FFWD Weekly
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| BOOZE Port wine is, in many ways, one of the least understood spirits on the market. The various styles available range from the light, fruity rubies to the huge, long-lived vintage ports. Tawnies account for a major segment of the port market and differ drastically in style from the vintage or vintage character versions. The history of port in general dates back to the 17th century, when the British were importing red Portuguese wine to England. They found that the wine would suffer in quality from its time spent at sea, so in the early 18th century they began to add brandy to the wine in an attempt to stabilize it. The addition of brandy halts the fermentation process and allows some of the unfermented sugars to remain, leaving the wine with a moderate amount of sweetness. Arguments ensued as to whether or not the fortified wine was superior to the earlier version, with fortification winning out in the early 19th century. From this point a myriad of styles were developed and today we can choose from rubies, late bottle vintage, vintage character, crusted, single quinta (meaning single estate), vintage, white and tawny. Tawnies are divided into three categories, being regular, aged and colheita. Colheita simply means that the wine is vintage dated, indicating the year it was put into cask, where it remains for a minimum of seven years. Aged tawny is divided into 10, 20 and 40-year-old bottlings. As the wine ages it loses its red color, becoming "tawny" in appearance - and almost brown in the case of the 40-year-old. During the aging process the wine is "racked," whereby the clear wine is transferred from one cask to another, leaving the sediment behind. As well, the aging process imparts an oxidative character to the wine, which accounts for the notes and hazelnut and caramel usually found in an aged tawny. There are approximately 80 different grape varieties used in the production of port, with names like touriga nacional and tinta roriz, but most producers would be hard-pressed to define the varieties used in a single wine. There are producers making port-style wines outside of Portugal, although with a few exceptions most are pale comparisons to the real thing. Tawny ports offer up around 20-per-cent alcohol, an important factor to keep in mind should your blood/alcohol level fall dangerously low. The lighter style tawnies can be served slightly chilled as an apertif, or at room temperature as an after-dinner drink. The aged ones are usually served at room temperature, although they too can be chilled if they are being served as a dessert wine. They match up nicely with caramel flavored desserts like crème brulée. Most of the major producers' ports are available in Calgary, so if you stick to names like Fonseca, Taylor Fladgate, Offley, Graham's and Noval, you can't really go wrong. A basic tawny from, say, Fonseca, will run you around $18, and is a good example of a younger style tawny, with a fair amount of fruit still showing in the wine. From there you move on to a 10-year-old, an age which many port-lovers consider ideal for a tawny. One of my favorites there is from Noval, the same company that produces the very rare and expensive Nacional line of vintage ports. Their 10-year-old sells for about $26, and has a nice jammy, smoky quality to it. In the 20-year-old category, Offley rings in at around $45, and at this age the wine takes on a nutty, toffee-like flavor, with just a hint of fruit remaining. Taylor Fladgates' 30-year-old will set you back around $90, with lots of hazelnut, almond and caramel notes that linger for a long time on the palate. One of the advantages of a tawny port is that, due to its oxidative style, the wine will keep for several weeks after being opened, unlike a vintage port which should be consumed over several days at the most. There are those that like a cigar with a glass of tawny, but I find that port wine's subtleties are overwhelmed completely by cigar tobacco. Wine merchants sell far more port in the winter months than in the summer, and if you tuck into a glass of port after an afternoon of skiing or hiking, it's easy to see why. Cheers! |