Okay well good evening everyone or good Morning or good afternoon Um wherever you are in the world my name Is chris martin i am a diploma holder At wset um i work at wsct i’m the head Of educator training And i teach levels one two three And for a diploma i teach Uh fortified one in particular Uh the fortified wines of portugal and Tonight we’re going to look at one of Those Which is port um So i thought that some of you have been Have a glass of porch with you which is Very nice i’ve got some nice porch here Which i’ll talk about Uh later on tonight um so you may see me Sipping that i’m also wearing my festive Elf hats which you know you have to keep We have to keep something happy for Uh 2020. so i’ll take you through port Um a little bit of the history The region uh some of the grapes Go through the different styles of for Some of you You know decoding port labels can be Slightly Confusing hopefully by the end of this It will be a Much clearer in terms of what each of These labels mean And the styles that you can expect from Them then i’ll end with a little bit
About some of the trends that are Happening In port in terms of the port business And then talk about some ways in which You can enjoy Port and as always then we’ll have Just sort of five or ten minutes towards The end sometimes for questions So if you do have any questions um if You were joined Just after six lydia will Um be mani or be in control of the Group chat so please write any of your Questions there And i will she will let me know what They are and i will answer them Hopefully At the end of the session so without a Further ado Let us jump in to Ports so first off what Is porch well port is a forsified wine From portugal so fortified means that There has been the addition Of spirits so that it is over 15 Alcohol and we’ll see that port is Usually 19 plus percent abv And i’ll be talking about what that Actually means Uh when we go through some of the wine Making um later this aft This evening so the history of port is Is a really interesting one and it’s one
That is intricately tied with the Relationship between England and portugal which has for a Very long time Had um a connection um Both politically and economically In the 17th century there were Quite a number of wars and unpleasant Trees With um france in particular And england at the time was a large Country or a country that drank a large Amount of Bordeaux wines and and other french Wines With the wars going on uh those supply That supply of wine was cut off uh but The British people needed their their Alcohol they needed their source of Wines Uh and so they turned to portugal um And it was in this time that we started To see a uh move towards Towards portuguese wine there were two British Missionaries who went to the abbots of Le mego and they were in that area And they basically discovered that this Abbot was sort of creating This forcified wine which they Discovered was of a much Higher quality than the dr uh the still Wines
Of of ports portugal and so they started Going well this is quite Interesting let’s start importing this And so You are exporting this to to the uk And so you started to see at this time The birth of Lots of these companies if you look at Lots of the names Of port houses you will notice that they Have quite A english flare shall we say tailors For example grams tao and so forth There were other companies obviously um Dutch and portuguese themselves which Were also uh Making their these sorts of wines but This really started Sort of around this time um in 1703 The um english the british signed a Treaty With the portuguese um The mythian treaty the key Of this was really the lower rate of Duty so They gave the wines of portugal A an advantage over the other wines of The world Um the british people being a Particularly Uh shall we say uh thrifty lot Thought oh we can get quite high levels Of alcohol in our wine at relatively Cheap prices
Porch is the place to go and there Really was after that in the Early 1700s a massive expansion Of ports fortified ports From portugal going to the uk As a result of this sort of massive Demands These lower taxes there were A number of producers who were producing Shall we say Less than high quality wines uh And as a result of that potentially Doing some damage To the the portuguese And the ports uh wine industry So as a result of this this this lower Quality uh in 1756 A chap um who was the marquis de pombal Uh said right what we need to do is We’re going to start making some rules About how to make ports what goes into It Uh where you can make it certain laws And regulations It is debatable um from a historical Point of view Whether this was the first source of Um you know igp or um Pgi that sort of came into existence pdo Rather which is protected Designation of origin um but this is This sort of idea where you see ac In france or um the other sort of Do in in spain and so on
Um the other country that that sort of Claims it was the first was In hungary in tokai but in any case In 1756 the marquis de pombau said right We’re going to make some rules Port has to have these particular things And as a result Of that uh the quality Recovered um and and sort of went back Into a more higher level uh Quality uh range Born from this idea there were a number Of regulatory bodies That came about in the uh 19th Um and early 20th century which started To Organize and sort of control more about The types of uh vineyards Where the port was be or the grapes were Being grown But also um how much You could sell uh what you could sell The percentage of Alcohol where you had to buy the Fortifying liquid that goes into it There were a number of these particular Things when portugal joined the eu In 1986 a number of those things Were found to violate eu Regulations um and and in particular the Sort of Non competition clauses and so forth and They were essentially giving Um monopolies to
Certain companies uh so that lots of Those were just Uh torn apart and then the the institute Of wine um for duro and ports Um the ivdp um was created this This building here is a picture i took Of it when i was was there a few years Ago And the ibdp since 2003 Governed the this the production of Ports Selling ports um and we’ll talk about Them as we go through Um the the presentation And today so this is sort of just Putting a little bit into perspective Um about port so Where is where are we exactly So here we are in portugal here is Porto the city itself of porto in Portuguese and we’re 41 so we’re just um This is the atlantic over here so we’re Getting Lots of atlantic influences Um and lots of cooling influences along Here it is Very raining in um Porto it’s it’s similar type climate To manchester in terms of the amount of Rain So manchester the uk in terms of the Amount Of rain per year very very raining However if you go along the river duro
Along here Um and then you come into the duro Itself so there we’ve got these Mountains here so I’ll show you some pictures of the sort Of stunning Vistas that you have here this is where We have The production area of Port so in this area this is Where the port is is being made this is Where the grapes are being grown And what happens is then um and i’ll Talk about these particular ones but Essentially they They start their life a bottle of port Will start its life out here In the old old days it would travel down The river And then end up here at villanova de Gaya which is the city right Opposite portugal there’s a lovely Bridge that connects the two Um where it would spend its life in Mature until it was bottled And eventually um sold and we’ll sort of Track the life of a porch as we go Through it So um in the the dura valley which is This area here You have a very very warm climate Um and it’s relatively dry climates As well so as you’re going from As you’re going sort of further and
Further east The climate becomes warmer and warmer And the influences Of the atlantic become less and less Um as you go further over so in here in The baiso corco Um you have about 900 milliliters of Rain Um per year in sima corgo Uh you have about 750 and enduro Superior ore You have around 440 milliliters per year So the rain becomes less you have So this is the very wet area this is The sort of moderate one and this is Incredibly dry Because this is protected by these Mountains Range here it is a continental climate So In summer we’re getting really hot 40 degrees plus um that is 40 degrees Celsius Um i have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit Um but i imagine it’s something in the 2000s or something I didn’t understand fahrenheit in any Case um this is it gets very warm And then obviously in winter it gets Very very cold so it does actually Freeze as a result of this spring frosts Can be an issue With some of the great varieties that
Are grown there Because bicho corgo is the wettest um It’s got lots of disease pressure there Um Dura superior because it’s the driest There’s lots of drought Pressure there so sema corgo is sort of The happy In between of of these Area um and if we go Sorry if we go here we sort of zoom in You can see Here how hilly The area really is so this is um Um in pinot which is just here in the Center of sema Corgo um just sort of a bit up here In the mountains you’ve got this Altitude and the altitude obviously is Adding a cooling Influence but not only is it a cooling Influence as you can see here from this Morning Mist um we’re above the fog line In some cases so here there’s still some Fog here but What this picture belies is that there’s Actually this slope Goes up and up and up um here and those Are very much above Um the fog line there so the sunlight You’re getting Lots of sun the direction you can see Here how sort of in this distance how
Hilly and circular It is um so even in one Sort of and we’ll talk about these Terraces in the moment even within one Of these you’re getting Lots of sun on one part and you turn the Corner And there’s no sun so um planting When we get to grapes is is important in This case So this this is a very sort of typical View there’s There’s a uh kinter down here and so Kittens said when i say this this is the The farms essentially that are growing Uh the grapes so these are all the Grapes along here So uh let us move on So as i said with these slopes um The issue with the slopes is well how Are we going to grow the grapes there So the soil itself in here you can see Um perhaps um if you’ve zoomed in The sort of rocky nature of of the the Slope Uh the slopes here especially here and In this case Um there is granite soils which are Very very hard and to be very difficult For the plants to grow on You then have schists which is much Easier for The grapes and the vine the roots to go Down
So planting densities can can vary by Sight But obviously then what you have to Think is once you’ve identified okay Here’s the soil that i Need uh then you think okay well how the Heck am i going To grow grapes on this very very very Steep slope and this historical Way of creating terraces was started way Way way way way back when So what they did in the first case here Were these Brick or stone walls that you can see Here hopefully on my with my laser Pointer um And and to go between them there’s here These are the steps That go between these terraces Um these are now Protected by um the unesco Um which is the world heritage site so If Anything were to happen to any of these They can’t be destroyed they have to be Repaired Now you can imagine that as you see here Um in this case we are very far away From porter This area is relatively rural And as is the case not only in portugal But around the world There is an urbanization that’s Happening so
Labor that would have been easily Available 20 30 50 100 200 years ago Have moved out of this area So the upkeep of these walls Are incredibly expensive And because they are protected as a World heritage site they have to be Constantly Preserved so some of the sites That they have then these producers if They own them Going this is too much and they’re Selling there’s lots of this selling off To larger great growers larger producers So that they’re able to to preserve Um these very beautiful and historic Terraces you see here there’s about two Rows of vines and in this case there’s Three and then there’s two down here Then it goes to one Uh there are relatively compact You can get about six thousand vines per Hectare But as you can imagine sort of Mechanizing this Is particularly challenging so little it Requires a lot Of labor which is expensive and Difficult to combine So they created another system um Which is similar to this but essentially They would just take the stones that Were lying about and sort of make
These terraces like this which you can See even here in the distance And this bit here if you see that that’s A road that cuts Through those so that they’re able to Access them with small tractors And with these sort of large rubbery Things so that there’s It cuts down on the amount of Labor that’s required so you’ll see a Move Um with newer sites and some of the Other sites that don’t have these Um to this type of trellising you’ll Also see this type of trellis thing Which Is used more in the doris superior uh This one is when it’s particularly Sort of um steep and as you can see they They essentially are coming down the Hill Rather than across the hill like that And if you ever get the chance Um after this disastrous Nonsense about this virus to go Traveling i highly recommend The drawer it’s beautiful when you if You come along the train um You can take a train from porto to pinau It takes a long time you can also drive There but if you take your train you go Along The river and and once you go through it Is
It is absolutely um the sight to behold So i just want to talk a little bit About the great varieties That we see in porto And in the duro there are over A hundred great varieties that are grown Here Uh lots of them are unique to The dura valley some of them are unique To This area some of them as we’ll see Uh are common um around around the world Though there are a massive number of Them there are A particular handful these these five Here that are used the most common In blends so these are The ones that you will see in in red Ports and we’ll talk a little bit about White ports Uh some of you may not know that white That porch does make white support Uh and it is absolutely delicious port And we’ll talk a bit about that This by the way is not a white porch So uh taruga franca Is uh the workhorse essentially Of porto and the dora valley It is late ripening it needs heat To ripen so you will see it on the Hottest sites which is really convenient Because The majority of sites in the dura valley Are particularly hot
So you’re going to see this in seymour Corto a lot Uh in terms of its planting it is Incredibly vigorous so it produces a lot It adds color it adds tannin it adds Acidity To grape uh to the blends so we are It really is adding all of those Components that we Need for high quality Ports by the way for i know that there Were a few people Um from brazil i imagine some from Portugal as well I apologize in advance for the Butchering of your marvelous language Um but here we have tinta jorges Which is also known as tempranium which You may know from Rioja in spain here this is adding body And color This is a relatively early ripening Grape variety and so therefore needs a Slightly cooler site So you’ll see this on the really high High altitudes Um parts of a of the planting Then you have a tinted borocca again This is early ripening so you need the Cool sites what the call sites do is They slow down the ripening process So that the grapes are able to develop Flavor And concentration and not just develop
Sugars And then no flavors to them Again this one because it’s so early Ripening it needs the cooler sights And so you’ll often see this one in um By chocorgo Uh here it doesn’t really add much of The floral flavors To to a wine here you’re going to add Lots of the Earthy flavor sort of the more meaty Flavors it’s relatively lower in acidity But the advantage is it’s high yielding So if you have a site that is Particularly low Sorry i’m high in altitude or Particularly cool This is this is your go-to grape Now some of you may have wondered why Have i not why did i Not start with churruganasi now well Taruga franca Is these are the sort of in order of um The percentage of plantings and teruga Nacional Is is actually relatively low in terms Of Hectares and which is planted but ruga National Is the grape that people think of When they think of port it has high Acidity It has high tannins it has well Pronounced deep uh flavors
Of blackberry cassis uh Black plum lots of these black fruits Flavors it is incredibly thick skins so It’s also adding color To the wine this is the one this is the Grape that you’re going to see in the Majority Of vintage ports or in very high-end Sports like that And indeed the national um Name itself is also The name of kinta the naval which is the One i’m not drinking in asia and i wish I were Um there of their single kinta Uh vintage which i’ll talk about uh Shortly You have ant interchange um this is a Relatively low Yielding late ripening um great variety But with high levels of acidity so when They When a port producer is looking at Making A blends or making a port Lots of the choices they’re thinking About is okay where are these grapes Coming from what are they adding Do i want to make a more floral style a More earthy style Do i want acidity for longevity do i Want something Lower acidity for more easy drinking Early release
These are the decisions they they’re Taking into account Again there are a number of white Uh grape varieties the two Uh most important ones here are malvasia Fina Also this is the great variety that’s Confusingly Uh also found in another part of Portugal The island of madeira in the style of Madeira called boa Not not in not in the malvazia style of Madeira that’s it that’s a That’s another uh discovering uh Workshop we can do Uh but this this one here is medium Acids uh full bodied It has a slightly honeyed honeycomb note To it Uh it’s a really lovely lovely type wine Then we have this muscatel which i’m not Even going to try to butcher the name of But this Is a musket Which is the one that you will find in Other types of muscat Musket bomb de benice very aromatic Grape variety again you’ll find these And many others uh around Around the production or grown in the Area rather So when when people think Of port uh i think
The thing that comes to mind the image That comes to mind Is the image of all the sort of Local children uh maybe some of the Some of the younger teenagers and some Of the young ladies In sort of shorts stomping on grapes Um and that’s the image that we have of Sort of this big festival of Everyone’s chopping stomping on the Grapes And that does happen up to a certain Extent Um but what i want to talk about is Unfortunately alas i don’t have a Picture of that marvelous event But i do have the the sort of picture of Where this happens in a sort of more Modern Version so when fortification Happens with with anything but with port In particular what we’re doing is we’re Interrupting the fermentation So the fermentation the yeast is slowly Eating The sugars and producing alcohol At a certain point we want to add Uh the fortifying liquids so we stop That Therefore doing a number of things we Are increasing The alcohol not through any fermentation Process but rather through this addition Of of fortifying liquids
And what we’re also doing here is we’re Allowing There to be some residual sugar left Over because there’s sugar that the Yeasts Are unable to eat because we’ve Essentially killed them with this uh Fortifying liquids what happens during Fermentation for red wine is a number of Very complicated things but What’s what’s happening is an extraction Of flavor And extraction of color so if you Actually stop The fermentation the color Could be not as deep as we wanted Or it could not we might not be getting The aromatics That we want from the wine So in order to maximize this extraction Of Aromatic flavors um and tannins Which are important in certain vintages As well as as all of these as well as Color What they do is they did this this Trodding of the grapes Uh and this was done in um this thing Called The legares and this is this is one here That’s made of granite and what would Happen Is historically they would do something This is
This is made of granite and the you Can’t see But um in in the in inside Here this is not a smooth Granite it’s a it’s a rough granite so The grapes as they’re being stomped upon Are hitting and abrasing against the The the granite here And cracking open the skin and the Juices The juice is coming out of the skin and That then Starts this extraction process The human foot is a very gentle Thing and so stomping up and down on it Breaks the skin against this Granite’s um surface here But is not breaking the seeds Of the grape and those that’s important Because the seeds of those grapes Have very very very very very bitter Compounds that are undesirable In any finished wine so The stomping of the the grapes had this Purpose of Starting this extractive process before Any Fermentation happens so that when the Fortification happens There was a maximization of color Tannins and aroma As i mentioned people are leaving The dura valley so The number of people available or the
Number of feet Shall we say that are available have Decreased So lots of producers are resulting Unfortunately well not unfortunately um Just This is the nature of it to these Robotic ones And this is what you see here so this is Also this um this is kinsa de noval as Well That this is for those of you who are Interested this is indeed the exact The goddess where they make their National These pistons here um Have on the bottom this sort of rounds Rubber foot and what happens is you can See that this metal bit here this Basically goes Up and down and up and down And these pistons imitate the stomping Of the grapes So the grapes will come in through Uh where’s my mouse through the doors Here They’ll be dumped into this vat And then this will start Pressing them down starting that Extracted process This is a very fancy piece of kits in This case But this is the sort of version that Other producers use in different formats
And Other producers have pre created Different versions Of these robotic ones in this case You then at about five to seven Percent uh once once Once it starts fermenting about when It’s about five or seven percent Abv so very low alcohol strength so There’s quite a lot of sugar left over We fortify the wine By adding a a A type of spirit a grape spirit called Aguadenta Which is 77 abv Now you may think 77 my goodness that’s Very strong But in the world of spirits a distilled Spirit At 77 is actually what we call a low Strength spirit And low strength spirits are very Pronounced In flavor for example if you had A cognac this is an aside a cognac Versus a vodka So those are two different strengths a Cognac is coming off at about 75 to 80 Percent Abv when it goes into barrel obviously Then it’s diluted But a vodka is at 95 to 96 Which as you which is then diluted down To 40
So you can imagine that what they’re Adding here is more the sort of cognac Brandy Style rather than the vodka style that You would see In other styles or other categories of Fortified wines So it’s what’s important with this step Of fortification Is the quality of that aguadento if it Is very low quality then that’s going to Impact The style of the wine if it’s high Quality Agua dente then is going to obviously Because you’re going to be able to taste It Because the because we are fortifying it At five to seven percent and we are Producing a spirit that’s between 18 to 20 Percent well really 19 to 21 Abv what this roughly means is that for Every one liter of spirit You need four liters of must Of wine must so in a bottle it’s nearly Around 20 odds per cent Of a bottle of ports here’s a bottle of Port Quite a chunk of it is Spirit so the quality of that is very Important So in any case uh the the wine it goes In here
We are fortifying it um then we We take it off and we’ll stick it into Depending on what the producer the style That the producer wants to make From that particular um Wine they’ll stick it into the into some Barrels either small barrels or large Barrels This is one of my favorite expressions i Think Which is that the wine over winters In the duro valley because the duro is Quite cold As we said in windsor it spends the Winter there or over winters Um then i would like to overwinter in The caribbean but uh alas that’s not Possible But in any case they stayed there and Then what happens Is they then will travel to villanova de Gaya Where they will continue their Maturation and that starts in the spring Of the following year so The key to fortified wines Is in the process in which is natural In in which it’s matured so What i want to do next is slightly is is To walk Through the different styles of Ports that we have um In in uh in porto So essentially we have
Two two broad styles Here Ruby styles are more in the sort of reds Ruby style and tawning is a slightly More oxidative Sort of more brown tawny style and i’ll Go through each of these Um and highlight some of some of the Main points as we go Through these are roughly in order Of quality level So the basic or starter or Entry level is our ruby Port here um these ruby ports are Generally going to be made In a very sort of easy to drink style so The the tannins Will probably be more towards the medium We’re not going to be using Our high quality grapes in this case Very little if any ganacio now Is going to be going in here we’ll Probably have some um taruga flanker Um or tint depending obviously on what We want The idea here is protective wine making You know maybe two to three years and Then it goes out To market and and the very sort of Affordable easy to drink Expressions of them If we leave them a little bit longer In the barrel there is no Minimum for the ruby reserve but if we
Want to leave it in there for maybe four Or five years Uh maybe introduce some notion Some light oxidative character in there Uh it gets a bit more depth of character Slightly turns up In terms of uh the The tannins the acidity and so forth Then this is released As a ruby reserve Again each of each of the different Ports importers and exporters will have Their own different ways of making this They’ll have their own blends There are certain rules and regulations About how much port can be Sold in a year and i’ll talk a bit about That as we go through Important though to note that these two Styles um ruby and ruby reserve Are non-vintage products so this means That it is a blend of different years The idea of that is that there is a Consistency Of brands when you go and you buy your Coburn’s ruby reserve or you go and buy Your grams uh six grapes it Always should always roughly be the same Quality Year in year out The first vintage character that we have Is late bottle vintage This was created um As a sort of marketing employee because
People See a vintage and they think oh vintage That must mean good All it means is that it is from that Single year It has to spend four to six years In in woods um it generally avoids Oxidation there might be some Oxidative elements to it it has got sort Of medium Plus um so sort of you know relatively Not Super high medium plus tannins medium Plus acidity Uh fairly pronounced but we’re not sort Of in the land of Really sort of overly aromatic Or complex in that case You can get some lbv’s uh That are bottles unfined And unfiltered this is a sort of trends Uh the idea being that then it will Evolve a little bit And and develop a little bit in bottle These Lack the concentration um And depth that you will find in A vintage port however they are still From a particular single year You can also find that some of these are Then Uh aged in bottle for a bit Before they’re released but generally When you
Get a ruby a ruby reserve or an lbv Those are meant for sorts of they have Done the aging You don’t need to age it for it go go go Forth And and drink crusted port Um is again a non-vintage port it spends A maximum Of two years in woods so not quite as Much as lbv And here it’s it’s sort of it nearly Made it to vintage But wasn’t quite good enough but was a Little bit better than lbv But maybe we need to sort of put a Little blending to it This is unfiltered and unfined So when you unfilter a wine before you Bottle it Or when you find a wine before you Bottle it essentially what you’re doing Is you Removing all the solid bits so you may Have got A wine a red wine that has got sort of Some sediment To it that is because it hasn’t been As fined as some of the other wines This crusted porch when you when you When you drink it It’s what it calls is throws a crust Which is that sort of Thick red line of of sort of tannins and Anthocyanins and all that
Delicious yummy stuff so this you can Bottle age uh For a bit um Vintage i’m just gonna skip over a Single clincher here vintage is the Pinnacle Of the pinnacle This is your top grapes this is mostly Going to be Not always but it’s going to be very Heavy on true ganesha now The great variety that super everything Is turned up to 11 in terms of acids in terms of tannins Um in terms of flavor and concentration You might get some um taruga franca in There as well But essentially you’ve got this wine and After about two After two years after harvest the you Have to then decide Is this wine going to become a vintage Wine and you have to then declare it With the ivdp And say mr and mrs ivdp This barrel or these barrels are going To become Our vintage we want to declare this year As a vintage year So you will find some producers in some Years for example 2011 and 2016 Nearly every single producer um Declared a vintage and they went yep We’re gonna do it
In some other years for example 2015 Some of the producers said uh we don’t Really have a vintage product Some of them said oh yeah we’ve got a Vintage product we’re going to declare One So the reason why they would or would Not declare a vintage port Is partly is the quality of the wine Good enough But also is there lots of vintage port Already on the market If there’s lots of vintage ports already In the market because you’ve just Launched one the year before Is it good business to suddenly say oh We’ve got a better one this year Uh so again it’s it’s one of those ones Where Not everyone declares um But some producers um do do declare Quite a lot but again there’s lots of Factors that go into it These are the ones that then spends um Three years Maximum in woods they are then bottled Um and they are aged In bottles so in bottle they then start To develop Lots of tertiary and complex flavors Ruby ruby reserve lbv um Crusted up to a point but these ones are Not really meant For long bottle aging they have done the
Aging for you If you have those ones sitting in in Your your store room Best open them up i mean i best open up Anything nowadays it’s 20 20. Um single kinta is A vintage port essentially that comes From a single kinser But perhaps may not be good enough to Become A vintage but it still has a depth of Flavor to it The reason why they may decide to say It’s a single kinter or a vintage Um depends uh on the On the quality it depends on the Producer it depends on market demands Tony styles of ports are Slightly more tony in color so that’s a Slightly brownie ambery Color and again we have tawny we have Tony reserve Um we have some we have some other ones Here so Tony you’re you’re sort of bog standards Um tourney um is no older than some of These ruby styles that we have up here Um how they’ve been made is perhaps with A slightly lighter Extraction so they maybe the grape Did weren’t able to extract that much Color to it So it was a bit lighter in color um And this is where then you get this this
Tawny one Tony reserve this is uh six years In oak um again these are these are Blendeds Um and again it’s gonna perhaps start Having some oxidative notes to it so You’re going to start getting some Coffee Um notes to it as well Tony with an indication of age so this Is your 10 year old 20 year old 30 year Old or 40 year old Um i am having if you can see that a 20 Year old Um naval um which is a trolley This is not if you’re a whiskey drinker The rules are quite different This is not the youngest uh ports In there this is an indication of style So what does a 10 year old port taste Like well a 10 year old tony port tastes Like What the iv dp say a 10 year old tawny Portrait tastes like Essentially you as a port producer Create your ports Uh you say this tastes like a 10 year Old tony You go to the ivdp and say i think this Is what it tastes like they go Hazard that’s what it is uh and then you Can sell it or they go no this isn’t a Ten-year-old tony You need to go in and tinker with the
Blend again So again that’s 10 20 30 40. um These have are essentially blends Of um quieter and these You can think of a coyote as a sort of Vintage tony port So if you remember at two years So we we put this wine into a barrel at Two years The wine the the producer says this is Gonna be a vintage this is gonna not be A vintage If it’s not gonna be a vintage it Continues its life In barrel um and then it could be At around four or six years it says okay Now now we’re going to make a decision Are we going to make An lbv from it uh perhaps the color is Is a little bit off perhaps they might Say no we’re going to make a torny Reserve Or they say no we’re just going to leave This in barrel for a really really Really long time Um and this is then when you get this Single vintage Quieter they are a minimum of seven Years old Um and essentially They are just sitting in barrel aging So there’s lots of oxidation that’s Happening there’s Lots of um yeah
This process of going in and out of the Woods and Concentration of lots of things to give You an indication Here is a port tasting than i did um This was a 2018 so that was the year in Which i went White port this was a 2007 Port this was a 2007 blended 10 year old port and this port if you Can see the date there was 1940 That port is white even though it Is fairly dark in color Um so that’s just an indication of what Happens to white port so you can imagine A similar sort of process happening Um there was a slightly different color Gradation to To red port when a cleater Is bottled you need to have two dates on It you need to have the date of the Vintage And the date it was bottled If you have a crayotta at home The aging or if you have a tawny with an Indication of age The aging has already been done for you You know this wine 20 year old tron Reports Is meant for drinking now if i age this For 10 years i do not have a 30 year old Tony port What i have is a 10 year old 20 year old Tony port
Which is not going to be as nice as it Is right now So really with the exception of source Of perhaps crusted single quintet and Vintage Ports is meant for when you buy it You drink it it’s not meant for Additional aging Because it’s not going to get better in Bottle it’s not going to get perhaps Worse but it’s not going to it’s not Going to improve so you know If you’ve spent the money on a nice 30 Or 40 year olds Um tawny go for it drink it why not So um i am just suddenly aware of the Time i just want to Speed through a little bit of some of The pork Pork porch trends um and then just End with some of the fun ways of in Which we can enjoy Uh port One of the big trends um is port and Uh well port as it is being used in Cocktails Port has attempted to reposition itself Slightly as opposed to sitting on a wine Shelf Where twenty percent when it’s sitting Next to perhaps a musketeer Um at you know twelve percent and now 20 For port appears really high alcohol They’re repositioning themselves on the
Spirit Aisle where when you’re sitting next to A gin which is at maybe 40 42 suddenly 20 percent Is a light uh drink So using it in cocktails um Counterintuitively is appealing to that Lower alcohol trends that we’re seeing Um in in the buoys industry One of the the cocktails which uh if you If you joined when i was chatting to Lydia earlier Is port and tonic white port and tonic Is a wonderful uh drink In summer on or in any day um fever tree Which is one of the large Uh producers of tonic um Made a sort of partnership with coburn’s Fine tony fine white rather And and in the uk we’re sort of selling The two side by side As a lighter alternative to gin and Tonic And i have to say it’s really quite Quite scrumptious Pink port is a a or rose port Is a style of port that crofts stories It created um in the in the 2000s You’ll see it in a white bottle it’s Very pink It’s essentially tawny port um it’s a Ruby porch that has had Very little extraction but now is Marketed in a way
For oh rose we all love rose Different size bottles um so down here You will see A normal bottle of um Port and up here you will see a Rather ridiculous bottle of pores Unfortunately i wish i could have the Two side by side This bottle fits six of these insiders This is theater you know um grimms did This I don’t know if you can see this date Here on your computer but this is a 1982 Which um for the royalists um who are Joining us um was the year i believe William yeah william was born They released this for um They released a 1982 quieter for His wedding with um kate and then Will you uh the the brother harry liked It so much that when harry Met got married to um megan They re-released it so this is a Wonderful case of here this is a coyetta From 1982 but if you had that 1982 in 2012 And then you had it in whenever they got Married what was it 2017 or something Even though it’s the same vintage the Same year is a different Bottling date it tasted differently um And these big bottles Uh you know there that you if you go to A restaurant and someone orders a glass
Of ports and some this massive bottle Comes out And it’s it’s poured there’s a sense of Theater to it And and more people then starts um Buying it Seasonal gifts um obviously port is This is the season for ports um And vintage port you know that that is It still continues To be probably to a lesser degree among A certain class of people Sort of the gift you you buy a case of For your Um you know your daughter or your son For when they turn You know 18 19 20 or whenever they leave The house and you can celebrate Um or give it to them so anyway um porch Before the holiday season Um again as i said port and tonic why Not start the way with that Um with white tonic uh i would i would Go for a slightly more sweeter style of White Um tonic i’m sorry of white ports And so um coburns and kids of the naval Do a nice one Um taylor’s dry ports i i to me it Doesn’t have quite the It doesn’t work so well um for the tonic But to each their own Obviously stilton is the classic paris Compare
Um pairing but you know i think a 10 Year old Goes really nicely with some content Cheese 20 year old with Some parmesan manchego a bit more sort Of oomph to it Um and i had this in the restaurants i Can’t remember i can’t recall where Somewhere in the states Whereas a four-year-old with grills Mango and coconut ice cream It’s oddly specific i know but if you Ever get the chance Highly recommended absolutely Scrumptious Tony ports um generally i would serve Slightly chilled Um i think port is often the temperature Of it slightly over Um warm which just exacerbates the the Alcohol Obviously you can have it with dessert Um cooking With ports um i i don’t mean having a Glass while you’re cooking i mean Obviously You know since the season but uh uh here It’s actually adding it Um as a sort of way of deglazing if you Cook Um you know soups adding a bit of sort Of white porch or some of the tawny Ports Just sort of liven it in a way that
Perhaps just cooking with a regular Cheap White or red wine don’t do experiment Try try something new um or Just enjoy a glass anyway uh I hope that that has been uh useful and Enjoyable um we have sort of sped Through The world of ports um hopefully i’ve Disentangled some of it for you Uh i realized that there’s only two Minutes left Which is a clever cunning ploy of mine Not at all let’s just have bad time Management Um so lydia if you want to Ask me any of the questions that were Asked or What we want to do hello chris thank you So much for that I’m sorry i was just rapidly typing away Answering um Some of the questions so i pretty i Think i managed to get through Most of them on the chat but equally if Anyone has any further questions then Please Please do for to put to put them in now And i think i managed to To get to both all of them while you Were Well you were talking so thank you so Much for for that Chris there’s lots of thank yous coming
Through now so thank you so much yes You’re and i’m so impressed that your Elf hat managed to stay in position Well i know at one point i was going to Rip it off but i thought you know I might send the wrong message Brilliant well thank you for that and Yes the recording will be if anyone Missed anything and wants to catch up The recording will be Uh available on our youtube channel