Yes I’d read about this as well but haven’t done any kind of comparison, mainly that would mean opening a few bottles at the same time, a lot of port to get through! And there would be vintage, shipper and bottle variation.
Post 2000, I had a 2013 Graham Crusted last night which was good, lots of fruit and not much sign of age, no spirity-ness. Likewise with a Croft Roeda 2018 recently . I’ve had Gr 2007 a few years ago and felt it was closed, so I’m going to stick to my rule of thumb of not opening VP between 5 and 20 years old.
One thing I’ve noticed with older ports is sometimes there is an off smell that goes away with some air but I don’t know what causes that
Im not really a port drinker but I do like it on the rare occasion, so I just purchased the society’s crusted port.
It says to decant it, which is where my question is, can I decant some and leave the rest In the bottle, and how long does a stored opened bottle of port last?
Also how long should you decant/rest port for? Ive read 2-3hrs.
Ive always purchased port from the supermarket and just poured straight from the bottle and then stored the bottle in the cupboard for 2-3 weeks or so.
Thanks
Crusted port should be treated as a young vintage port so this link should help. The whole bottle should be decanted IMO.
I have a decanter but no stopper, so is it best if I decant whole bottle (leaving any sediment in bottle) and then wash out bottle to store any I don’t drink that day?
AKA the “double-decant”. This should be fine.
I agree.
If you check the video on the https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/the-societys-exhibition-crusted-port-bottled-2013 page Joanna Locke explicitly states that she double decanted it! I have the same bottle and that’s what I’ll do. I then figure on finishing the bottle by the new year.
I have some Vacuvin stoppers as well so I will double decant and then seal it, Im sure it will only last a few days though, lol!
To be honest, if you’re not keeping it long, I’d just re-cork it with the original cork. I’m always a bit twitchy about what else gets pumped away with the air in the vacuvin system. But that’s a conversation for another thread!
‘the fortifying spirit which, it is easy to forget, makes up 20% of the wine’
Easy to forget because it’s not true! The spirit brings alcohol up to 20% from whatever level the partial fermentation of the grapes reaches before it’s arrested by the addition of the spirit - in the range of 6 to 9% depending on sugar content of the grapes, which would mean spirit is 11 to 14% of the finished wine. Where’s the quotation from?
I do agree though about purity of fruit and approachability of the 2007s - Graham has been drinking beautifully for five years. And I also remember reading that particularly poor spirit quality in the 80s spoiled many 85s - which chimes with my experience of that disappointing vintage.
In that case I’ll have to crack open another to see how its doing!
Any excuse!
I am finding it awkward to follow this discussion. There appears to be some switching back and forth between the %age contents of the bottle in terms of volume, and the %age in terms of alcohol.
Sorry it’s getting confusing! Port is always 20% alcohol, give or take 1%. I don’t know how much aguardiente (the spirit used) is added but it is added early in the grape fermentation to make it 20%. Someone with better maths could work that out!
This gives a good description of the process- How Port wine is made, in pictures – Jamie Goode's wine blog
I guess you’d only know for sure if you knew the abv of the wine pre-fortification and the abv of the fortifying spirit.
20% or more of the liquid contents of the bottle being spirit would seem plausible to me if the spirit is only at 40% abv.
Ive never decided if port gives worse hangovers because of its constituent parts or if (more likely) it’s because it’s often drunk on nights of general overindulgence.
Definitely
Present from my sister-in-law, who kindly brought this back from the lodge on a visit to Porto.
Perhaps not a desert island wine, but I can’t imagine anyone not liking this: nicely balanced, not too spirity nor too sweet, with a clean taste and a seasonally appropriate whiff of cloves on the nose. Terribly drinkable. Could recommend.
You’re right of course, it depends on the abv of the spirit, which I’d assumed was near pure alcohol. But it turns out it’s required to be 77%. (Other fortified wines do use near pure alcohol for fortifying.)
If the fermentation is stopped when it’s reached 6% then it does indeed take 20% spirit to increase the final strength (coincidentally) to 20%. If the grapes give as much as 9% alcohol, then it’s 16% spirit in the final blend.
Interesting article here:
How long should I decant the crusted port for before I decant back into bottle?
I was thinking 2hrs?
Just straight back I didn’t decant btw just strain last glass through your teeth