by Julian Schultz
julian@oxfordwineroom.com
I had returned today from visiting my dearly beloved Lillian's gravesite. It is the 62nd anniversary of our marriage, Sunday, the 23rd of August, the summer of '42. This hallowed day was particularly poignant.
When I am emotional, I seek solace in a glass of Port. Conversely, Port always affects me emotionally. Today, I am sighting, sniffing, sipping and savoring my mellow 1977 Taylor Vintage Port. I recall Lillian's asking me after I returned from my father's funeral some 30 years ago, "How did you ever get started drinking Port to help you to relieve anguish?"
It began 60 years ago in 1944 when I was returning from military service in Egypt. Brrr! The cold, blustery, Gander Newfoundland winter weather outside had chilled my bones. Inside, I poured three ounces of Croft 1935 Vintage Porto wine. Aaah...As its warmth coursed comfort to my frosty limbs thoughts of my brush with death were suppressed.
How it snowed that morning! The changing directions of the swirling winter winds and the thick gusts of dense snowflakes reduced visibility on the airstrip to almost zero. We should not have tried to fly out in such abominable weather.
Our plane thundered down the runway and ran into a wide, deep ditch that was concealed by the snow. The plane went in vertical, tail straight up. The pilot committed an unpardonable sin: He did not immediately turn off the engines.
The plane most likely would have exploded had not an Air Corps inspector general on board rushed into the cockpit and screamed to the pilot, "Shut down those goddamned engines!" The pilot was devastated upon being told that his lapse of safety precaution would be reported to Air Corps headquarters. I believe, however, his entreaties for mercy may have been successful.
We were stuck in Gander for a week, waiting for a rescue plane to be flown up from Presque Isle, Maine. During the week, the inspector and the pilot drank Port - the only wine available - while they studied blueprints of the plane's mechanicals; frequently they clinked glasses and laughed together. My being a fellow officer with the same rank as the inspector general, I was invited to share the Port with them. That experience was my introduction to the aperitif/dessert wine Port...and, later, followed my pleasure with varied table wines.
From October through March, Port in its varieties is my winter garment of vinous contentment, surcease from depression about declining vitality of old age, comfort from grim thoughts of mortality. During that period I generally forswear the rich desserts of other months for these Portuguese Ports sipped slowly with unsalted walnuts, cashews, brazils or pecans; pears; and piquant Stilton, Roquefort, Brie, hard English Cheddar or Cheshire cheeses.
I remember a month before Lillian died, when she was resting, my knowing that her end was near, I sat on our old morris chair looking through the living room casement windows into the wooded back property. The October's late afternoon sun bathed the trees with glowing red, orange, brown and evergreen's green leaves; the ground was carpeted with the colored leaves that had fallen. As I sipped my mellow 1977 Taylor Vintage Port, I reflected on our visions and dreams that could never be realized.
Yes, I sip Port for all reasons: remembering that remote country inn and gazing into the eyes of my betrothed; listening to Chopin's Nocturnes in blissful solitude; celebrating our birthdays and wedding anniversaries; comforting as a balm for troubled thoughts as the shadows of twilight years lengthen; relaxing at the end of dinner with piquant Stilton cheese or before bedtime as a soporific inducing sleep.
Most shippers "declared" a Vintage Port in 1970. When I tasted Croft's 10 years later, it was sweet, rough and fiery - "liquid lightning," I called it then - but it was expected to be mellow and velvety with further maturity. I decided to wait for it to surrender expected chocolate and cherry aromas and flavors, which it did in 1985.
Port is a luscious sweet wine, fortified with 25 percent brandy distilled from wine of its own grapes. Many combinations of varieties may be used in the blend: in red Port, Touriga, Mourisca, Tinta Francisca, Tinta Madeira, Bastardo, Tinta Cao. And in white Port, Malvasia, Verdelho, Rabigato, or Gouvelo). When fermentation is halted with the addition of brandy, the alcohol level is raised to between 19 and 21 percent; the wine's sweetness is retained at 8 or 9 percent residual sugar.
VINTAGE PORT: The greatest Port - and the most expensive is Vintage Port that is "declared" about three times in a decade. The shipper will declare the Port is Vintage if growing conditions are perfect and, after two years aging in wooden casks and bottles, the wine shows superior qualities. Only about 2 percent of Port produced in a declared year is made into Vintage Port; it usually requires from 10 to 30 years bottle aging before it reaches its prime. And what a prime it is!
Vintage Ports are robust, rich, intense and complex with sweet flavors that may be reminiscent of chocolate, cherries, coffee, spices, raisins, toasted nuts or, sometimes, violets. They have enough alcohol, tannin and tart fruit acids to neutralize cloying.
TAWNY PORTS: Ten and 20 year old Tawny Ports likewise are prized by Port fanciers. They are lighter-bodied, more velvety and more amiable than Vintage Port; they mature after many years in barrels. Color is orangish/brownish/redish from extended wood contact and some oxidation. They are sweet, although drier, and less expensive than Vintage Port and generally smell and taste of walnuts, spices, smoke and "musty" dried fruit. They are immediately drinkable because aging is finished in the cask.
LATE BOTTLED VINTAGE PORTS (LBV on some labels) and SINGLE VINEYARD PORTS: LBV spends longer time in the cask than Vintage Port and must be bottled by the sixth year after grapes are harvested. Single Vineyard Port are bottled after two years in wood and released after two years in bottle. Both wines are drinkable when bought.
RUBY PORT is the most available and least expensive Port. Blended with young freshly fermented wines, it is packed with straightforward sweet fruit, but it lacks the complexity and silkiness of aged Vintage and Tawny Ports. It is bottled young, and is pleasing to newcomers to Port.
A few years ago at the Castle Restaurant, Jim Nicas, maitre d'/sommelier, conducted a tasting of Portuguese Ports. Among other Ports we tasted and discussed were Vintage Ports of 1970, '75, '77 and '80.
Jim apologized for the aforementioned Croft's shortcomings. With my customary audacity when evaluating wine, I disagreed. The body, I said, may not be so full, nor the color so deep as some other 1970 Ports, but it delivered fleshy, complex fruit and spice flavors, was perfectly, balanced, was satiny on the palate and retained an unyielding warm aftertaste. It felt like the comforting embrace of a sweet young thing's soft, round, warm flesh on a very chilly night.
Jim patronizingly conceded that my evaluation was good. He added, however, that he expected more of a Port from so heralded a vintage, that it wouldn't improve much and that it lacked grip (grabs the palate and doesn't let go), depth, and flavor concentration.
This was the moment of truth: Should I stick to my guns or concur with the expert, my ego shriveled? Just then Stilton cheese, Ports acknowledged perfect partner, was placed on the hors d'oeuvres table. If anything, the Port would taste even better, I thought.
It didn't. The Stilton's tangy taste seemed to dominate the Crofts' flavors. I grudging admitted that some of Jim's remarks were relevant.... But I insisted the wine was excellent, nonethess.
The group hailed the 1975, '77 and '80 vintages. All shippers did not declare the '75: "Lightweight" was the knock put on it. Many of us, however, acclaimed Graham's '75 for its delicious fruit and complex, although low-keyed flavors. We relished it with Stilton, walnuts and sliced pears.
The vintage of the '77 Port was declared "quality of the highest rank" by just about every shipper. Its maturation requires a minimum of 20 years for optimum drinking. (I'm sipping my Taylor '77 Port, exactly 10 years later since the tasting, 27 years since the vintage - at this moment it has me near breathless with reverence.)
My notes on the Taylor: "cherry brandy, raisin, plum, sweet spice aromas; mouthfilling flavors - added coffee and chocolate - long echo after the swallow."
Jim concluded the seminar with a familiar quote: "Anytime not spent drinking Port is a waste of time."
I went him one better, inflating my ego with this quotation, evoking laughter and applause: "When I depart this earth/to appear before my beloved Lord/to account for all my sins/which indeed have been many and scarlet/I shall say to Him: 'Lord, I cannot remember the name of the romantic village/I do not even recollect the name of the seductive girl/but the wine...the wine, my Lord/ was Vintage Port!' "
More good things happened: Usually Jim does a Port tasting every other year at his monthly Sunday afternoon tastings. And a few years ago was one of those years:
Fourteen 3-ounce glasses half-filled with Port occupied each place setting - the oldest orange-red Tawny Ports in front and the purple-red younger Vintage Ports in back. Jim had added crisp, chewy sourdough bread and sparkling water to the customary variety of nuts, cheeses and fruits.
An unabashed Port lover of many years, I gave an involuntary gasp of happiness - such as one meets an old love unexpectedly. This tasting had to be the mother of them all. It was yet another tour de force Sunday afternoon tasting for Jim who discussed Port history, the growing regions and the individual wines.
Port consists of two basic types: wood Ports - ruby, tawny and white - and bottle Ports - true vintage and single vineyard. Wood Ports age in wooden casks until they are ready to drink. Bottle Ports age in the bottle until they are ready to drink.
We tasted tawny wood Ports: late-bottled vintage (LBV) and Port of the vintage that were blends of well-aged red wines. Some had matured in cask for 20 to 40 years. We also sampled bottle Ports: true vintage and single-vineyard.
Now, I rarely write about wines that are unavailable in wine shops, but the 1967 Feist Port of the Vintage, a tawny Port that was bottled in '88 after 21 years in wood, is an exception to my rule. Orange/brown with age and maturation in wood, the Feist offered complex aromas and flavors primarily of walnuts, with some smoke, dried cherries, plums, raisins and prunes; it creamed the palate with viscosity.
The Castle will pour the '67 and other rare Port oldies by the bottle only at the bar or at the dinner table.
Now for one of the great Port surprises of my life: I had read that the Graham '88 Malvedos, a single-vineyard Port bottled in '99, was rated 93 points by The Wine Spectator (outstanding, a wine of superior character and style). I bought three bottles for around $25 each and promptly set out to drink one. Port experts advise that this wine will mellow for optimum drinking in approximately seven years after bottling. Seven more years...time for me won't wait. I'm drinking now.
The overpowering fragrance of the wine billowed from my 22-ounce glass. Color was inky-prune-y dense; it seemed thick enough to require cutting with a knife. I knew I had to age this monster in a hurry, so I chose two 22-ounce glasses that I had acquired after one of my physicians said he was limiting me to just one glass of wine a day. For about three minutes I transferred six ounces of the Port through the air into each glass to mute the wine' fiery brandy. I let it sit for four hours in the glass; afterwards, I tasted it.
I could write about gobs of fruit, layers of flavor, a Port so concentrated you might want to chew on it. I could write about complex flavors unlike any that I can remember except of well-aged Taylor, Fonseca and Graham that I enjoyed some years ago.
My notes read: "reminiscent of cherries, plums, wood; grip of tannin and fruit; prunes, peppery, jam-y, blackberries, walnuts, allspice." As I sipped and sipped different flavors emerged and emerged. It took me a long time to finish my six ounces because I waited and waited between sips for each forever aftertaste to depart.
I have been around wine too long to get overly excited by it. So...I got overly excited and rushed back to the wine shop and bought three more bottles.
The Castle has a variety of Graham Malvedos vintages but not the '88.
Happy news: At the Castle, Sunday afternoon tasting, September 12, 3 to 5, New Spanish Treasures;
Sunday afternoon, October 3, True Value in Bordeaux;
Sunday afternoon, November 14 (not the 21st!), A Vertical Sampling of the Elusive, Exclusive and Expensive Cabernet Sauvignons - Col Solare, Lokoya, Mt. Veeder Diamond Mt., Howell Mt., Cardinale, Chateau Montelena, others. Space is definitely limited due to availability of sufficient bottles; Call for details 508-892-9090.
Sunday afternoon, December 5, Bordeaux: Revisiting The 1983 Vintage.
(Maybe in the winter of 2005 Jim will do a Port tasting.)
Wine dinner with organic Italian wines and organic food at The Webster House, Wednesday, September 22. Call 508-757-7208 for details. Ask for Chris.
Wine Pick: Reynolds New South Wales Australia Shiraz 2002, $10-$11. Dark red color, ripe black currant and spice aromas, with sweet vanilla oak adding complexity. On the palate the oak mingles with the wine's intense black fruit flavors, accentuating its full, round tannins and elongating its fruited, spicy finish. Buy while still a bargain.
Wine Pick: R.H. Phillips Cabernet Sauvignon 2002, $9-$10. Blended with Petite Sirah and Malbec; aged 14-16 months in American and French barrels. Aromas of dark cherries and black currants laced with dried herbs and roasted coffee nuances. Medium tannins are balanced with long fruit flavors; cherries, light toast and spice add to the finish. Superb price quality ratio.
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julian@oxfordwineroom.com