Single quinta ports
PORT is odd in so many ways. In Bor- deaux or Burgundy, the idea that a single vineyard wine is inferior to a blend of several vineyards runs counter to the most sacred spirit of the laws. But that same idea is shamelessly propounded by most of the port shippers, who claim that their branded vintage port, a blend of from three to ten different quintas, is far superior to the product of a single quinta.
In Wine Snobbery (Faber, £12.95), the most infuriating and the most stimulating wine book I have read for ages, Andrew Barr subjects the question to his customary barrage of scepticism. Port shippers, like champagne houses, Barr tells us, maintain the fiction that blended wine is better than wine from a single vineyard, because it strengthens their brand-image.
It is now becoming easier to determine who is right, since the small choice of so-called single quinta ports, which are in fact single vineyard vintage ports, on the market is expanding. There are two reasons for this: first, the big boys (i.e. the Symington group) are getting in on the single quinta act because, as one of their sales people told me, they have spotted a gap in the premium quality port market for port of true vintage style which costs rather less than vintage. Cynics might justifiably raise a query about 'true vintage style'. Haven't the port shippers confused us for long enough with their 'vintage character' and 'late-bottled vintage', which usually have as much to do with vintage port as pasteurised Camembert has with unpasteu- rised? Indeed they have, but single quinta ports really are made in precisely the same way as vintage — bottled, unfiltered, after two and a half years in cask.
The second reason for the growth of single quinta port is the recent (1982) change in Port Wine Institute regulations which makes it possible for small vineyard owners to ship their produce directly from the Douro. So far the effects of this change have scarcely been felt here. But now the Bergqvist family of Quinta de la Rosa, one of the Douro's most famous farms, whose grapes have been sold to Sandemans for many years, have decided to bottle and ship their wine for themselves, starting with the 1988 vintage. It is distinguished port, on the dry side, and bold punters can invest £1,000 in Sophia Bergqvist's invest- ment scheme, for which their return is five cases a year of La Rosa for the next five years. At £40 a case (eventual price after duty, £5 a bottle) it is certainly a snip. (Interested parties should ring 01-603 2998.) In terms of direct comparison with vin- tage, there is still a problem, because nearly all the single quinta ports are released only in less than top-notch years. In declared vintage years, of course, the wine of the single quinta goes into the vintage blend. And there is one more confusion: some apparently single quinta ports are not really single quinta ports at all. Graham's Malvedos, at least, though Graham's do own a quinta called Malve- dos, is in fact a blend....
All the same it is delicious stuff — one of the three single quinta ports which im- pressed me most when I tasted a range the other day. Malvedos 1978 (Fortnum & Mason, Lay and Wheeler of Colchester, around £15.30) has a super deep young- looking colour and a very special and lovely fragrance, reminding me of black- berries. It is relatively soft and forward to taste, but will probably last for another decade or two.
I can extend a hearty welcome to War- re's Quinta da Cavadinha 1978 (Oddbins, Avery's, Lay and Wheeler, Majestic Wine Warehouses, around £14), the first vintage of this property opposite Noval to be bottled as a single quinta. This is a wine of excellent colour and vivid bramble-jelly bouquet. After its initial, immensely appealing burst of fruit, though, it packs quite a powerful punch of spirit and tannin, and will improve over the next few years. Just ahead of these two, in terms of the old-fashioned port virtues of depth, length and complexity, I put Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas 1976 (Oddbins, £14.95). It has the advantage of a couple of years' matur- ity. When you consider that the 1985's worked out at over £15 a bottle when offered last year, it does not seem expen- sive for a 12-year-old wine I reckon very nearly as good as a Taylor's vintage.
Other wines tasted: Dow's Quinta do Bomfim 1978 (Harrods, Lay and Wheeler, Peter Dominic, around £14): big, back- ward and difficult to judge at present; Crofts Quinta da Roeda 1980 (Oddbins, £9.99), in a lighter, fragrant style.
Harry Eyres
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