Port: light and tawny
PORT has traditionally been regarded as a quintessentially masculine drink: this view was ratified by Dr Johnson's remark that `Claret is the liquor for boys, port for men' (leaving aside brandy and heroes), and ritualised in the after-dinner ceremony of port-drinking for men only. I suppose this has its dubious justification in the hunky, dark, heavy, 'macho' character of the drink itself — at least of the vintage variety. What other variety is there, I hear the traditional tweedy country squire exclaim? Well, there is tawny port, always a minor- ity interest, but never totally neglected, at least by the cognoscenti of the wine trade itself, whose 'favourite tipple' it is often called.
The subject seems to me topical for a number of reasons: first, there are signs, within an overall port boom (imports to the UK up 14 per cent on last year — what type of wine is not booming?), of a revival of interest in tawny; Quinta do Noval report that their sales of old tawnies have doubled over the past year; and secondly, vintage port prices have in the last two or three years followed in the wake of claret, powered by SS Investment Commodity. In July 1982 you could buy a case of a '63 for £120, a '70 for £60; now they cost three times as much. Sadly enough, I do not believe that they have gone beyond the bounds of affordability because many more people actually drink them. For some time now it has been rare to come across vintage port outside Oxbridge colleges, officers' messes and London clubs, largely because of the bother of storage and decanting in these uncellared times. Now their cost has banished them from the modest table.
This could be the opportunity tawny has been waiting for. I say 'could be' because the most obvious beneficiary of the sudden elevation of true vintage port has been so-called 'vintage character' or late-bottled vintage port. This is reasonably priced, but it has always seemed to me to combine none of the disadvantages of vintage port with none of its distinctive merits. Old tawny, on the other hand, can be very fine in its own different style and it has not risen in price in anything like the same way as vintage — in fact, I would hazard a guess that it is no more expensive now in real terms than it was ten or 12 years ago.
What is tawny port? In essence, it is the type of port which contradicts all that stuff about masculinity by acquiring a feminine grace and delicacy. In practical terms, it is quite simply red (ruby) port which is kept for longer than the normal two to four years in oak casks, so that it loses first its purple, then its red hue, going gradually browner and paler. Tawny port is either undated (in which case one might wonder whether it had been made by the unfortu- nately legal and quite distinct method of mixing young ruby and white port), or described as being ten, 20, 30 or 40 years old, an approximate figure, but reliable at least as an average.
There also exists an extremely rare bird, the 'vintage tawny' port, a wine of a single year usually laid down to celebrate anniversaries. Taylor's have bottled a few of these and they are available, at a price, from Harrods.
Age alone does not guarantee quality: the wine must be good to begin with, and among the 18 I have tasted there has been considerable variation, though all have been only too drinkable (my head throbs slightly as I write).
It is interesting to see how the style which one associates with a particular house's vintage port is reflected in the gentler tawny. Taylor's is immediately distinctive: both ten- and 20-year-old are wines of class with the special Taylor firmness of backbone; these, followed by Fonseca's are the most masculine of tawny ports.
For those who prefer a lighter, more delicate style, Noval is at the opposite end of the scale. Dow's 20-year-old I found somewhat disappointing, pleasant but un- focused, but Croft's two-year-old has a lovely, haunting delicacy, especially on the nose. Warre's ten-year-old has an almost clarety colour, and this is a winey, not very alcoholic port; the same shipper's Nimrod blend contained hints of considerably older tawny, madeira-like, as well as some vigor- ous younger ruby. Delaforce's His Emi- nence's Choice is an attractive, quite deli- cate wine at a reasonable price, but the winners for me were, quite surprisingly, Cockburn's newly introduced ten- and 20-year-olds, beautifully combining delica- cy and length, and the unfamiliar Ramos Pinto Quinta do Bom Retiro, a wine of intense sweetness but complete harmony. These are all good value at £7-£10 for the ten-year-olds and £10-£13 for the 20-year- olds. There is no better drink with which to end the Yuletide feast.
Ausonius
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