Why 20 is the magic age for tawny port

I’ve been spoiled with vintage port. Years ago, I negotiated the sale of a very grand cellar and I took my commission in kind, in the form of vintage port: 1950, 1955, 1963, 1970. And around the same time, I bought some 1985 at auction for a very reasonable price, this being just before port had its renaissance.

There’s still some left but I try to find wines that I can afford and that give me some of the vintage port experience, by which I mean the benefits of age. Even at two decades old, most vintage ports are still a bit reticent. The 1985s are very expressive by comparison but that’s a long time to wait.

Vintage port is the wine of one year, a year that has been ‘declared’ by the port house, and it is bottled unfiltered. Wines of other years go to make late bottled vintage port, filtered and stabilised, manipulated so that it can be drunk quite early.

Single quinta ports are wines of nondeclared vintages that are treated exactly like vintage port. They, too, will need decanting because they throw quite a sediment as they age. Generally, single quinta wines mature more rapidly and, to be honest, offer better value for money. Taylor’s Quinta da Vargellas, for example, knocks spots off many vintage ports from lesser houses.

Ports that are given lengthy ageing in wood become tawnies, that is they lose a lot of their colour and become browner or tawnier. The very slow and mild oxidation accelerates the ageing process and the wines develop nutty, raisiny, candied peel-like aromas. They don’t need decanting and offer great value for money if you stick with the 10 and 20 year olds (this being an average age, incidentally). Very few 40 year olds justify their prices. One of the co-owners of Taylor’s once told me that 20 year old tawnies are the optimum version and that ‘older ones are for the Japanese market.’

Colheita ports are simply tawnies from a single year. Crusted port, a style very rare in Ireland, are labelled with the date of bottling and are a blend of various vintages, unfiltered and designed to age in the bottle.

I picked up some in Waitrose in London last week, their own brand, made by Symington Estates, bottled in 2015 and costing only 16 quid. It’s very pleasant now but I’m going to keep some for a few years and let it open up. If you’re prepared to collect from Newry, The Wine Society in the UK have one bottled in 2013 for Stg£17.50.