Chris Broholm

I had the fortunate opportunity to go to a port wine tasting in the capital with about 15 retailers, who gave out samples of a wide range of wines.

I went around and started by tasting the Tawnies (10 and 20 year) and found some pretty good ones, I’m a pretty big fan of the Tawny port wines (particularly the 20+ ones) because of the balance between the fruit, acid and nutty taste.

Then we went on to taste the Ruby Vintages (particularly the newer ones) 2000-2007 and my god are they special. Alot of them are very very potent and have very distinct acid and alot of fruit.

If i had to be honest some of the sucked right now. They had too much spirit on the back end and a weird balance of sweetness and fruit. The aging potential is obviously greatest in these as the acids tone down over the years, and the edges mellow out greatly.

I haven’t had any vintage ports that were older than 98, so i wouldn’t know how they taste. But the very fresh ones are not suitable for drinking right away in my mind.

Sure some wine lovers would appreciate the acidic components and the very firm tannins and fruit, but for the general public it’s just too weird – i think.

In general i believe you get the most value from the non-vintage tawnies and Colheitas – since the vintage rubies are generally VERY expensive for the good years/producers. But of course it depends which flavours you favour, if you don’t like the ruby style then of course you shouldn’t go for the tawnies – that’s just a personal preference of mine