A few weeks ago I was in Portugal, mainly to taste wine and port. Port wine is something I to connect with Christmas (and all other days too). To sit and sip a glass of really good port wine together with a piece of chocolate, a piece of cheese or just with the feet warming in front of the fire-place is pure pleasure.
Personally, I’m fond of tawny and colheita port. Tawny is a port that has matured for at least seven years in small oak barrels, has a lighter colour and a clear barrel-ageing character. The wine is sold with the age specified on the bottle, such as ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years. It is a blend of wines with an average age as indicated.
Colheita is a port that resembles a tawny but comes from a single vintage and is matured in oak barrels until it is ready for consumption.
It is hard to choose when you have fabulous wines to choose from. In the end it was a stand-off between Kopke Colheita 1937, 1957, and 1961.
After careful consideration the 1957 wins, mainly because of a great acidity that makes it seem as if this wine’s flavours echo between the taste buds for an eternity.
Magnus Reuterdahl writes on wine on BKWine Magazine and is an avid wine blogger. You can read more of his thoughts on Magnus Reuterdahls wine blog, or follow him on twitter where he goes by @reuterdahl. In daily life Magnus is an archaeologist.
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Keen on ports? On a BKWine wine tour to the Douro Valley you will taste many ports and enjoy Portuguese gastronomy, and of course to fabulous scenery along the river.
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