Guide to tawny Port
Large old oak casks, careful selection, expert blending and lots of time and patience – the key elements in the production one of the wine world’s most tantalising pleasures. Richard Mayson explains the complexities of these much-loved fortifieds
Richard Mayson introduces the varied styles of tawny
AfTER A gRAND dinner with a Port shipper, you might find that you are offered a glass of ‘mouthwash’. This is not the time to reach for the Listerine – the term was a once a euphemism for a glass of chilled tawny Port. Coming at the very end of the evening, after a glass or three of vintage Port, a gently chilled, well-aged tawny certainly refreshes the parts that no other wine (or beer) can reach. But the fact remains that, for most of the big Port shippers, tawny traditionally played second fiddle; vintage Port was the main event.
There has long been a stark division between tawny and vintage Port, with the so-called ‘British houses’ majoring on vintage while the ‘Portuguese houses’ made a specialty of wood Port, meaning the tawnies and colheitas that are aged for extended periods in wood before bottling. Jim Reader, who made the wines for Cockburn (a very ‘British’ house) and who now consults for C da Silva (Dalva), explains how the latter came to specialise in tawny: ‘Until the late 1980s, Dalva was owned by a Portuguese family, and hence tended to follow the Portuguese tradition. We always had strong sales in markets such as Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Portugal, where aged tawnies have long been considered to be among the finest styles of Port.’
With the growing appreciation of tawny Port in English-speaking markets, that division is breaking down. All the main shippers have
been building their stocks of wood Port. Graham’s and Taylor’s (the latter having bought Wiese & Krohn in 2013 from its Portuguese owners) have even begun to launch their own colheitas – single-year, aged tawny Ports – entering into an area that was once the near-exclusive preserve of the Portugueseowned shippers. And this year the once rather obscure colheita style has gone mainstream in the UK, with a listing for Kopke 1996 in Marks & Spencer (see p60).
Tawny essentials
With its stratified age structure, tawny Port can be something of a mystery and a minefield to understand. There is a huge category of so-called ‘tawny’ mostly sold in French supermarkets at a bottom-euro price, which is usually dark pink in hue and little more than washed-out ruby. True tawny starts with the Reserve designation and extends up a pyramid of wines bottled with an indication of age: 10, 20, 30 and Over 40 Years being the categories permitted by the Port and Douro Wines Institute (IVDP).
The fact that the age of a blended tawny is an indication rather than an exactitude
‘We look for balance by using grapes from different altitudes and different stages of maturation’ Carlos Alves, Sogevinus
gives the shippers considerable flexibility in making up blends according to their house style, fine-tuning here and there with small quantities of younger or older wines to add dimension and finesse to the blend. The final lote (batch) has to be submitted to the IVDP tasting panel for approval. But the selection process starts in the vineyard.
Luis Sottomayor, head winemaker for Sandeman and Ferreira – both known for their excellent stocks of aged tawny Port – explains: ‘A wine destined to be an old tawny will be different from a vintage or LBV: we are seeking elegance and balance. This is associated with well-integrated acidity and a sugar level that is not too high – the sugars are always increasing during the evolution of the wine.’
Carlos Alves, winemaker for the Sogevinus group, which includes tawny specialists Kopke, Cálem and Burmester, adds: ‘We achieve balance by using grapes from different altitudes and different stages of maturation’. Jim Reader is more specific, noting: ‘There is likely to be less Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca in the blend, although these varieties continue to be important, and a greater use of varieties such as Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão and Tinta Roriz.’
The ageing process determines the style and character of tawny Port. In so-called ‘lodge pipes’ (seasoned casks of between 600 litres and 640 litres), the wine undergoes a process of gradual, controlled oxidation
and esterification as the colour fades and ethyl esters and acetals develop in the wine. The formation of these volatile components is directly influenced by the ambient storage temperature and rate of evaporation.
A tawny matured up in the hot Douro Valley undergoes a different (and more rapid) maturation process than a tawny aged in the cooler, more humid conditions of a lodge in Vila Nova da Gaia, at the river’s Atlantic estuary. But provided a wine is well nurtured, a hint of so-called ‘Douro bake’ can be a positive advantage in a mature tawny, and some shippers deliberately use a portion of Douro-matured wine in their blends.
Long-term vision
Regular racking is important and provides the tasting room with an opportunity to monitor the character and evolution of each lote. Tasting and blending is a continuous process, the aim being to produce a wine that both conforms to house style and is also consistent over time. Wines set aside initially are often marked with the year of the harvest, or ‘colheita’. Reader explains: ‘A decision will be taken after five or six years of ageing as to whether these wines are of the quality and style to justify their continued separate maturation and later release as colheitas.’
‘There is likely to be a greater use of varieties such as Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão and Tinta Roriz’ Jim Reader, Port consultant
There are three important characteristics for a colheita, says Alves: ‘Natural acidity, sweetness, and the body and structure of the wine. When the wine starts out it is similar to a good LBV or vintage Port but with a different aromatic profile, as LBVs and vintages tend to be more expressive than colheitas.’
In the realm of aged tawny Ports, as the shipper makes up new blends followed by blends of blends, the characteristics of the individual wines gradually meld into the house style. Lighter, earlier maturing tawnies will go towards a 10-year-old blend, while richer and more structured wines are reserved for older tawnies.
Stocks of old tawny Port are largely driven by anticipated sales – the onus is on the shipper to look more than 40 years ahead in order to put aside the correct quantity of wine. If there is a run on stock, the style may waver. The final lote may be made up of anything between 10 and 50 different component wines with younger, fresher, fruit-driven Ports balancing older, mature styles. Richard Mayson is the DWWA Regional Chair for Port and Madeira. He publishes www. richardmayson.com, and his new book is Port and the Douro (see p144)