I've come to the conclusion that they never drink it at the right time - not that its their fault, just they have never experienced perfection in a bottle of port. A bottle of Madeira is easy, regardless of the age or quality, you open the bottle, pour and it is at its best. Sherry too is another open, pour and enjoy wine, but port is much more than that. It is a journey.
The first part is the one the wine has been on in the bottle, where it has been stored for the numerous decades of its life. This can influence the wine in many ways for the good and the bad as it can be as varied as a high rise tower block's kitchen to a cellar in a mansion house.
But even after that, the journey continues as I discovered with two bottles of Graham's vintage port. They were the 1970 and 1977 vintages, and both were tasted over a much longer period of time than would normally be the case with a bottle of port. I decanted both when opened to get rid of the sediment, leaving them in a decanter for four hours(ish), which I reckoned to be the average time a port would sit before being consumed. After tasting them, I cleaned out the bottle and poured the wines back in. The change that these wines went through over the following week was incredible, and this is why I don't think that my friends rate vintage port higher.
The 1970 Graham's started off with a bit of tobacco, dried fruit and some alcohol coming off. There was a strawberry element too, some honey and then blackcurrants and tobacco. The alcohol was so prominent on the palate, with the leather elements and a bit of cognac almost coming off. There is no way that this wine was showing as well as I've tried it before, and I scored it 88points. But then I did something I rarely do, I put the cork back in and put it in the fridge. Two days later, I poured another glass, allowed it to get up to room temperature and tried it again. It was sublime - a beautifully balanced port, the alcohol spikes were gone, the fruit and secondary, savoury flavours has integrated together and there was a delicious chocolatey element too. I scored it 96points. Then, a further three days later, I tried it again, and although it had passed its peak with the fruit gone a bit, it was still far better than after four hours in a decanter, and scored it 93points.
Now I'm not suggesting that everyone put a forty year old port in a fridge and drink it over a week, but this just goes to show that the normal decanting time given to most ports wasn't enough for this wine - it probably required eight hours in a decenter at room temperature to soften, if not longer.
So I decided to do it again, with a bottle of 1977 Graham's port. Again, decanted to get rid of the sediment, I tried it and it had a lovely rich, sweet berry aroma with chocolate covered cherries and a little bit of burnt berry pie on the nose. There was a lush, sweet spice on the palate, again with the alcohol coming to the front, with dark, sweet cherries, spice and leather. There was a pepper and caramel sweetness throughout with a prune flavour on the finish. 91points. But it was still not perfect. The next day, stored at room temperature, this wine had softened out with the alcohol still being there but masked by juicy, concentrated berry flavours. The prunes had developed into figs and then there was a dark chocolate flavour. It was much better and I scored it 94 points. Then, a further two days later, it was a bit of a boozy mess, with lots of secondary flavours coming off, leather, liquorice and wood. 85points.
I know this wasn't a controlled experiment, the 1970 was just trying to eek out a bottle of port for a few days as I was on my own and wanted to drink some nice wine, but the outcome was conclusive, and that the usual time to allow a bottle of port to breathe is not enough.
Which gets me back to the point I made at the beginning - I think one of the main reasons my friends don't 'get' vintage port is that they don't drink it at the right time. They may not want an 'open and pour' wine, but vintage port needs to be thought about, considered and given the time to finish its journey and even a port buff like me rarely gives a wine the chance to do this, rest assured, I will be doing it as much as I can from now on.
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