Welcome to our second to last post in our series on the wines of Portugal, and the third on the region of Douro. Today, we’ll cover Tawny Port, in our second round on Portugal’s most famous wine, Porto. If you’re not ready for Porto, and you want to start at the beginning, head over to Dão, and then click through to the right.
Port
When we last left our story, we’d left off on aging. As a reminder, the most basic level of Porto is Ruby / Reserve. This category of Port is typically aged 2-3 years in the bottle, if not longer in some of the Reserve cases. These Porto tend to more fruit forward, and are full of red berries, black fruits, chocolate, and bright acidity. Today we’ll cover Tawny.
Unlike Ruby Port, Tawny Ports are aged for long periods of time in wood. The result of this is amazing flavors of toasted nuts, brown sugar, caramel, and vanilla, all wrapped in a silky texture. The best examples of tawny ports are typically aged in increments of ten years, and labeled as such (for example, aged ten, twenty, thirty, etc). Don’t mistake the aging for Vintage Port, which is made in years where a vintage is declared, and is only made from the best grapes.
Quick Summary on Port
- Known for: Port!*
- Best Wine Style: Fortified, vivid and sweet red wines
- Best Varietals: Tinta Barroca, Tinto Cão, Tinta Roriz, Sousão, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional
- Notable Producers: Cockburn’s, Dow’s, Graham’s, Niepoort, Quinta do Noval, Sandeman, Taylor Fladgate, Warre’s
Cockburns Fine Tawny Porto
Cockburns Fine Tawny Porto differs from their ruby example in two main ways. First, it uses more varietals that have lower pigment in their skins. Second, it spends the same amount of time, but in smaller barrels. This allows the wine to interact with the wood, and absorb more of those characteristics. How does it work in the wine?
Sight: A beautiful amber with a hint of peach
Smell: Butterscotch, nuts, and some dried apricots comes up from the top. There are touches of spice, vanilla, and sponge cake, and even for Port, the nose is a little on the warm side.
Sip: The body is light, there are plenty of nuttiness, hints of vanilla, and a lots of butterscotch in the back of the palate. There’s again a bit of heat, and the weight of the alcohol shows, but it doesn’t feel very texturally cohesive. Spices hint in the background.
Savor: The ending is moderately tannic, more toward the hazelnut and bitter cocoa. There’s a hint of alcohol here.
We as people tend to be impatient, and sometimes, shortcutting things doesn’t quite lead to the great results we’d hope for. Cockburns Fine Tawny Porto is a decent example of what tawny port strives to be, but is more unpolished. There are wonderful characteristics of butterscotch, nuts, and vanilla. There needs to be a little bit more texture to really round it out. That said, Cockburns Fine Tawny Porto is priced well for the nice flavors it brings.
Verdict: Butterscotch, Nuttiness, Cocoa, Vanilla
Rating: 83
Price: $14
Douro, Portugal