Port carries onBy Susan KeevilPort is one of those unusual wines (Champagne is the other) that is crafted in many styles, but is only proclaimed to be of "vintage" standard when a particularly ideal growing season comes along. In any given decade, there are usually only three declared Port vintages. A fourth declaration is far more rare, yet it looks like that very scenario is now unfolding. Alongside the fabulous 2000s and 2003s, 2007 and, very probably, 2008 are set to be vintage stars, despite all the brouhaha over climate change.
Who would have thought 2007 would acquit itself so well? Consider the Warre 2007 vintage report: "In October and November 2006, it rained very heavily, indeed ... Flowering and fruit-set [in May 2007] took place in cool damp weather, so reducing yields somewhat ... June was damp with 2.68 inches of rain - the norm being .94 inches." And this from Dow's: "The 2007 vintage could have gone very wrong two or three times during the lead up to the harvest ... June was decidedly unsummery with a very wet middle of the month (2.36 inches of rain was measured at Quinta do Bomfim). This brought the risk of fungal problems and secondary infections of downy mildew. July brought more showers on the 15th and 16th that further compƒlicated the fungal situation and made it very awkward to maintain our grapes in good shape ... it would have been disastrous if August had been wet rather than just cool."
If September's weather hadn't come around, the vintage would have been an all-out disaster. But things did improve, and the Douro's more southern latitude (by 10 degrees) tempered what was miserably cold weather here in London into "not as bakingly hot as usual, thank you very much" weather in Oporto. As so often happens with wine, the cooler conditions brought finesse.
Christian Seely of Quinta do Noval offered an instructive summation of how it all went right in the end: "Rain is a pretty good thing in the Douro. We like it ... When it was all over, we went into the ripening season with relatively low yields on the vine, then sunshine, but not too much heat to begin ripening. There were cool evenings, which are a very good thing for the character of the vintage. The 2007 has a unique, balanced character with lovely freshness, lovely purity of fruit and silky, fine, well-harmonized tannins because of the prolonged ripening period. Harvest was long and cool. Grapes had all the time they needed to ripen. We could harvest each variety when [perfectly ripe] and not be rushed."
To prove they weren't overstating things, the Port houses staged a preview tasting in London featuring the 2007 vintage alongside the revered 2000 and 2003 vintages.
Warre's 2000 was rich, dense and powerful, full of thick berry fruit with a smoky finish; its 2003 had smoky coffee and cherry on the palate, tailing off to a delicious, mellow layered caramel and plum finish; 2007 was, if anything, richer and denser than its predecessors with pure black pepper and black currant fruit - deeper, darker and much more forceful.
Quinta do Noval's 2000 was full of its usual abundant perfume (burnt raspberry, cherry and minerals); its 2003 displayed layer upon layer of black and red fruit; the 2007 again showed its youth (but no sign of rain or dilution) as a whopping, raw-edged, black-fruited monster with a coffee edge and molasses intensity at the finish, making it one of my favorites.
Not to be outshone, the Taylor took its heady sweetness to a new level of divine intensity with its 2007; by comparison, the 2000 was quite reserved with a berry freshness hinting at the abundant fruit it will exude once out of its dumb phase; 2003 was also standoffish (then, these wines are meant for the 20-year long haul), but possessed some powerful sweet cherry and violet flavors in relatively simple form alongside steel-girder tannins designed to help this Port last and last. Still no sign of a weak, wobbly 2007 vintage.
Fonseca's almost woody, sweet-fruitedness frames all three of its wines: 2000 was all honey and caramel with underlying hints of strawberry; 2003 warmed the palate with fig and cherry; yet 2007 seemed to have displayed extra layers of coffee, molasses, walnut and raisin - facets of complexity that single it out as a classic vintage rather than as an also-ran. Indeed, 2007 exudes an elegant array of characteristics brought about by the cooler conditions.
Graham's very masculine lineup began with the smoky-tar-laced 2000; the meaty, smoky 2003 offered black cherry complexity; and 2007 maintained an equally high standard with intense, almost violet-kissed, figgy, boisterous fruit that blasted through the finish and bore no hints of a miserable June.
Croft's 2000 was raisiny, black fruited and, at the same time, ethereal and gracious; 2003 was similarly powerful and dense with elusive hints of rhubarb and prune tempting the senses; 2007 showed inky black fruit at its youthful core, but with extra raisin and vanilla flourishes that promise more heady aromas and complexity to come.
No matter how lovely the recent vintages are, there's no doubt that these are challenging times for Port. Many view this wine as a luxury rather than as a gastronomic necessity. (Banish the thought! Port is, of course, a necessity.) But the Port kings aren't about to release a "marketing" vintage without the quality to back it up.
"Please don't write us off!" exclaims Paul Symington (joint managing director of Symington Family Estates, the biggest vineyard owner in the Douro Valley). "We'd be wrong if we said 2007 wasn't being released in tough times. But we must remember that these wines will still be great long after this recession has disappeared into the history books. We would be silly not to bottle in this year. It's that good!"
I'm willing to bet that 2007 will possess all the 20- and 40-year longevity expected of any well-stuffed vintage Port. It might not have been baked and blasted by full-on summer sunshine, but it's all the better for that. And if the Port producers really like rain as much as they say they do, then they are welcome to it.
To survive our third rainy summer in a row here in England, I needed to fortify my soul with plenty of what they were offering. Fall is no less damp and far more chilly.
London-based European Editor Susan Keevil is a freelance wine journalist and regular commentator on the U.K. wine merchant scene.
