One on One with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, The Winemakers
Do you really think I managed to get face time with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt? Or at least a Skype interview? A phone call? Yeah, none of the above, you are correct. But – as it was announced a while back, they joined the ranks of celebrity winemakers with the release of their first wine from Château Miraval, a property in Provence, which they acquired a few years ago – and considering that they both participated in the tasting and selection of the final blend, I think the title of this post stands as appropriate. Well, yes, they didn’t make the wine all by themselves – they got some serious help by partnering with Marc Perrin of Château de Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, so the wine officially lists Jolie-Pitt & Perrin on the back label.
Miraval Rosé
Before we will talk about the wine, I want to mention that Château Miraval has very interesting history – in the 1970s, it belonged to the famous jazz musician Jacques Loussier, who converted the chateau into the recording studio. Many famous musicians, such as Pink Floyd, Sting and others, used that studio to produce their albums.
Now, let’s get to the wines. While celebrity status of winemakers is nice, in the end of the day, I care about content of my glass. So in this particular case, I wanted to have some frame of reference – of course in the form of another wine. As Miraval Rosé comes from Provence, I wanted to compare it with another Provence Rosé. Looking at the wide range of Rosé available, my eyes stopped at the label. Whispering Angel. I think I heard it somewhere. And it is from Provence. Problem solved – I got my second Rosé, and the battle (okay, it is only two, so let’s call it a mini-battle) of Rosé was set.
Then I found out that I have chosen well. It appears that Whispering Angel Rosé was a hit of 2012, and it was literally impossible to get it last year. Thus it was very interesting to see how the two will fare, and how the arrival of the Miraval might affect the cult status of the Whispering Angel.
Whispering Angel and Miraval side by side
Now, before we get on to the wines themselves (didn’t I say it already? yes I did, sorry for the interruption once again, but please read on), I need to let out a little rant. When I visit a winery’s web site, I’m doing it because I’m looking for information. Information for me includes history of people, story of the winemaker, information about vineyards, but most importantly, I want to know about the particular wine made at that winery. I want to know what grapes went into the wine, how the wine was made, what winemaker thinks about wine, and so on. Anything and everything which winery is willing to share about the wine, I’m willing to read, but (ahh, my finger is dancing above the Caps Lock key – I’m not going to press it only because I really respect you, my readers, but read rest of this sentence in the loud voice) – I’m not looking to read four praising quotes from the different sources and none, zero, nada, zilch of any actual information about the wine. The wine I’m talking about here – Whispering Angle. 4 quotes on the web site – and no wine information to be found anywhere. Yes, some of those quotes are wine tasting notes from the critics – but you don’t even know what vintage is being described. Yes, I do find it very annoying. End of the rant.
Now, let’s [finally] get to the wines. Here are the two wines side by side:
Whispering Angel and Miraval, now in the glass
2012 Whispering Angel Rosé Caves D’Esclans Côtes de Provence AOC ($17.99, 13.5% ABV) – supposedly a blend of Grenache, Rolle, Cinsault, Syrah and Mourvedre – the reason I say “supposedly” is because I didn’t find this information at winemaker’s web site or the back label – see the rant above.
Literally non-existent color in the glass. Pretty intense nose, more on the sweet side, with some tropical fruit (uncommon for Rose?). On the nose, it is more white wine than a red wine. Opens with the degree of sweetness on the palate, but as wine warms up, the sweetness disappears. After the wine opened up a bit, the palate is almost insignificant – there no traditional strawberries and onion peel. The wine is pleasant, but behaves more as indistinct white. Drinkability: 7
2012 Miraval Rosé Côtes de Provence AOC ($21.99, 13%ABV) – a blend of Cinsalt, Grenache, Syrah and Rolle. Syrah was vinified by saignée (bleeding, the pink juice is collected separately instead of leaving the juice in contact with skin for the short period of time), and the other varieties were direct pressed. 5% of the cuvee was aged in the oak casks.
Here are the tasting notes: Nice rose color, more intensity that the previous wine. Some strawberries on the nose, no sweetness. Nice density on the palate, more strawberries, very round but with the character. Drinkability: 7+
Time to conclude our small Rosé competition. I would give a small edge to Miraval, it was a bit more interesting. Miraval Rosé was good, but – it was not a wow wine I can’t live without. In that price range ($20+) there are plenty of interesting Rosé, lots of options are available to the curious palate in need of refreshing sip – in other words, I don’t think I will be specifically rushing over to the store to pick up whatever supply is left for either one of these Rosé.
Before we done here (I know, I keep testing your patience), I want to mention an excellent Rosé post by The Armchair Sommelier (I hope you discovered and follow her blog already, if not – fix that problem immediately). One of the dishes in that blog post looked so good and simple – Grilled Avocado with melted cheese – that I asked for the recipe (very easy – take avocado, make some holes with the fork, smother with the hot sauce, cover with cheese and broil for 5 minutes). I made it to accompany my Rosé and the dish came out perfectly and was very enjoyable, especially with the wine.
Grilled Avocado with melted cheese
Now it is the time to conclude for real. Until the next time – cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #58: Grape Trivia – Syrah
Shiraz grapes. Source: Wikipedia
Welcome to the weekend! To start your weekend right, it is the time for our traditional grape and vine exercise.
We are continuing the grape trivia, and today’s subject is … Syrah, or as they call it in Australia, Shiraz.
Syrah is a red grape with thick black skin, capable of producing full-bodied, big and powerful wines. Primary aromas associated with Syrah are usually of blackberry and black pepper, but as the wine ages, it shows a number of very diverse flavors, such as leather, tobacco, chocolate and more. Syrah is known under the name of Shiraz in Australia and South Africa. France, United States (California, Washington, Oregon) and Australia are typically considered to be the source of the best in the world Syrah wines, but Spain, Italy, Chile and Argentina are all producing very interesting Syrah wines as well.
Now, let’s move on to the quiz. As before, the quiz consists of 5 questions, and the answers will be provided next Wednesday.
Q1: Where is Shiraz?
Q2: Which white grape often plays a role of blending companion for Shiraz?
Q3: One of the appellations below can be removed from the list – can you tell which one and why? For the answer to count, “why” explanation is required
A. Cornas
B. Côte-Rôtie
C. Crozes-Hermitage
D. Hermitage
E. Saint-Joseph
Q4: About 100 years ago, Syrah was a popular addition to the wines of one well known region – now this practice is totally illegal by the appellation rules. Do you know what region was that?
Q5: Where do you think are the oldest in the world continuously producing Syrah vineyards are located? Can you guess the approximate age of the vines?
Enjoy your weekend, good luck and cheers!
Wine Gadgets!
Wine accessories, or gadgets for short. What is your take on them? Do you find all those wine gadgets to be a nuisance, a waste of money and useless? Or do you have your favorite bottle opener you swear by as nothing else can deal with the bottle as quickly, neatly and efficiently?
Being an oenophile, I find myself surrounded with all those little wine tools – some I buy, some I get as presents (dear friends: two dozens of bottle stoppers is quite enough, no matter how fancy they look like, I think I’m set for quite a while, so please bring the wine instead). But the important part is that I actually use many of those little gadgets – some pretty much daily, like bottle openers, pourers, glasses or vacuum pump. Some occasionally, like bottle chillers, Champagne bottle stoppers, aerators and decanters. Some are reserved for the OMG moments only, like that Wine Away spray. Some are used only when guests are coming, like glass charms. And then there are those which are priceless when I travel, like bottle sleeves or special wine carriers and even suitcases.
The fact of the matter is that I use the wine gadgets, and many of them actually help with the wine appreciation. Like the simple bottle pourer, which helps to avoid red smudges on the wine labels and red circle on the table cloth. Or elegant glass, which exhumes with excitement as soon as it is filled with golden or purple liquid. Where am I going with all this? Simple. As I do it with wine, I want to share my gadget experiences with you – and to tell you what worked for me, what didn’t work, and what you might find useful.
At this point my plan is to have a wine gadget posts on Thursdays – there are plenty of little tools to talk about, so I don’t know whether this will be a weekly feature or not, but time will tell. And if you have any “yay” or “nay” to say about this idea – your comments are always welcome. And until the first gadget post – cheers!
P.S. Don’t forget that today is Chardonnay Day! Celebrate one of the world’s most popular grapes in style!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Chardonnay Day, Wine Appellation Earth?, Best Blogging Tips and more
Meritage Time!
First and foremost, let’s start with the answer to the wine quiz #57, Grape Trivia – Grenache. Below are the questions, now with the answers:
Q1: Name two grapes which are traditional blending partners of Grenache
A1: Yes, we are talking the famous GSM blends, and the blending partners of Grenache are Syrah (Shiraz in Australia) and Mourvèdre (known as Monastrell in Spain and often called Mataro in Australia).
Q2: Below is the list of countries which use Grenache in the winemaking. Sort the list by the area of Grenache plantings, from the highest acreage to the lowest:
A. Australia, B. France, C. Italy, D. Spain, E. United States
A2: The correct answer is France, Spain, Italy, US, Australia (so it will be BDCEA). The culprit here was Italy, in my opinion, there Grenache is known as Cannonau – I didn’t expect that Italy grows so much of it… Here is my source of data – an article at Wine Folly’s web site.
Q3: One winery in US is often credited with spearheading the success of Grenache in US. Can you name that winery?
A3: Tablas Creek winery in California – they imported Grenache cuttings from France to the US in 1990, and it was the beginning of great Grenache wines in US. Here is an excellent article about Grenache on Tablas Creek’s web site.
Q4: A few centuries ago, Grenache was a popular blending addition in one of the regions in France, until it became illegal by the AOC rules. Do you know what region was that?
A4: Actually, it was Burgundy, where addition of Grenache was popular way to add body to otherwise finicky Pinot Noir wines. Of course it is illegal practice for the long time.
Q5: Same as for the number of other grapes, Grenache exists in three different grape variations – Grenache Noir, Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris. There is one wine where it is absolutely legal to use all three grapes as the part of the blend. Can you name that wine?
A5: Châteauneuf-du-Pape! Well, I should’ve post the question as “type of wine” – but in any case, Châteauneuf-du-Pape (CdP for short) AOC rules allow inclusion of all three different Grenache grapes into the same wine. I always thought that CdP allows 13 grapes to be blended together in production of CdP wines, but it appears that the rules has recently changed, and now there are 18 grapes which are all allowed for use as winemaker desires.
And the winner is…(drum roll)… The Drunken Cyclist with five correct answers! He is definitely on the winning streak for a while and once again he gets unlimited bragging rights. I want also to acknowledge The Winegetter, Red Wine Diva and Eat With Namie who all got 3 out of 5 questions right – definitely a commendable effort.
Now, to the interesting stuff around the web vine – boy, there is plenty to share!
First, sorry for the late notice, but tomorrow is 4th annual Chardonnay Day! Well, Chardonnay is not such a hard wine to get, right? You still got time to make sure you will celebrate in style, whatever your style is – Burgundy, Chablis, Big California, California-pretending-to-be-Chablis, I-am-unoaked-and-almost-like-Pinot-Grigio-chose-me – anyway, any kind of Chardonnay goes. And if you want to officially assert your participation, here is a link to the event page where you can officially join the ranks of Chardonnay aficionados.
Next, I want to bring to your attention an interesting post by Mike Veseth of The Wine Economist fame. The post is titled Is This the Beginning of Juice Box Wine? and it is talking about true globalization of wine in terms of production – one of the new wines from Barefoot called Impression and it is produced from the juice sourced from all over the world, so the wine doesn’t state any appellation on the label. What do you think of such approach to winemaking? Will this be a fluke, or will we see more of the wines from appellation Earth?
As you know, I’m a big fun of Stéphane Gabart’s blog, My French Heaven. I find his food pictures as some of the most incredible I ever come across, in the blogs or on Pinterest. Now Stéphane was very kind to write a blog post called “20 tips for stunning food photography“, which definitely worth your attention if you want to master your food picture taking skills. Also, as this is not the first time I refer to some of the “best tips and practices”, I decided to create a dedicated page for the Best Blogging Tips, where I will be collecting all the references like this one. If you have any suggestions as to what should be included in that “Best Blogging Tips” collection, please let me know – I hope to make it into a very useful resource for all.
Next subject is … beer! Yes, even in the wine blog there is a place for a beer. When you hear about the beer called Nuclear Tactical Penguin – is that the beer you would want to try? Well, okay, I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely interested. But turns out that this beer is practically impossible to get in US, so the best thing one can do is to enjoy it vicariously. This is what I did when I read this post at Wayward Wine blog. Outside of just great description of the beer, you can also learn about Frozen Beer category and how those beers are made – I think this reading will be well worth the time. Also, while looking for another beer from BrewDog company, this one called Sink the Bismark, I came across the list of 10 most expensive beers in the world! Now I want to try BrewDog’s The End Of History (55% ABV and still a beer!), but considering that it costs $765 for 330 ml, I will need a sponsor… anyone?
And last, but not the least subject for today – Wine Blog Awards finalists are finally announced. No, I didn’t make it to the list of finalists (sigh). But I would like to congratulate Jeff a.k.a. The Drunken Cyclist as he got into the finals in the Best Writing category. Anyway, this week is the public voting week, so you can cast your vote for the best blog here.
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty – but more wine is coming. Cheers!
Study of Port: Epilogue
What starts with prologue, should end with epilogue, right? What was supposed to be may be one or two posts, became a whole series. In case you missed any of the posts, here is a full list for the study of Port series:
Finally, let’s talk about Port!
What else can I tell you? We had a great week in Portugal. Very short conclusion can be “great people, great food, great wines, great scenery, great time”.
All people we came across were very nice and helpful. Language barrier was never an issue (I also have to mention that a lot of people speak very good English) – one way or the other we were always able to understand each other. Hotel, restaurants, port houses, stores, our numerous walking tours will only stay in memory with great people encounters.
The food? Very good quality, very reasonably priced. Memorable moments? Bacalhau, Francesinha, lots of fresh fish and shellfish of all kinds. Tuna fish spread is served in almost all restaurants with the bread (you need to ask for butter). Port is available at the buffet breakfast in the hotel, next to the orange juice. Below is the best representation for you (sorry if I make you hungry):
Portuguese Seafood
But probably the most important part about the food in Portugal is the fact that Portugal practically doesn’t import any agricultural products – everything is either produced, caught or raised locally, and you can taste it.
When it comes to wines, the story becomes interesting. First, there are about 80 grape varieties growing in Portugal, most of them are indigenous grapes. Here is a glimpse for you, as captured in the picture below:
Portuguese Grape Varieties
By the way, these unique grapes are a great find for all aspiring Wine Centurions – I personally added 5 new grapes to my list – here they are:
Codega do Larinho – 2011 Castello D’Alba from Douro
Rabigato – 2011 Castello D’Alba from Douro
Moscatel Galego Branco – 2012 Portal Colheita Branco Douro DOC
Antão Vaz – 2010 Herdade Dos Grous Branco Vinho Regional Alentejano
Donzelinho – 2011 Niepoort Tiara Douro Branco
Outside of Port, very few of the Portuguese wines make it to US, and out of those few, there is even lesser number of wines of notice. Meanwhile, if you will make it to Portugal, you will be literally astonished by the availability of very inexpensive and absolutely delicious wines, both in the stores and in the restaurants. I already gave you my account of great wine encounters in the previous posts (Quinta do Cardo, Niepoort Tiara, Quevedo Vintage Port), but I actually saved the best for last – 2009 Casa Burmester Reserva Douro DOC (blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinto Roriz) was an absolute highlight of the red wines I tasted during the Porto trip.
I don’t want to even describe this wine in terms of berries, chocolate, coffee, spices – it had everything, but the major thing about this wine was an absolute balance of fruit, structure, power, acidity, tannins – all the elements which make you go “wow” after the first sip where perfectly there. I can’t give you one to one analogy for the way this wine tasted, but to give you an idea of how impressed I was, I would safely put it in one line with 2000 Chateau Margaux, Vega Sicilia Unico and Vintage Krug Champagne. In case you are curious about my rating, this wine gets Drinkability: 9.
I believe I sufficiently inundated you with the pictures of the beautiful scenery, but let me still add a few more:
All roads lead to Port…
Awakening and Anticipation …
Vila Nova de Gaia
Port caves – view from above
Douro River view
Time to finally conclude the series. I don’t know what you think, but I really enjoyed writing all these posts. I also saw a lot of happy comments, including those where people said that they will definitely go and visit Portugal (which will be very smart, if you ask me). If you will actually travel to Porto, I hope you will find some useful information here. And in any case, thanks for reading and cheers!
Weekly Wine Quiz #57 – Grape Trivia: Grenache, a.k.a Garnacha
Grenache Noir picture from Wikipedia
And we are continuing the Grape Trivia series – today’s focus is the red grape called Grenache (also known as Garnacha and Garnaxta in Spain).
Grenache is one of the most planted red grape in the world. It is a late ripening variety, which typically produces spicy, juicy, berry-flavored wines with high alcohol content. In the number of regions, such as Priorat in Spain, Châteauneuf-du-Pape in France or California and Washington in US, Grenache produces outstanding single-varietal wines, but more often than not it is used as a blending companion, adding juicy component and structure.
And now, to the quiz!
Q1: Name two grapes which are traditional blending partners of Grenache
Q2: Below is the list of countries which use Grenache in the winemaking. Sort the list by the area of Grenache plantings, from the highest acreage to the lowest:
A. Australia
B. France
C. Italy
D. Spain
E. United States
Q3: One winery in US is often credited with spearheading the success of Grenache in US. Can you name that winery?
Q4: A few centuries ago, Grenache was a popular blending addition in one of the regions in France, until it became illegal by the AOC rules. Do you know what region was that?
Q5: Same as for the number of other grapes, Grenache exists in three different grape variations – Grenache Noir, Grenache Blanc and Grenache Gris. There is one wine where it is absolutely legal to use all three grapes as the part of the blend. Can you name that wine?
Enjoy your weekend, have fun and good luck! Cheers!
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, World Sherry Day, How To Start You Wine Book Project, Wine Blog Awards?
It is Meritage Time, and Meritage posts are back!
Let’s start from the answer to the wine quiz #56, What is it? In the quiz, you had a picture of wine-related object, and you were supposed to identify what is it and how it should be used. Here is the picture which was presented to you:
And here is the answer, in the form of another picture:
Port Tongs Display at Sandeman
The object is called port tongs, and they are used to open a bottle of vintage port or any old wine without fighting with the cork. The way to use it is this: you heat up the tongs until red hot, put it around the neck of the bottle underneath of the cork, hold it for some time, then remove and use cube of ice to go around the heated up circle – the glass cracks cleanly and can be removed now.
I really wanted to have such a device, ever since I read the post about old Rioja wines in PJ Wine blog – and now I do. I’m not sure how often or even when am I going to use this device, but – now I can if I want to (freedom is everything, right?)
I’m glad to say that we have two winners – both waywardwine and thedrunkencyclist correctly identified Port tongs in the picture, and the drunkencyclist provided perfect description for how port tonging is done. Congratulations to our winners – both of them get unlimited bragging rights.
Now, to the interesting stuff around the web. First, the World Sherry Day will start on Monday. This is going to be one long day, as it starts on May 20th and lasts through May 26th, but hey, that means that you can drink more sherry during one day. Find the place near you to celebrate, or just grab a bottle and indulge on the beverage which might be easily hundreds years old, and still affordable at the same time. If you need a crash course in Sherry, here is the link to one of my posts (I also plan to talk about sherry in more details at some point in the near future).
Dreaming of writing the wine book, you think you got something to say and you think you can convince people to share your vision? Then take a look at this post by Wink Lorch, where she is talking about her successful fundraising project on Kickstarter for her Jura wine book.
Last interesting note for you – if you remember, a while ago, many of us, wine bloggers, asked for your nomination for the Wine Blog Awards 2013 – and many of us got nominations, for which we profusely thank you, our readers. The interesting part is that the week of May 10 – 17 was designated as voting week for the public, after jury selects 5 finalist blogs for each category – here is the link to the rules for you. Today is May 15th, and it doesn’t look like finalist blogs had been selected and that public can vote on them. Oh well…
That’s all I have for you for today, folks. The glass is empty. Until the next time – cheers!
Study of Port: Finally, Let’s Talk About Port!
Finally, we’re arriving at the culmination point of our Study of Port cycle (here are the links to the previous four posts – post 1, post 2, post 3, and post 4). You probably noticed that while the cycle is called “study of port”, we talked very little about Port wines themselves.
Port Transporter, called Rabelos, now only used to carry around the tourists
For me, Port is one of the most difficult subjects in wine (of course Burgundy classification and German wines are the crown jewels of “difficult wine subjects”). There are many different styles of wine, overall still collectively called Port. There are Ruby, Tawny, non-vintage, Vintage, Late Bottled Vintage, 10-, 20-, 30-, 40- years old ports, all available in the wide pricing range. On top of everything, Port is considered to be a dessert wine, and at a certain point in life, the brain just starts either outright protesting or at least behaving extremely cautiously around anything related to the word “sugar”.
Thus I was determined to use my Porto trip as a learning opportunity and do my best to acquire an understanding of the subject of Port directly from the source (I hope that clarifies the overall name of the theme chosen for this series of posts). Before I arrived in Porto, I sent out a few e-mails and twitter messages to the various Port houses, explaining that I’m a blogger and I would like to learn about Port and taste some of the older vintages. The only person who actually responded to me was Oscar Quevedo from the Quevedo Port house. After a bit of back and forth, we settled on the date and time.
Once I arrived at the Quevedo Port house… Well, I will not inundate you with the long story, and the short story was that Oscar was not there (but he was very kind to stop by the hotel in the afternoon of the same day and undergo my very intense questioning for 30 minutes). Rachel and Manuel were “running the shop”, and while I was there at the Port house, I read a lot of useful information along the walls (I guess it can be called a self-guided tour), but that still didn’t answer all my questions (like why Vintage port should be consumed within 1 to 3 days from the opening of a bottle, and Late Bottled Vintage (LBV for short) does not. I started asking Rachel and Manuel all of my questions, and I think I drove them both a bit insane – I have to thank them both for their patience with me, especially Rachel, as she really did her best trying to figure out all the differences and details together with me.
I also tried young vintage port, 2010 Quevedo Vintage Port – and it made me happy.
The vintage port is supposed to be filtered when it is poured into the glass, which was performed using the jigger and special metal mesh filter.
Every aspect of this wine was simply exciting. The color – I don’t know if the picture truly conveys the color, but it was deeply concentrated dark ruby red. The nose – ahh, all the fresh berries you can imagine, … And the palate – texturally present, dense, heavy, lots of fresh fruit. Yes, the was sweetness there, but oh so balanced with acidity, tannins, and overall power. So far I was refraining from rating the wines in this series of posts, but this wine was definitely a 9 and I’m sure it will be a part of my “2013 top dozen”.
When I met with Oscar in the afternoon, I used the opportunity to bombard him with questions in my effort to understand the wine called Port. And now I want to share my newly found understanding with you, so for what it is worth, below is my attempt to dissect and summarize the world of Port.
First, here are some interesting facts about Port.
- As with any other wine, the truth is in the eye of the beholder – and in our case, the “beholder” will be a winemaker. Effectively, the winemaker knows his vineyards, and the winemaker knows what vines are capable of producing specific kinds of ports – Tawny, Ruby, Vintage, non-vintage, and so on. But when it comes to Port, that winemaker’s knowledge is also verified before it can be put in the bottle and on the label – by the governing organization called IVDP.
- Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto, or IVDP for short, is a top authority regulating the production of all Port wines. When the winemaker wants to declare a vintage, the sample is sent to IVDP, where it is assessed ( in the blind format) for all the quality of the vintage port, starting from the color, and then vintage designation is either granted or declined. According to Oscar, IVDP knows everything about each and every port producer – how much of what kind of port is in the barrels, how many bottles were sold, how many bottles are still remaining with the Port house, and so on – IVDP owns and processes all the information related to the production of Port.
- Less than 1% percent of the total port production is designated as Vintage port.
- Most of the red port wines are made out of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Tinta Francisca and Tinta Cão grapes.
- Port is typically fermented for 3-5 days, after which fermentation is stopped with the addition of neutral spirit (grape brandy). The addition of the spirit is also a reason behind the port’s classification as “fortified wine”. The resulting port wine usually has ABV in the 18% – 21% range.
- Treading, the process of pressing grapes with the feet, is still in use today, but by a very small number of producers and only for the very special wines. The pressing by the feet creates just the right amount of pressure which doesn’t break the seeds – which helps to reduce the bitterness of the wine.
- The Vintage Port is the only port that continues aging in the bottle. Vintage port should be treated as regular wine in terms of handling and storage, and consumed 24-72 hours after the opening of the bottle.
- New oak barrels are never used in the production of the port. The barrels have to be used a few times for producing the regular wines, only then do they become suitable for the production of the Port.
Now, let’s look at the classification of the Port wines. As you know, I like using mind maps, so here is Port’s classification in the form of the mind map:
Port classification
Now let’s add some details:
- Rose Port
- the latest addition to the world of Port had been produced only for a few years. Very short contact with the skin after pressing. Personal note – I tried a few and had not been impressed so far.
- White Port
- 3 years aging in stainless steel or neutral oak, then blended, filtered, and bottled. It will not age in the bottle and is ready to be consumed when you bought it. After a bottle is opened, it should be stored in the fridge and consumed relatively quickly. Personal note – the white port from Sandeman was an eye-opening experience – you should really try it.
- Tawny – ages in the small oak barrels with controlled oxidation. All ports in this group don’t age in the bottle and are ready to drink when you buy them. Also, all ports will last for many weeks after the bottle is opened.
- Single Vintage
- Colheita
- Grapes from the single vintage. At least 7 years of aging in the oak barrel (can be longer), then blended, filtered, and bottled.
- Colheita
- Blend of vintages
- Tawny
- 4 years in oak barrel, blended, filtered, bottled
- Tawny Reserve
- 8 years in oak barrel, blended, filtered, bottled
- Age-designated Tawny
- 10 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old, 40 years old – all of these ports are blends of ports of various ages. The blend is composed by winemaker’s discretion – for instance, a 40 years old can be a blend of 30 years old and 100 years old.
- Tawny More Than 40 years old (not an allowed designation in the US)
- Tawny
- Single Vintage
- Ruby
- Ruby
- 3 years of aging in the stainless steel/neutral oak, then blended, filtered, and bottled. After opening, the bottle should be consumed within a few days, and best to be refrigerated.
- Ruby Reserve
- 6 years of aging in the stainless steel/neutral oak, then blended, filtered, and bottled. After opening, the bottle should be consumed within a few days, and best to be refrigerated.
- Vintage
- about 2 years in stainless steel, can be some time in oak barrels, bottled unfiltered, continue aging in the bottle. After opening, consume within 24-48 hours.
- Late Bottled Vintage (LBV)
- 4 – 6 years in the oak barrel (I’m sure about the age, not sure about oak barrel versus stainless steel)
- Single Quinta Vintage
- Somewhat complicated. It designates that grapes are coming from a single vineyard, but age/blending/bottling, etc. is not very clear. But for all intents and purposes, should be treated as a Vintage port.
- Ruby
I think I told you everything I know at the moment about Port – but I will keep adding and refining to this post just to make sure I got it all correctly. Before we part, here are a couple of pictures for you:
Ruby and White Port age in this huge barrels. One barrel holds 80,000 liters (about 20,000 gallons)
Tawny port ages in the small oak barrels
Do you remember where the cork tree grows? Yes, in Portugal!
That’s all I have for you, folks. Comments and corrections are most welcome. Cheers!
Happy Mother’s Day!
If it wouldn’t be for Moms, the world wouldn’t exist. They carry the “life” literally inside and outside, and all of us, collectively and individually are very grateful to them for all they are doing each and every day.
Today is Mother’s Day, and in order to celebrate all the Moms, I want to do two things. First, here is a great article from the friend, blogger and mother herself, SAHMMelier – “Being Enough this Mother’s Day” – it is well worth reading.
And of course, I want to give flowers to all the Moms. I love taking pictures of the flowers, so below is a small collection which I want to present to you. Enjoy and Happy Mother’s Day!
Weekly Wine Quiz #56: What Is It?
It is Saturday, and wine quizzes are back at Talk-A-Vino!
I will continue the grape series with the next quiz (we already covered 3 grapes, so there are only about 200-300 left), but for today, I want to play one of my most favorite games – the one with the picture, you know?
Below is the picture which is very relevant to the wine world – do you know what it is, what it is for and how to use it?
Good luck, enjoy your weekend and don’t forget that Mother’s Day is tomorrow. Cheers!
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