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Port is made from red grapes which are trodden to extract as much colour and tannin out of the skins as possible, to enable the wine to age. After fermentation and fortification of the wine, Port can be treated in a number of different ways to suit the target market. The three criteria for this treatment are: when does the consumer want to drink the wine; does he want the Port to be dark, red and beefy or pale and gentle; and how much does he want to spend. The vast majority of wine sold, globally, is for immediate drinking and this can be split into those who drink it after dinner and spend a bit more, ie the British, Americans and Canadians and those who spend very little and drink it before a meal, particularly in France and Holland. Vintage Port is aged for most of its life in the bottle. It lasts for decades and is only made in about 3 years each decade. It’s about £20 a bottle for a name you’d recognise, which isn’t extortionate. Unlike the wines below, it must be decanted.
Tawny Ports, which are a pale … um …. tawny colour spend most of their time in barrel, depositing tannin and colour, so that by the time you get them, at 5, 10 or 20 years old, they’re smooth and delicious. These are generally around £15. Late Bottled Vintage, not surprisingly, has been bottled late, when most of the sediment has been deposited and so there’s no need to decant the bottle and it will not improve with further cellaring. These are around £10. They carry a vintage date in big letters and also a bottling date, usually in smaller letters at the bottom of the label. I have included both below. Ruby Port is a commercially made wine, at around £5, which is blended for immediate drinking and is fairly simple and, not surprisingly, ruby-coloured.
We tried 11 Late Bottle Vintage Ports, commonly known as LBV and the marks, unlike the prices, were as tight as anything. Prices ranged from £5.99 to £15.99, but marks from 11 to 14 out of 20. Apart from the most expensive wine, which was Warre’s 1995/1999, which we found empty and pointless, the wines were pretty much of a muchness. So, unlike almost any wine I’ve written about, I would go for the cheapest LBV you can find because the differences in taste are minimal and by the time you drink it you probably won’t notice, anyway!
Our favourite was Porto Cruz 1997/2003, which is £10.69 from Morrisons and had a pleasant chocolate and black pepper smell, with a liquorice taste. Waitrose’s own 2001/2006 is a very reasonable £8.49, smelling of baked plums and tasting rounded and baked. Marks & Spencer’s 2000/2006 smell of mint chocolate and tasted richly of dried fruit. Warre’s 1999/2005 is only £5.99 at Thresher until Christmas and £9.99 at Tesco. Quite frankly, this is the one I’d buy. The difference in marks was infinitesimal and the label looks better. Fletcher 1999/2005 is a very reasonable £5.99 from Aldi and Morrison’s 1999/2005 is £6.69. Sainsbury’s own and Dow’s from Oddbins are absolutely fine.