Sommeliers Corner
...From The Stables Wine Estate

Winter – a time for Port Style Wines

During these cold winter months.... especially in the Midlands where the Berg is capped in snow and the winter winds blow bitterly cold down the rolling hills of the region there is nothing more satisfying than a few glasses of good old Port, or Tawny as we call it in South Africa, in front of a roaring fire.

Unfortunately I have recently sold out of our Experience KZN Drakensberg Tawny, with only a few cases left for our Vinoteque, I went on the hunt for some other good South African Tawny and found that whilst I have been focused on producing good old fashioned port style wines in the old fashioned way some of the countries most renowned port producers have been successfully experimenting and producing interestingly different ports.
Did you know that you can now enjoy a white port?  Or even a pink port? A far cry from the deep ox blood red of a traditional port!

Port was first produced many hundreds of years ago in Oporto in Portugal who were well known for producing table wines from the Roman times, and the story goes that the son of a British wine merchant from Liverpool was sent to Oporto in and around the late 1600’s to find wine and he came across a monastery in Lamego where the abbot was adding brandy to the wine during fermentation as opposed to after fermentation which was a known practise at the time. By adding the brandy during fermentation, the wine stops fermenting leaving the half wine half juice rich, sweet and strong which then becomes Port. Today we add grape alcohol and mature the port style wine in barrels for a number of months, the length of time depends on both the wine and the winemaker, I tend to leave our port for at least 12 months in older barrels (in other words barrels that have been used two or three times before), port aged in barrels or barriques are generally called Tawny Ports.

Now days one can also get Ruby Ports which generally tend to be amongst the cheaper port style wines as they are aged in stainless steel tanks or concrete vats rather than barrels, this has the effect of preventing oxidative ageing and preserving its rich ruby or claret colour.

Pink Port is a relatively new variation on the market, the first release was in the UK in 2008, made according to the strict rules governing the production of Ports and Tawny Ports using the red grapes they are crushed and left on the skins for a few hours, just like a Rosé wine; typically the flavour is reminiscent of a light Ruby Port and is very fruity; ideal to serve chilled.

White Port is produced from white grapes in the same fashion as a Ruby Port and ranges from being very sweet to dry, often this port can be left to age in the bottle for some time, however with the ageing process the white colour will darken, sometimes becoming difficult to differentiate between a normal Ruby Port or a White Port. White Ports are excellent served slightly chilled or used in cocktails.

De Krans from Calitzdorp were the first producers of Pink Port in South Africa and has won a Gold Medal at the Michelangelo Wine Awards, produced from typical port style cultivars such as Touriga Nacional and Tina Barocca with the result being a lovely vibrant blush colour, with rich flavours of fresh red berries and has a superb after taste that lingers.

The most well known White Port is produced by undoubtedly the Fathers of Ports in South Africa – the Mossop family –  from Axe Hill also in Caltizdorp, released in the same beautiful bottle as all their Port wines, this port wine is produced from Chenin Blanc, and comes with flavours of apricot dried fruit and honey.
Both of these port wines are available at our Airport Cellar at King Shaka International Airport for tasting and purchasing, along with a variety of standard ports and tawny’s.

And just to throw a curve ball, very shortly we will not be able to use the term Port on our Port wines as they have not crossed the Bar at Oporto in Portugal; so very much like Champagne we were can’t use this on our bottles of sparkling wine, we have to come up with another name; at the moment most Port producers call their Ports, Port Style Wines or Cape Tawny or Ruby. Hence I have started with calling our Port –Drakensberg Tawny; my next vintage of this wine will be released in a couple of months time.

Till the next time...
Tiny & Judy
www.stableswine.co.za