I got an old OXO tin for Christmas. I know that sounds like a really strange thing to receive, but I love it. It isn't just an old OXO tin, it is a commemorative one from the coronation of King George VI (if you aren't up on your royal history, it is the person Colin Firth played in The King's Speech) and is in the shape of a red British post box that can be used as a money box. It is battered, with slight rust on it and has had a hard seventy five years life, and because it is in a bit of a bashed state, I like it all the more. It would be easy to get a reproduction tin, all shiny and new, for me to store my cufflinks in (for that is the purpose for which it was bought), but it wouldn't have a history. The genuine article, flaws and all, is what I want because it has had a life.
Old vintage port, like my OXO tin, has had a life and I love the stuff. No two bottles are the same, each tells its own story and has its own character. Bottled after two years in barrel, vintage ports evolve in ways that you can't predict, some in the cellars at Villa Nova de Gaia, others in the cellars of mansion houses, and some under a bed in an old cardboard box. Some are bottled in Oporto, others (before 1970) sent to other countries and poured into glass there. The taste of each is influenced by their journey and each has its own character.
Tawny ports are different from vintage as they are always 'at their best' when you drink them. Having done all their maturation in barrel, they are blended to a style, one of maturity and oxidisation. Although I have tried younger tawnies, I'd never tried a forty year old before. Here is what I found out when I compared an older Tawny with a vintage port from the same house, approaching it's half century.
Taylor's 40 Tawny Port
A lot of dark, liquorice aromas with some caramel and raisin. Cocoa and toffee and some lovely sweet tobacco. The palate is fat, globular and spicy. Very little balance and a lot of alcohol heat. There is a spice flavour there and the finish is sweet and clean but it is just lacking in any grace and is, really, a 'bang for your bucks' wine, and at a hundred pounds a bottle, that is a lot of bucks. 85pts
1963 Taylor's Vintage Port, bottled by Berry Bros & Rudd
1963 Taylor's Vintage Port, bottled by Berry Bros & Rudd
Gentle, graceful ripe cherries with a lovely bright sweet fruit aroma. Restrained with hints of damson and cigar tobacco. The palate is very elegant, a touch of spice and some alcohol up front. Mingles with a lovely mint, cocoa and leather palate, savoury notes throughout with a delightful tarry finish. Delicious and a snip at £150. 94pts
For me, and it is just me, Tawny ports are nice but just a bit crude. They are the reproduction OXO tin that I don't want, shiny, new and the same as dozens of others - a 'fake' aged expression if you will. The vintage port however is my battered, old pillar box tin - full of character, life and a story of its own. Every bottle from the case will tell its own story, as my tin will tell a different story from the others made in its production run. This individuality is the appeal of drinking old wines, every bottle is a never-to-be-repeated experience.
For me, and it is just me, Tawny ports are nice but just a bit crude. They are the reproduction OXO tin that I don't want, shiny, new and the same as dozens of others - a 'fake' aged expression if you will. The vintage port however is my battered, old pillar box tin - full of character, life and a story of its own. Every bottle from the case will tell its own story, as my tin will tell a different story from the others made in its production run. This individuality is the appeal of drinking old wines, every bottle is a never-to-be-repeated experience.
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