Port producer
Dirk van der Niepoort likes to say that you can drink vintage-dated tawnies, called colheitas, wearing jeans, but that drinking a bottle of vintage Port makes you feel like you should be wearing a tuxedo.
”You can drink these Ports any time you like,“ he said at his amazing tasting of colheitas dating back to 1900, which was certainly informal yet extremely informative. By the end of the hour-long seminar, the 40 people in attendance were convinced that colheitas are something every Port lover should have in their cellars.
Colheitas are tawny Ports from a single vintage that are aged in old wood barrels until they are bottled and shipped. By law, they must be aged a minimum of seven years in cask before bottling, which is why Niepoort served a 1991 to begin the tasting. He ended with the 1900, which had been bottled in 1972 -- meaning it spent more than seven decades in cask.
The tawny Ports served at the tasting included: 1991, 1988, 1987, 1979, 1962, 1937, 1934, 1912 and 1900 as well as a 20-year-old tawny serving as a comparison. All the older Ports came from Niepoort's personal cellar in Portugal. ”I really don't like selling these old wines,“ he admitted with a smile. ”In fact, I don't have much of them anyway. I prefer drinking them with my family and friends.“ The small room erupted in applause.
You've heard of passive smoking; well, this may have been the first ”passive wine tasting“ ever. The room was absolutely saturated with aromas of almonds, butterscotch and molasses, with hints of plums.
The best Ports of the tasting were the old ones, particularly the 1934, 1912 and 1900. The '34 showed an amazingly rich aroma of honey, butterscotch and walnuts, which follows through to a full and very sweet palate. There is a zingy freshness to this old fortified wine, and I rated it 96 points. It was difficult to spit out even at 10:30 in the morning. I gave the same score to the 1912 and 1900, which are very similar in style, although the '12 is slightly less exuberant.
Niepoort, who runs his family's 40,000-case Port business, said that some other Port producers believe that vintage-dated tawnies should no longer be produced, arguing that colheitas confuse the consumer. Niepoort vehemently disagrees. ”I think that Port needs to have different products. It makes it exciting,“ he said.
The participants of the tasting certainly didn't need any further persuasion.
-- James Suckling
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