last six
weeks that we have almost started to take it for granted. One feels very fortunate to
have had near perfect conditions throughout this vintage, allowing us to produce some
very promising wines.’ Vasco Magalhães, speaking for Sogrape (Sandeman, Ferreira and
Offley), concluded that 2007 was ‘the perfect ripening season’. Dirk Niepoort described
the year as ‘a dream come true!’
I wrote in Decanter at the time of declaration that ‘the 2007s have an early vivacity,
vibrancy and purity of fruit that I have never seen at this stage before’ (although this
may also have something to do with aguardente – see overleaf ). The words ‘elegance’ and

tasting vintage Port:

a Cautionary tale

at the end of 2008, in an effort to lose some weight, i put myself on a sugar-free diet.

it worked, and with the help of a personal trainer i lost 12 kilos in a few weeks, bringing

me back to the same weight i was when i graduated from university. But i hadn’t

accounted for the fact that my palate changed and my taste buds had become much

more sugar-sensitive. tannin also became more bitter. along came the 2007 vintage

declaration in the early months of 2009 and, without realising it at the time, i fear i

assessed the vintage incorrectly. some wines which should have rated highly, didn’t. i

can only apologise for this and hold it up as a cautionary tale for any wine drinker who

decides to change their diet...