Vintage Glass
Vintage Port Top Buying Tips by Graeme Davis
If the phrase vintage port conjures up an image of stuffy old clubs and etiquette, then I’m afraid you have an old fashioned view of one of the world’s best drinks. Vintage port is among the top rank of wines made in the world, yet prices remain very affordable compared with Bordeaux wines.
However, a lot of consumers are a little bit bewildered by the number of port variants available. The industry has not helped this with some confusing lable descriptions of the product.
For example, what’s the difference between “Vintage Port”, “Late Bottled Vintage” and “Vintage Character” port? Answer – only one is the real deal; the other two aspire to be like vintage port but are made from lesser wines and cost a good deal less.
So what makes a true vintage port? Firstly, this is not something that is guaranteed to be produced every year; rather, true vintage years only come around 2 or 3 times a decade, so you can’t actually guarantee a bottle of exists for your birth year if you’re thinking of a nice birthday present.
Secondly, a vintage port is not necessarily the product of one particular vineyard. Being quite the opposite of Scotch Whisky where a single malt is the most highly valued, a vintage is usually a blend of lots of vineyards and it is the winemaker’s art of the blending and predicting a wine’s quality after aging that determines a vintage.
Lastly, vintage port is aged in wooden barrels for only two years and is then bottled – it must stay in the bottle for some years to improve. It is this environment, in glass bottles with only a very slightly porous cork, that limits the involvement of air and oxygen in the aging that produces such quality. All other ports are aged in barrels for longer periods that expose them to more oxygen, changing their characters.
So if you are interested in buying and drinking port, here are my top tips to look for:
1) The lable will state the shipper’s name (eg Taylors), the words “Vintage Port” and the year of the vintage.
2) If the lable includes the words “Quinta de…” and then a name, plus it has the words “Vintage Port” then it is what is known as a Single Quinta Vintage. These are made in the exact same way as a vintage port, are very good ports in their own right, but they are not the full “vintage” and are a good bit cheaper as a result. Why do they exist? Remember the 2 or 3 times a decade for a true vintage – these fill the gap years with a product of almost equal quality.
3) “Late Bottled Vintage” or LBV port, or “Vintage Character” means a basic ruby port that has been aged a little bit longer. They are good but they are not vintage port and so they cost a lot less.
4) If you want to know what’s a good year you can look it up – just search the phrase “vintage port years” online. The alternate view I take is that since vintage port years only come along 2 or 3 times a decade, anything that is declared a true “vintage port” is unlikely to disappoint.
5) Lastly, don’t drink vintage port that’s less than 8 to 10 years old and preferably keep it for longer. These wines really hit their stride after 15 to 20 years and keep improving out to 30 years and beyond.
With Bordeaux wines commanding top dollar prices and being a tad over-valued in my opinion, there has never been a better time to drink vintage port which is relatively inexpensive in comparison.
About the Author
Graeme Davis is a port wine enthusiast and has recently taken to spreading the word about one of the world’s greatest wines. He also runs his own online port business which helps with the research! If you want to know more about port wine, tasting it, drinking it, enjoying it, check out Cotswold Vintage Port
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