Several Ports, None in a Storm

Warre’s Warrior Special Reserve
Fonseca Bin 27 Reserve
Ficklin Vintage Port, 1994
Shane's Notes

The characteristic sweetness of Ports is produced by adding brandy to halt the fermentation process so that relatively less of the sugar in the wine is converted into alcohol. According to the Port and Douro Wines Institute in Portugal, Ruby and Tawny are the two styles of red Ports. These wines are both initially stored in casks, but the Ruby Ports are removed from the casks sooner than the Tawnies. Thus, the Rubies primarily age in the bottle while the Tawnies age in the cask. The Tawnies are aged in the cask for a minimum of 7 years and the 10 and 20 year aged Tawnies are the most popular with oenophiles. The cask aging imparts an amber color and nutty flavor to the Tawnies as a result of the interaction of the wine with the inside of the cask. The amber color and nutty flavor are barely noticeable in the 7 year Tawnies and are predominant in the 20 year Tawnies.

The bottle aged Rubies are dark red and the best of them possess a deep flavor that can only be described as a rich, sweet, jam-like, slightly raisiny/fig-like/chocolatey flavor. The four Ruby Ports (in ascending order of quality) are Ruby, Ruby Reserve (aka Vintage Character), Late Bottled Vintage (aka LBV) and Vintage. The website for the Port and Douro Wines Institute doesn’t even bother to describe Rubies and only mentions that Ruby Reserves are a blend (mixing wines of different vintages) of younger wines. The LBV’s are crafted from grapes of a single vintage and are bottled between their fourth and sixth year of cask aging. The Vintage Ports are also single vintage wines and are bottled after only two to three years of cask aging. They are made from only the best grapes and are made only in "declared" years when the quality of a vintage is determined to be good enough to merit producing a Vintage Port. Depending upon the vintage and whom you ask, the Vintage Ports should be aged from 15 to 30 years in the bottle before drinking.

The Warre’s Warrior and the Fonseca Bin 27 are both Vintage Character Ports costing between 15 to 20 dollars. We decided to try them to see if these cheaper Ports still provide an authentic Port experience. Alas, we were definitely disappointed; both wines had the typical Port sweetness but lacked flavor and complexity. With each wine, the quick burst of sweetness was eviscerated by the tannins, and I didn’t taste any of the jammy/chocolatey/fig-like flavors that are in a good LBV or Vintage Port. The Port and Douro Wines Institute recommends LBV’s while glossing over the Vintage Characters and Jen and I agree. We recommend the Krohn 2000 LBV for under 15 dollars for an inexpensive but amazing Port experience.

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A few weeks ago, Jen and I went to dinner with a friend of mine and his wife. My friend told me that he and his wife were just becoming interested in wine and that they were really excited about a few of the wineries in Livermore. He told me that one of the Livermore wineries produced an excellent Port. Unable to resist some good-natured ribbing at my friend’s expense, I said "Ports only come from Portugal." I was smiling because I was only joking. Jen is the purist who believes that the terroir of certain regions imparts a distinctiveness to the flavor of the wine which cannot be reproduced by any other terroir which leads her to believe that a Port can only come from the Douro region in Portugal and that Champagne can only come from the Champagne region in France. In our "discussions," I always argue that "Port" and "Champagne" merely describe styles of wine making and as long as the proper varietals and wine making techniques are used, any winery should able to use the terms.

About fifteen minutes after making this comment, Jen and I ordered the 1994 Ficklin Vintage Port for dessert. Neither of us had heard of Ficklin, but we ordered it because it was the only "Vintage" Port on the menu. We were pleasantly surprised. We tasted the typical, jammy sweetness and while a little raisiny and not very complex, the Port displayed signs that complexity could develop with bottle age. After suffering through two Vintage Characters, we happily drank this legitimate Port. A few weeks later, I looked at Ficklin’s website and could not conceal my amusement upon discovering that Ficklin is a California Port!!! I emailed a mea culpa to my friend, and Jen and I both accepted Bacchus’ divine retribution for being wine snobs.