The Fonseca Estate. Fonseca Port

Very old fortified wines, especially Portuguese vintage port, are among the greatest wines in the world and some of my favourites, but for many years now I’ve been unable to tolerate more than a few mls without getting a blinding headache. Solution? Use the spit-bucket!

There’s no way I was going to miss the event, when two wine friends staged a port tasting at Fix Wine Bar back in July. “Winter means fortified wine weather”, is an oft-heard refrain among this crowd—usually used to justify a massive blow-out.

Respecting moderation, this one finished with just 10 wines, but what wines! (Eleven if you include the half-time palate cleanser of 2002 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blancs, from magnum.) Taylor’s and Fonseca from 1977, 1970 and 1963; Graham’s from 1970 and 1966, the ‘66 in magnum. Rarely in my experience is a Portuguese vintage port seen in magnum, and this was sublime.

There was a token Aussie in there too: a 1951 Hardy’s Show Port. Very good but not quite in the same class as the Portuguese. And to open the batting, a very rare bottle of venerable white port: Kopke 50 Year Old White Port. This was magnificent and incredibly complex: it reminded me of some of the oldest Australian ‘Old Sweet Whites’ I’ve had in the past, a style that seems to have disappeared. It was deep amber, loaded with rancio, and at this age and degree of complexity anyone would be hard pressed to guess whether it had been made from white grapes or red. Not that it matters.

Back to the main event.

All of these wines opened magnificently except one: the ’63 Taylor’s was corked. Of the other nine bottles, I rated none less than a gold ribbon (95 points) and most scored trophy points—well above 95. What is it about great vintages of Portuguese VP that excites us so?

Let’s start with the perfume, which is gorgeously redolent of red fruits, rose-petals, liquorice, aniseed, sometimes violets, becoming increasingly ethereal as the wine enters its third decade then fourth, then fifth. Not to mention sixth, even seventh!

Vintage port is one of the world’s longest living wines, its longevity guaranteed by high levels of alcohol and residual sugar.

The palate starts off bold and brash in the young wine, almost painfully intense fruit, acidity, alcohol and mouth-coating tannin, then gradually mellows as the years and decades roll by. Its texture softens, its tannins become gentler as a result of polymerisation, its alcohols and acids get involved in an esterification process which results in chemical components linking up to create new aromas and flavours. The result is—to borrow an expression beloved of a dear friend—swoony.

The Graham’s 1966 and Taittinger Comte 2002. Huon Hooke

How did the three great Port houses fare, compared to each other?

Taylor’s and Fonseca share the same owner and are often cited as the two greatest, at least for vintage ports. Inevitably, they are often compared.

The three vintages we compared showed Fonseca as the most impressive, a touch more power and stuffing, the Taylor’s more refined perhaps and a shade lighter, both beautiful, and it comes down to subjective preference whether you rate one above the other. I came down on the side of Fonseca (although it must be acknowledged that the cork-tainted ’63 Taylor’s made it an unfair fight).

The two Graham’s wines were not left behind. I’ve had better bottles of the ’70 but the ’66 from magnum was one of the wines of the night. Simply wonderful, and most probably would have been fresher than the same wine from a 750ml bottle.

The other 99-pointer was the ’63 Fonseca.

“An extraordinary wine of great intensity, power and muscle, and incredible length. A great wine, and just as impressive as a previous bottle I tasted 12 years ago.”

Late in the evening the spittoon was brimming and I went home reasonably sober. No headache, just wonderful memories.