By Manos Angelakis

ViniPortugal

At the recent ViniPortugal event in New York City, there were numerous wines, white, red, still and sparkling. However, I was there to taste ports, and I had the opportunity to taste most of the top producers. Of course, a stand-up, slosh-and-spit tasting is not always a great way to evaluate quality wines, especially wines like ports.

First and most important, the 2003 vintage, recently released in the US market, is arguably as good as the legendary 1977, and definitely as good, and in some cases better than, the 1995.

2003 was a hot, atypical year, but the Douro vineyards seem to have enjoyed the high temperatures. The wines show masses of ripe tannins, a depth of rich, aromatic, floral fruit, together with firm acidity. This last point is very important because proper acidity seems to be missing from many other Iberian Peninsula wines in that particular vintage. None of the ports that I have tasted showed signs of having been baked. There are powerful tannins, but this is always the case with young Vintage Port. These ports have the style, and structure to go the distance. They can’t get any better than this.

Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman Vintage Port 2003: Lovely nose in a rather feminine, fruity style. Typical Taylor elegance, chocolate and toffee alongside dark fruits and beetroot notes. Concentration, but with finesse. Spicy fruit and peppery tannins rising in the mouth to an impressive finale. Still a little raw but with great acidity, should come together very well indeed.

2003 Dow Vintage Port: Refined. Elegant, with great style. Chocolate, figs and plums and a touch of smoke. Beautiful weight and texture with stunning finesse. Wonderful balance. Superb, ripe tannins in a seamless layer of fruit. Great potential. One of the better wines of the tasting.

Fonseca 2003 Vintage Port: Inky purple colored. Perfumed berry flavors and wild flowers prevail, with hints of blackberries, caramel and passion fruit aromas. Full bodied, very massive on the palate. Very long finish goes on for minutes. Although this wine can be enjoyed now it is still in diapers; there is a compelling reason to let it reach maturity. The ’03 is a sublime, complete, and nearly perfect young Port. I liked it best, of the ports I tasted.

2003 Niepoort Vintage Port. Inky purple, with a strong wet earth and plum fruit nose. Incredibly concentrated, it explodes onto the palate. A thread of acidity underpins the whole movement but the tannins are still very noticeable. The finish is incredibly persistent.

2003 Warre Vintage Port: Opaque purple. Vibrant violets, pomegranate and red berry fruit notes on the nose. One of the finest examples of Warre in recent decades, this shows great promise. It delivers sweet, juicy red berry fruit, which is smooth on the palate. Tannins and acidity provide a deft balance and a long lingering aftertaste.

Offlay Boavista Vintage Port 2003: Sogrape, Portugal’s largest wine producer bought Offley in 1996. This was a deep ruby hued wine, smooth, surprisingly open, and characteristically floral. A slightly alcoholic attack with an unusual sugarcane aftertaste in the long, finish. Give it another few years and you will have an excellent port.

Croft 2003 Vintage Port: Opaque, almost black color core with dark ruby on the rim. Creamy nose with masses of wild black fruits, black plums, pepper and raisin jam with an almost exotic undertone. Full-bodied, medium-sweet and supervelvety.

2003 Portal Vintage Port: Inky garnet, considerably tannic. Too young to really form an opinion. It would need at least 6 to 8 years in cellar, before it becomes enjoyable.

A number of other port producers present presented numerous aged tawny ports and LVBs, but no 2003 vintage.  

An interesting sample was Graham’s Six Grapes, an inky ruby non vintage port blend, with a very subtle nose. A great entry level wine, at a good price.

And finally, for the first time I tasted a white port. This wine is produced in limited quantities and has so many local aficionados that it rarely is exported outside the confines of Portugal. Very interesting, in an academic kind of way.

© July 2007 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.