Christmas Colheita and Tawny Ports
I had a very tawny-colheita Christmas this year and the fact that these wines keep in the fridge for a few weeks after opening means that I am still dipping into some of them. I was fortunate to taste the Graham, Sandeman and Real Companhia Velha wines as a series of comparative flights which is always instructive when it comes to tawny. There is always something of a family resemblance determined by house style.
Graham’s Twenty Year Old Tawny ****/*****
Twenty Years is usually my favourite sub-category of tawny as this combines the freshness of youth with complexity of age: lovely reddish-tawny hue with a toffee and dried citrus character on the nose and palate, now smooth and silky with creamy texture (the concentration of age), the sweet fruit (that is the hallmark of Graham) offset by a streak of fresh acidity on the finish. A seamless melange of glorious flavours. 18.5
Graham’s Thirty Year Old Tawny *****
A step up on the tawny ladder, reflected by the paler tawny colour and copperish tones on the rim; a touch singed on the nose with roasted coffee and an undertone of crème brulée on the nose and palate (‘queimada’ in Portuguese), concentrated butterscotch sweetness, a touch honeyed but not cloying as the acidity cuts in and offsets this leading to a long beautifully poised finish. 19
Graham’s Forty Year Old Tawny *****
With forty years ageing in small lodge pipes (casks of around 600 litres), 50% of the original volume has been lost to evaporation: the age is evident in the orange / copper-toned greenish tinge and the sweeter more concentrated style, demerara sugar and spice with glorious length and richness yet it still retains some youthful clarity on the finish. This fine-tuned blend of old wines going back to the 1970s is one to sip, admire, meditate and marvel. 19.5
Graham’s 1994 Single Harvest Tawny *****
Entitled ‘the apprentice’, this wine marks Charles Symington’s first harvest in the Douro when he began working alongside his father Peter. It also happened to be an outstanding year, widely declared as a vintage (see my note on the Symington’s re-released 1994s). Based on wines from Graham’s flagship quinta, Malvedos, set aside in cask until the wine was bottled in 2020: now a reddish tawny in colour with a vestige of fresh plummy sweetness and taking on toffee-like complexity, Elvas plums with the merest dusting of tea leaf tannin before a gorgeous seamless smooth, spicy finish. A ‘wow’ of a wine. 19.5
Sandeman 20 Year Old Tawny ****
One of Sandeman’s secrets is the superb quality of their aged tawny Ports, from Imperial (a Reserve Tawny) all the way up to 40 Years and beyond. The top wines have been sensitively repackaged in clear glass bottles with innovative glass stoppers. Sandeman are consistent and deserved winners across all the tawny categories at the Decanter World Wine Awards and I was delighted to see their wines promoted in my local wine merchant (Hattersley Wines, Bakewell) just before Christmas. This twenty-year-old beautifully illustrates their house style: pale red-tinged amber/ tawny hues with sublime, fully integrated savoury (brazil nut) aromas; delightfully fresh, silky-smooth dried apricot, sweet sultana and candied peel fruit with a dusting of spicy complexity and that savoury nutty undertone re-establishing itself on the finish. Glorious! 18
Sandeman 40 Year Old Tawny *****
This 40-Year-Old deservedly won ‘platinum’ at the Decanter World Wine Awards last year: lovely mid-deep orange-amber colour; lifted, toasted almond aromas with milk-chocolate richness and creaminess. Oh-so fresh on the palate, particularly good and perfectly poised with a presence, texture and finish that sends it into the outer realms of greatness. Refined and utterly gorgeous. As close as you get to perfection: words fail me! 20
Sandeman ‘Veil’ - Very Old Tawny. *****
This is a wine that will never see the light of day (a sad story that I won’t trouble you with). It is a blend of wines ranging between 79 and 104 years resulting in a wine that averages around 90 years (the maximum ‘indication of age’ permitted on a label is 50 Years to this – like the wines below – is simply designated ‘Very Old Tawny’). Distinctly mahogany in hue with an olive-green tinge to the rim; leathery, waxy with touch of cigar box, gently high toned on with heady savoury-smoky complexity on the nose; similarly leathery and savoury on the with the richness and piquancy of age mid-palate leading to a long seemingly dry yet fresh finish as a counterpoint. A wine to mull-over and meditate. 19
Real Companhia Velha, Very Old Tawny Port - Cask 1927 *****
This is the first of three aged tawnies being released to celebrate the 265th anniversary of RCV. It comes from a spectacular year for Port: undoubtedly one the best of the twentieth century. Red-mahogany in hue, this has wonderfully lifted delicate aromas, floral with an underlying hint of toast; sumptuously rich and sweet with crystalised fruit, with smooth butterscotch and a hint of spice and ginger, long and still remarkably lithe on the finish. Testament to an outstanding year. 19
Real Companhia Velha, Very Old Tawny Port - Cask 1908 ****/*****
Deep brick-red / tawny, lifted with a touch of balasamic / vinagrinho and a hint carpenter’s varnish on the nose; rich with candied citrus and still spiced with a dusting of tannin leading a lovely long suave medicinal-cherry finish that lifts the soul. Great finesse. 18.5
Real Companhia Velha, Very Old Tawny Port - Cask 1900 *****
Classic amber-tawny hues; beautifully lifted and ethereal on the nose, complex, retaining considerable richness and presence; gloriously smooth and silky with an underlying orange marmalade tang, still astoundingly fresh with a delicate mouth-watering finish that goes on and on and on. Utterly haunting. 19.5
