A Port for All Time
Port isn't quite the vogue tipple it used to be but, like all good things, it deserves appreciation.
My parents always offered guests a thimble of sherry before dinner. And one of port after. But since the 1970s, fortified wines (port, sherry, muscat and the like) have been in decline. They are disappearing slowly, although the best examples are still among the world's great wines and important in quality.We live in the age of table wine, when still (that is, non-sparkling) white and red wines are the preferred tipple. It's hard to imagine now but during the 1950s, tastes were very different and fortified wines outsold table wines.
Australians' purchase of Australian fortified wine has slumped by a third in the past 13 years, from 25 million litres to 16 million litres. At the same time, the total wine market has grown enormously and the net result is that fortified wine's market share has halved - from 0.08 per cent to 0.04 per cent.
But the great fortified wines are an important story - none greater than Portuguese vintage port. It's one of the world's longest-living wines, with a fascinating evolution from a dark-purple, brightly fruity and quite tannic young wine to a wonderfully subtle, finely nuanced mature wine of matchless complexity. It has a lifespan of more than 50 years. Demand for this wine is still healthy. Hence, the man behind Graham's Port, Rupert Symington, visited Australia to sign up a new importer, Deja Vu.
The name is English but the wine is unequivocally Portuguese - from the wonderfully scenic Upper Douro valley. Many names in the port-wine trade are British because their involvement dates back centuries. The Symingtons' ancestors were among the first Brits to ship port from Oporto 354 years, or 13 generations, ago. They own several port companies, including famous brands Warre's, Dow's, Graham's, Gould Campbell, Smith Woodhouse, Quinta do Vesuvio and Quarles Harris.
Deja Vu is selling four Graham's ports wholesale in NSW. They are the fruity, youthful Fine Tawny Port (about $40), 2005 Late Bottled Vintage Port (about $55), 10 Year Old Tawny Port (about $70) and 2007 Vintage Port (about $170). Older vintages are available, too, as are the 20, 30 and 40 Year Old tawnies.
The vintage ports and LBV are easily understood by Australians used to our own equivalents; the tawny (wood-aged) ports perhaps less so. These are quite different to our own, tending to be paler in colour, less brown in hue and more floral in aroma - but, most notably, they are lighter in weight.
Their mouth-feel is less rich, less dense, less opulent - but no less intense in flavour.
As my tasting note on the entry-level Graham's 10 Year Old Tawny Port reads: ''Lean, elegant and stylish; not rich, fat and jammy like an Australian tawny port.''
Both are great wines but we should celebrate their differences.
The youngest wine, the Fine Tawny Port, is quite fruity and seems a little immature in comparison to a good Australian wine of similar price.
But the flavours are attractive and different enough to make it a worthwhile choice.
I wrote: ''Grapy aroma, clean and bright, with red fruits and spices, hints of bitter citrus peel and angelica. Palate is light and dry, savoury and lean, with a lot of early sweetness, which dries off with tannin on the back-palate.''
Of the 10 Year Old: ''Aromas of old leather furniture and polished timber panelling. More mature, savoury and complex than the Fine Tawny and a much more serious wine.''
The 2005 Late Bottled Vintage is marvellously rich in primary fruit aroma and flavour, with liquorice, spices, red fruits and floral brandy-spirit aromas. It's plump and fruity, with lots of sweetness and soft tannins. The tannins are a subtle nod towards vintage-port style.
And the 2007 Graham's Vintage Port: ''Very deep purple-red, great colour. Marvellous depth of berry fruit aromas, floral spirit beautifully harmonised with the cherry, raspberry, Turkish delight and blueberry aromas. A very fruit-filled palate with ample sweetness, neatly balanced by tannin and spirit warmth, but the tannins are so supple and fine that they're barely worth remarking on. Delicious now and for decades to come''.
And that's the story of modern vintage port. Improvements in viticulture and winemaking mean the tannins are softer than in the past, giving wines that drink well young and can trick the taster into thinking they won't age well - but they will.
As Graham's winemaker Jorge Nunes told me: ''Young vintage port is now so well made, it's lovely to drink when released. The grape maturity is more even [than it used to be], robotic treaders are better for extraction and the wines are better balanced than back in 1977, when wines were still being made on farms in rustic conditions.''
No one has any illusions that port will become fashionable again but it remains an important part of the wine world and the quality is better than ever.
