It's time to start thinking about ports again, folks, and for this week in particular, the vintage type. Then again, I’m often thinking about vintage ports or as I prefer to call them, one of life’s essentials.
Vintage port is unique in that it’s genuinely only made in exceptional years and sometimes as restricted as three times a decade making them rare and expensive beasts indeed. They are only aged in wood for a couple of years before bottling and then age slowly and gracefully in the bottle. They are always bottled unfiltered to allow for long term aging and hence will need decanting.
Personally, I like them as old and graceful as possible but not everyone wants to sell their Range Rover to buy a case of 1966 Taylors Port, but if you decant them properly and give them a few hours in the decanter to breath, the young ones are just sublime. Expect warm red fruits, Christmas cake spices, cocoa and whopping levels of alcohol.
We'll look at aged Colheita ports next week.
Offley Boa Vista 1977
Offley isnt one of the big names in port which is a massive advantage when it comes to pricing because this is a steal, trust me. 1977 was an excellent year leading to a port with big flavours with warm cherries and spice on the palate and hints of cigar box and mint on the finish. Gorgeous
Corney & Barrow £66
Grahams Vintage Port 2016
Young but as expected from Grahams, quite exceptional. Deep almost intense aromas with a palate like warm Christmas cake and a long caramel style finish.
Waitrose Cellar £89.99
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