Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port 1980

1980, my birth year. I'm not sure I should be admitting that, but I suppose it's still within a reasonable distance from the present. 1980 was, it seems, a pretty good year for port, and while I was saving this for some occasion or another, my recent experience with heat damage prompted a 'what the hell' pop open of this very intriguing bottle.

The nose was a little toasty, but also had currant, raisins, and dried cherry. While at first I thought the alcohol on the wine was a bit forward and unbalanced, with a little air everything seemed to settle into place and this turned out to be a very enjoyable experience. For those who haven't tasted older vintage port, with time the youthful vigour and intensity gives way to subtle layering, moderate tannin and great delineated expression of flavours that, when young, are often lost in the density of the wine.

With this Smith Woodhouse I tasted cherry, blueberry, chocolate, wood, fig, strawberry, burnt caramel, bergamot, and cigar. The level of complexity was impressive and the fact that such distinct flavours expressed themselves to a moderate palate such as my own was quite exciting. I was also shocked by the level of juicyness in the port, despite its leathery and dried fruit character. Even compared to other older vintage ports, this was a special bottle, and not really over the top in terms of pricing. Port fans owe themselves a sip.

Excellent
$50 at BCLDB

Quinta do Infantado Vintage Port 1995

Another of the joys of California is that you can get smaller producers and older wines off the shelf for reasonable prices. I picked this bottle up at a great store called The Spanish Table, which, self-evidently, specializes in Spanish products.

I have not had a vintage port quite like this before. The nose was figgy with further notes of raisin, date, and prune - but not over the top; rather very refined. The palate was super spicey with the same characters as above, with a maple-like edge. This was simply brilliant with real character, depth and elegance. And, it proved to me that, dear god, aged port is good!

Excellent to Excellent+

$24 at The Spanish Table

Graham's Malvedos Vintage Port 2001

My first introduction to port many years ago was, perhaps fortuitously, with a half bottle of the Graham's 2000 Vintage Port, selected almost randomly. This was an absolutely stellar bottle and made me wonder why I hadn't had port before. I later found out that 2000 was a brilliant vintage for port and that the Graham's 2000 Vintage received 98 points from Wine Spectator. This port is still available today, but at $80 for a half bottle - $50 more than I paid.

Thus it was that I couldn't resist picking up a bottle of this 'lesser' port from Graham's in a year where a vintage was not declared. The Malvedos, however, is a single quinta port, meaning that it is made from a single vineyard, the grapes from which are normally used as the backbone of the regular vintage bottling. The single quinta ports come out when the weather wasn't good enough to declare an official 'vintage' year. The price reflects this, but if this bottle is any indication, great values are to be had here.

The nose was grapey, chocolatey, and filled with sugared plums and dates. Very rich and a little boozy - but not 'hot'. The palate was well tannined and full and introduced pepper and spice with figs and dates. With a texture that was rich, smooth and very beautiful in the mouth, a perfect sugar level, and a brilliant sumptuousness, Graham's upheld their reputation in my mind for top level sweet wine: simply put, not many sweet wines taste this good. And, of course, this voluptuous liquid paired perfectly with chocolate (it went particularly well with a maple infused chocolate bar that was dappled with alder smoked salt from a lovely local chocolate maker).

Excellent
$32 for 375ml

Quinta do Noval Unfiltered Late Bottled Vintage 2001

I rarely write about ports. I suppose that has to do with the difficulty of drinking a full bottle of port (often sitting at 18-20% abv) before it goes off. Full on vintage port is darn expensive and I often can't justify buying or opening a bottle knowing that at least half will probably go to waste. However, with the price point on this port I figured it would be worth having a bottle of dessert-y wine around to enjoy at leisure.

This has heady dark-berry and maple-syrup aromas and flavours. The palate is smooth and full with big fruit and rustic earthy/chalky tannins that give it surprising length for an inexpensive LBV. This is incredible value and way better than pretty much every other LBV I've tasted at this price point. If you like port pick up a bottle asap.

Excellent

$33 at BCLDB