Cockburn's Special Reserve Port Wine, 75cl

Product Information

We asked Charles for his tips on choosing the best bottle of port, and explain what we found when we tested supermarket ports. Port is a Portuguese fortified wine often enjoyed alongside a cheese board, after a big meal or simply as a relaxing evening treat. Tawny ports are paler brown or amber in colour, with a more mellow taste. That typically comes from a longer period ageing in wood, which can impart distinct flavours of dried fruit and nuts. Quantities are limited and a major shipper may declare anything from a few hundred cases to 15,000 cases depending on the year and circumstances. Sometimes the quantity declared is much less. Tawny Port starts out as Ruby Port, but spends 10 to 40 years in the barrel, rounding out its flavors, oxidizing slightly and taking on a nice mahogany hue from the wood. There are only four ages that a Tawny Port can bear: 10 year, 20, year, 30 year and 40 year. Their long stint in the barrel allows Tawny Ports to shed their fruitiness as they take on a silky mouthfeel, rich, complex flavors and aromas running the gamut from nutty or caramel to chocolate or leathery.

Except for Vintage Port, Port is relatively resilient and can be stored upright or sideways in a cool, dark place. You can buy specially made Port glasses, which are 8 ounce stemware glasses meant to be filled halfway, but eyeballing 4 ounces into a wide-mouthed red wine glass works, too. Since most Port is red wine, the rule of thumb of serving it at a cool room temperature around 64 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit applies. But aged, less tannic Ports can easily be enjoyed slightly chilled. I adore the intricacy and delicacy of a well-aged tawny. A 20 Year Old is my preference, for its complexity offset by freshness. But there are some increasingly good 30, 40 and 50 year old wines as well, that don’t seem to have sacrificed their balance with age. Tawny keeps better than vintage since it’s already been exposed to air during maturation. Kept in the fridge or cellar, a tawny port can be enjoyed many weeks after the bottle is opened. Broadly speaking, there are two main distinctions of Port wine: bottle-aged Port and barrel-aged Port. A more apt term might be “barrel-matured” or “bottle-matured,” since all Port spends some time in a barrel. In general, bottle-aged Port tends to be smoother and less tannic. Barrel-aged Port tends to take on some of the qualities of the wooden barrels, including taste (remember “oakiness”?) and color. Further, barrel-aged Ports (or “wood Ports”) end up more viscous, due to a slight amount of evaporation. Sharing the pinnacle with vintage Port, it has been said that whereas vintage is the ‘king’ of Ports, tawny is the ‘queen’. The ageing process is of vital importance. While a vintage Port will mature for a short time in large wooden vats and then in bottle; tawnies will age for much longer in small casks before bottling. These casks, known as lodge pipes, have 600- to 640-litre capacity.

As mentioned above, Ruby Port stays good for about three to four weeks after opening. Tawny Ports can be kept in the fridge for about a month, or two weeks at room temperature. LBVs can last for a week, maybe two if it’s unfiltered. Before a Port can be bottled as a vintage it must be submitted to the IVDP (Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto) for approval. This can happen anytime between 1 January and 30 September in the second year after the harvest. Once the wine has been bottled it continues to evolve slowly over a period of at least 15 to 20 years or more, before it is considered ready to drink. White Port – Briefly aged before bottling, these are meant to be drunk young, and range from crisp dry wines, best served with tonic, ice and lemon, to sweeter versions, which go well with puddings. There are some aged white ports, too. Single Quinta Vintage Port – These ports are produced from a port house’s best vineyards in a great year, but may not be quite good enough for a declared Vintage Port. Great with cheese. Late bottled vintage ports are of even higher initial quality, and are matured in wood for four or five years.

Again, go with some of the top names in Port, like Sandeman’s or Warre’s. Graham’s makes a good one, too. Late Bottled Vintage PortCrusted Port – A blend of outstanding young ports from two or three harvests, these are left to mature in the bottle, forming a “crust” (natural sediment) as they age.

There is a tradition of giving port to a newborn to enjoy years down the line, once they’re old enough to drink it. However, the vast majority of port these days is sold to be consumed immediately, and very few will develop at all once they’re in the bottle – much less improve. Port is a fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in Portugal. Port is heavily regulated by the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto. Unlike Champagne, which has impostors all over the globe, Port must be produced, labeled and marketed according to a myriad of strict rules. For someone learning the ropes, this is actually a good thing. The rules governing Port lend it a clear-cut terminology that’s a far cry from the ambiguous fluff and puffery that other bottles of wine may try to confuse you with. For starters, the way to tell you’re holding an authentic bottle of Port is dead simple: look for the Selo de Garantia, a white seal that reads “Vinho do Porto Garantia.” Eat well, live better, stay healthy - sign up for our free monthly Food & Health newsletter for the latest insights delivered straight to your inbox Spending more doesn't guarantee a better bottle, as we found when we asked independent wine expert Charles Metcalfe to try a selection of ports in 2021. But it helps to be in the know about what to look for.

Port is produced by adding aguardente (sometimes referred to simply as “ brandy”) to (usually) red wine. This does a few things. Obviously, it ups the alcohol content (20% ABV on average), but it also preserves more of the natural sugars from the grapes by stopping the fermentation process. Lastly, the fortification in Port brings warmth to your body. (On that note, Port is often used as communion wine for its sweetness. When I was a kid, I thought that warm fuzzy feeling was Jesus’ love. True story.)

It’s safe enough to drink, but if you’re sensitive to the smell, it can be offputting, and impacts the flavour of the drink. This means that it interferes much less with the fruit in a young wine than the coarse, rather oily spirit used previously. Certainly recent declared vintages such as 2007 and 2011 are notable for the purity and clear expression of fruit, even at this early stage. David Guimaraens, head winemaker for The Fladgate Partnership, maintains that the transition from youth to maturity will be much smoother in future, with less of that awkward adolescent stage. This should make vintage Port easier to broach at an earlier stage but the best wines should still age for a lifetime.After the harvest these wines are monitored for a potential vintage. The decision to ‘declare’ a vintage is made independently by the shipper and it is not one that is taken lightly. There is no law about the regularity of Port vintages but there are usually three or four a decade. However, over the past decade there has been a string of fully or partially declared years including 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. As you’d imagine, the greater the age, the greater the price tag and the more nuanced the flavors. However, most Tawny Port connoisseurs agree that a 20-year Tawny Port provides the best return for your time and money. At this stage, the tannins begin softening up, allowing the flavors to really come forward. Quinta do Portal 20 Year Old Tawny Port and Ferreira Porto Duque de Braganca 20 Year Old Tawny Port are great buys. Vintage Port With huge improvements in winemaking from the 1980s onwards, the production of a good vintage Port is much less of a hit-and-miss affair. Unless the year is a total washout (eg 1993 and 2002), wines of potential vintage quality can be made every year. Consequently wines from good years (in between declared vintages) are bottled by the major shippers as single-quinta vintage Port (SQVP). The same rules apply as to vintage Ports, the only difference being that the wines come from a single quinta or estate with the recommendation that they may be drunk earlier, after 10 rather than 20 years. Ruby Port is often filtered (or fined), meaning it’s ready to drink as soon as it’s bottled—no decanting required. This makes Ruby Port perfect for popping open and serving in a small glasses along with fruit, cheese and other desserts.