Cockburn’s Miguel Corte-Real knew before the vintage was bottled that the climatic conditions enjoyed along the Douro in 2000 would yield an “outstanding” wine.
Photo: George Rose
2000 Vintage Port -Taking the Millennium in Stride
By Lyn FarmerAmid all the hype over the "Year 2000," and with the marketing machines around the wine world amping up to sell bottles labeled with the turn-of-the-millennium vintage, Oporto was quiet by comparison. This is, after all, the home of wines that can mature for 100 years or more, and where vintage dates infrequently get emblazoned on bottles.
Indeed, the Port wine trade, for nearly three centuries as much an English as a Portuguese enterprise, viewed the millennium vintage with characteristic reserve. I was there during the harvest that autumn, stomping grapes in the 11,000-liter (2,500-gallon) granite troughs called lagares. Slogging through the thigh-high mass of grapes, stems and juice on a cool, October night, I sensed joy and hope, but no one was ready to say whether 2000 would be one of the rare vintages that deserved to be "declared."
A few days later, standing in the tasting room of the Symington family headquarters in Oporto, Paul Symington, a managing partner of the family firm that produces Graham's, Dow's, Smith-Woodhouse and Warre Ports, as well as Quinta do Vesuvio, a Port that is usually estate bottled, would only say he was hopeful for a great vintage. Hedging a bit, he cautioned that yield was down as much as 30 percent in some vineyards in the Douro.
Last May, with the finished wines out of cask and finally in the bottle, Paul's brother, Dominic, and his cousin, Rupert Symington, embarked on a whirlwind tour of the important United States market. We crossed paths in Dallas, where they were pleased to proffer samples of 2000 vintage Ports from five of their houses.
Remembering my small role in the harvest, Rupert relished delivering his report. "It has turned out to be a phenomenal vintage, one that will last a long time, but that shows great vibrancy now," he enthused. His cousin went further out on the proverbial limb. "I think these are among the best wines we have made in a long time," Dominic asserted, a stunning statement from one of the world's foremost makers of fortified wines.
In the end, every major Port house declared the vintage, which is to say everyone felt their wines were exceptional enough to make a Vintage Port.
Early on, some observers worried that producers in many of the world's wine regions would inflate appraisals to sell bottles with the magic year on the label, but in the austere landscape of the Douro Valley no exaggeration was needed. "The 2000s are deep, brooding wines, very massive and intense," Paul affirms.
Miguel Corte-Real, commercial and viticultural director at Cockburn's - which made a particularly compelling wine in 2000 - says the weather played into their hands. "The winter was mild and dry, although spring rain at flowering caused reduced tonnage, but the summer was hot and dry, providing uniform grape maturation in perfect Douro growing conditions," he explains.
Then, with no small pleasure, he adds, "It was obvious by the end of harvest we had made a wine that was truly outstanding."
Alistair Robertson, chairman of the erstwhile Taylor Fladgate that now, with the recent acquisition of Croft and Delaforce, is known as The Fladgate Partnership, shares Corte-Real's enthusiasm: "The 20th century produced some magnificent Vintage Ports…crowned by a 2000 vintage of exceptional quality."
Vincent Bouchard, the French owner of Quinta do Tedo, one of the newest and smallest producers of Port, agrees. "[Along] with 1997, 2000 gave us the best wine we have ever made," he says. Bouchard believes the hallmarks of the 2000 vintage are "finesse and more fruit even than in 1997," while Adrian Bridge, managing director of The Fladgate Partnership, notes, "The 2000 vintage quality was there from the beginning - we had great conditions."
Best of all, most producers bumped prices only five percent over the excellent 1997 vintage, which would support the Port producers' assertion that the year 2000 isn't being marketed more heavily than any other classic vintage. It was no secret that the Port producers, along with every other winemaker in the world, wanted to be able to release a great wine carrying the millennium vintage, but Bridge says that the impulse held less sway in Oporto than elsewhere: "What one has to remember is that we don't make it every year; we do say when the quality is there, we make the wine. In this case there's no doubt the 2000s have great intensity and weight." As it happens, in the last decade of the 20th century most houses declared only four vintages - 1991 (or 1992, in some cases), 1994, 1997 and now 2000.
No other great wine region in the world produces so few vintages, although Champagne is only marginally more proficient. And, as in Champagne, the solution for vintners has been to develop wines that are a blend of many vintages to smooth out the roller coaster. In fact, classic Vintage Port accounts for only about two percent of the wine produced.
For aficionados, however, Vintage Port is the benchmark by which the region is judged. Houses large and small stake their reputations not on the blended tawnies or rubies they make to stay in business, but on the Vintage Port they turn out only occasionally. For some producers it is nearly a crusade. "Our philosophy is we aim to do Vintage, and the other wines are extensions down from that," Bridge says. "We think that this approach differentiates us from other producers, that we try to make Vintage Port out of every grape we grow."
As with any rarity, the zealousness of collectors determines value. Peter Symington, the family's winemaker for nearly 40 years, has seen the once-sedate Port market that appealed primarily to old-school British consumers blossom into a worldwide phenomenon. "Vintage Port has been made since the mid-18th century, but has had many ups and downs. In our time, 1963 was a crucial vintage - it was the first year after the Second World War that Port reestablished itself," he recounts. "It was a great year, with lots of wine of very good quality, and it came at the right time for the world market."
Dominic Symington says Americans' current love affair with Vintage Port was spurred by the 1977 vintage, released in 1979. "It was a great vintage and coincided with a rise in wine collecting in the states," he explains. "By the 1985 vintage, it was clear the U.S. was really serious about Port, and with the 1994 and 1997 vintages, it became the Port industry's principal market for Vintage Port," surpassing even Britain, which was for centuries the greatest consumer of Vintage Port in the world.
If the 1963 vintage ushered in Port's modern era, then 2000 may be viewed as vintage in which many of the old guard began to defer to more youthful stewards.
The firm's older heads may be handing off the baton, but up and down the narrow streets of Vila Nova de Gaia, a town across the river from Oporto and the site of most of the administrative offices, it seems they are keeping it all in the family. "A number of firms have passed control to a younger generation," says 39-year-old Rupert Symington. He and his cousins are the fourth generation of Symingtons to run the firm; Peter Symington is turning winemaking responsibilities over to his son, Charles, and the sons of Michael, Ian and James Symington - Johnny, Paul, Dominic and Rupert - are all involved in sales and marketing. James' daughter Clare is more loosely affiliated with the firm. Fladgate's Robertson, the nephew of founder Richard Yeatman, remains chairman, but his son-in-law, Adrian Bridge, has acted as managing director for the past three years.
Johnny Graham, who is related to the W&J Graham family, is not yet ready to step down. The 51-year-old founded Churchill's in 1981 with his wife, Caroline Churchill. He had previously worked for a number of Port firms, though never at Graham's. Churchill's remains the first British Port wine company to be founded in the last 50 years, and Graham is proud of his independence. "At a time when the Port trade was moving from old family firms to multinational groups, I felt that there was room for a specialist producer of premium Port made in the traditional manner," he says. "Not tradition for its own sake, but because there is no better way of making Port."
This changing of the generational guard has not brought with it a massive influx of contemporary technology as it did 20 years ago in Bordeaux; rather the influence of these young bloods is much subtler. "We continue to make Vintage Port the way we always have - to last a long time, not to be consumed earlier," Bridge says.
Accessibility, also described as drinkability, is a sensitive issue for many in the Port trade. Bridge wants to keep making wines that require many years to mature because those wines gain the most complexity.
But some industry insiders question the marketing sense of that practice. George Sandeman, whose former family firm has changed hands several times in the last decade (it is now operated by the wine group Sogrape), has spent much of his 30-year career touting his product. "Clearly, there's a new generation of consumers who appreciate Port, but just don't want to wait the 20 or 30 or 40 years it takes to mature a great Vintage Port," Sandeman explains.
These younger drinkers may be impatient, but they also come to the table with palates honed not on the old Bordeaux drunk by their grandparents (if, indeed, their grandparents drank wine), but on ripe, opulent, highly extracted California and other New World wines. "They are less afraid of tannin and more demanding of forward fruit flavors," Sandeman notes.
With this in mind, Sandeman's winemakers have been experimenting with a Port style he calls Vau Vintage; made in an unabashedly approachable style, it is meant to be quaffed when it is anywhere from five to 15 years of age. Of course, the house still makes a classic Vintage Port whenever nature cooperates. Sandeman views the Vau only as an option, not a replacement. Some Port lovers dislike the concept, while others welcome it as a handy approach to broadening the Port market, an important consideration in an industry where sales have been relatively flat for years.
San Francisco-based Bartholomew Broadbent has been in the wine trade for nearly 20 years, specializing in Port and Madeira (Portugal's other great sweet wine), and believes "there's been a lack of innovation in the Port trade."
Broadbent, who sells Broadbent Port, made for him by Niepoort, and also imports A.A. Ferreira, one of the largest houses in the Douro, as well as Quinta do Crasto, among the smallest, says adhering to age-old practices is overemphasized in the trade. "It is more an issue of marketing than of technology, but every element affects all the others. More innovation would be welcome because we must expand our market. But look at the packaging of most Port - it's really stodgy."
Broadbent observes that the youthfulness pervading the Port houses is mirrored by the consumers who are now drinking the wine. "Fifteen years ago, when I moved to the states, it was a market for people 60 or 70 years old and mostly men," he notes. "But it has kept creeping down to people in their 50s, 40s; now I can hold a tasting that brings in a totally different audience. I see everyone drinking Port now." Case in point: He recently led a seminar in San Francisco for a group of professional women. "They were all under 30, and 150 of them came to the tasting," he reports. "The consumer marketing has to address this and shippers can't be so foolish as to ignore a new consumer base."
To Broadbent, that means more interesting packaging and sales tactics as opposed to tinkering with what is in the bottle. "I don't think these changes will affect Vintage Port all that much, at least not directly. But when we talk about the Port market, we're talking about all styles of Port - both wood matured and bottle matured - and what happens with other styles affects Vintage Port, and vice versa, even if it doesn't entail making a Vintage Port for early consumption."
The Port houses that do not embrace the creation of a more accessible wine even acknowledge the Vintage Port category is changing nonetheless. "There is no doubt that Port today is fruitier and riper than the wines that past generations made," says João Nicolau de Almeida, the chairman of Ramos-Pinto. "This is not so much because we want to change Port, but because we are all better at making it now." Nicolau de Almeida cites improved cultivation practices in the vineyard, more sophisticated methods of determining ripeness and the use of more appropriate containers to transport grapes from the vineyards to the presses.
Bridge agrees with Nicolau de Almeida's points and adds that none of these factors make a huge difference alone, but they have an affect in the aggregate. "The improvement we've had in viticulture, better picking, better vinification, all mean there are more attractive flavors and elegance in the young wine, whereas 50 years ago that might not have been so - the wines might have been a bit greener," he allows.
For some Port makers, technology has been a stabilizing force that has even helped them retain some traditional qualities in their wine.
Charles Symington, the winemaker for Graham's, Dow's and Smith-Woodhouse, among others, has been working with his father to create a mechanical means of replacing the foot treading in stone lagares. The robotic treader they came up with went into mainstream use at Graham's Quinta dos Malvedos with the 2000 vintage. "The 2000 vintage is the most aromatic vintage we've made to date, and that is partly thanks to the robotic lagares."
He argues, however, that more obvious aromas represent an enhancement of an inherent quality in the wine, not a redirection of style. "We're not bringing new technology to the winery to change the wine," he says. "Foot treading is still the best way for us to make our wines - it is the gentlest way to extract the most color and flavor from the grapes, and keeps the wine soft and well integrated. In this case, the technology isn't a quality replacement, but a resource necessity."
The resource is people. The Douro is a poor area and many of the young people who might once have joined the treading teams are seeking jobs in cities along the coast. Bridge says Taylor, Fonseca and their other properties have faced a similar labor shortage, and have also been developing a mechanical replacement to balance the deficit. "We've spent five years of research and development to create new automatic lagares to overcome the labor shortage," he says. "That doesn't mean that we embrace all technological changes. We're very traditional, and we recognize that the mechanization during the 1960s and '70s with autovinification [a technique for automatically pumping juice over grape skins to help extract color] isn't perfect for all of our wines."
According to Charles Symington, doctrine remains Port's guiding force. "In 1756, the Douro became the first demarcated wine region in the world, even before Bordeaux. The specific location of vineyards was important then, and it is still important today," he says.
Bridge concurs: "At the end of the day, it's about terroir." In a group of brands such as those controlled by The Fladgate Partnership, maintaining style is crucial. "One of the most basic ways we do that is discipline in choosing vineyards to supply grapes within the individual brands," Bridge says. "The human skill is the checking element that ensures the standard. But it always comes back to the place the grapes are grown. Technology can't change that."
Charles Symington elaborates. "House style is terroir-driven - it's the vineyards we use that set the tradition."
In other words, customs and wine character endure in the Douro because the land is the great continuum, regardless of changes in technology, the weather or the millennium.
2000 Tasting Bar
Barros, 2000 Port - $26: Deep ruby color. Jammy aromas of red and black fruit with pleasant spice and black pepper qualities. Moderately sweet, medium body in the mouth with a medium finish. Not a powerhouse, but quite pleasant. Score: 86
Broadbent, 2000 Port - $60: (Made by Niepoort.) Bright ruby with purple overtones. Laid-back aromas of red and black berries, anise and a Rhône-like herbal note that gives the nose extra dimension. With aeration, a lovely floral sense comes into play with violet notes giving the nose wonderful dimension. Medium sweet, a bit restrained in the mouth but very fine balance of black cherry and earthy flavors. Medium finish with fine, dusty tannins. Score: 91
Cálem, 2000 Port - $80: Very bright, deep ruby color. Heady aromas of roasted berry and lovely hints of anise and dark chocolate in the background. Rich texture on entry, quite sweet with cherry, plum and chocolate flavors predominating. Medium finish with ripe flavors resonating to the end. Score: 89
Churchill's, 2000 Port - $80: Deep purple color. Forward aromas of blackberry and anise. Medium sweet, the wine is quite full-bodied with tannins so ripe it is easy to miss just how much staying power the wine possesses. Very long finish. Score: 92
Cockburn's, 2000 Port - $65: Deep, intense ruby color with purple highlights. Very ripe, forward black fruit aromas with plum notes supported by tar and mineral nuances. Dense flavor profile emphasizes sharply delineated plum and dark chocolate flavors. Very firm in the mouth; will need time, but shows great balance and flavor integration. Wonderful. Score: 93
Croft, 2000 Port - $64: Brilliant, rich ruby color, not as intense as some others, but hardly lacking in aromatic impact. The wine has a wonderful combination of bright dark fruit - blueberry especially - with violet and mineral notes. Quite sweet with very good acidity and tannin in the mouth. Very long finish that shows restraint and subtle power. This wine marks the return of Croft to its elevated place in the Port pantheon. Score: 91
Delaforce, 2000 Port - $56: Bright ruby color. Complex aromas with a lovely dark, earthy quality: smoky spices, a hint of anise and forward black fruit prevail. Grapy and slightly hot in the mouth, but plenty of flavor intensity from the black fruit - it just needs more time to integrate the alcohol with the fruit. Nice, long finish - needs time, but not as much as the more muscular wines of the vintage.
A good candidate for (relatively) near-term drinking without sacrificing quality. Score: 90
Dow's, 2000 Port - $70: Very deep purple with blue overtones. More austere on the nose than many of the 2000 Ports, there is a marvelous black cherry and currant component, but much less of the floral quality of, say, Graham's and Vesuvio. Quite tannic and lean in the mouth, but loads of fruit lurking in the background. Comparatively dry on the very long finish. Graham's and Dow's represent two stylistic poles, one sweet, the other less so, but no less intense and well knit. The Dow's is excellent, very much my style of restrained, powerful Port. Score: 95
Feist, 2000 Port - $35: Ruby color and rather light compared to other wines from the vintage. There is plenty of bramble and black fruit in the nose, and medium intensity in the mouth with black cherry and chocolate flavors. Medium finish with surprisingly muscular tannins. Score: 86
Fonseca's, 2000 Port - $81: Bright, deep ruby color with hints of purple. Very forward, complex aromas of concentrated black cherry, raisin, blueberry and plum, and haunting notes of spice and mineral. Great dimension with beautifully balanced black fruit, chocolate and spice flavors knitted together by crisp acidity and silky tannins. Very young and, while the fruit is quite forward now, the wine is clearly built to last. Absolutely classic. Score: 96
Graham's, 2000 Port - $80: Deep purple color. Surprisingly forward plummy bouquet with richly floral, violet-spiked scents. In the mouth, the fruit is rich and forward with bramble flavors and lots of black fruit. Typical of Graham's, the wine is quite sweet with great finesse and elegance tempering the significant fruit. Lush, opulent and perfectly balanced. Score: 97
Osborne, 2000 Port - $60: Richly colored ruby-garnet with forward aromas of black cherry, chocolate and cassis. Quite sweet in the mouth, even a bit candied, with medium body and intensity and plenty of black fruit flavors. Medium finish and still a bit of heat on the close. Score: 89
Quinta do Tedo, 2000 Port - $75: Saturated, dark ruby color. Noticeably forward fruit aromas of cassis and plum as well as hints of mocha and mint. The wine is quite big in the mouth with a lush texture and moderately intense, well-defined black fruit flavors of currant, blackberry and plum. Good length and fine tannic grip on the close. Score: 90
Quinta do Vesuvio, 2000 Port - $70: I have always loved the elegance of this wine that is released as a single Quinta in every good vintage. My affection for the 2000 may stem partly from having trod the grapes in the lagares at Vesuvio, but the objective taster cannot help but note the exceptional ripeness of the grapes and the intense, brilliant ruby-purple color. Aromas of black raspberry and fresh prune with a wonderful floral character. Lean notes of smoke and tobacco give the wine considerable verve. Violet aromas are beginning to emerge, a quality that becomes more pronounced as it ages. Rich in texture but not overly sweet; its long finish is filled with ripe, slightly dusty tannins and just a hint of dark chocolate on the close. Score: 92
Adriano Ramos-Pinto, 2000 Port - $59: Very bright ruby color. Full nose with beautiful aromas leading to intense flavors of brambly, wild fruit. Lots of forward black fruit gives great dimension without adding heaviness. With its moderate intensity and approachable aromas, this is a fine Vintage Port for the newcomer. Good finesse and a long finish. Score: 91
Sandeman, 2000 Port - $60: Full ruby color. Beautiful aromas of dark red fruit including blackberry and raspberry. Full bodied with a great velvet texture and a long expression of rich, bright fruit. Long, very balanced finish. Not as powerful as some, but undeniably elegant. Score: 90
Sandeman Vau Vintage, 2000 Port - $45: (Made in an overtly fruity style to facilitate early consumption.) Not quite as intensely purple as its longer-lived sibling. Approachable aromas of blueberry and blackberry. Silky texture with very attractive flavors of black cherry and blackberry. Nice acidity on the close makes for a lush, sensual wine that should be popular with those who don't want to wait 20 years to drink their Vintage Port. Score: 90
Smith-Woodhouse, 2000 Port - $50: Bright ruby color. Sweet, clean scents with forward aromas of dried grapes, dried peach and apricot. High acidity in the mouth imparts great freshness. Highly viscous with a silky texture, the wine has considerable elegance. Very refined and a great value. Medium weight, with a long, very appealing finish. Score: 93
Taylor, 2000 Port - $81: Very deep ruby-garnet color. Complex, intense aromas of cassis, anise and very ripe blueberry and plum. Powerful in the mouth with bright black fruit flavors and a well-defined mineral back note. The classic steel fist in a velvet glove: restrained power is the overwhelming impression. It will take two decades to reveal its entire dimension and then should last for many more years. Wonderful, long finish that just blossoms on the palate. Score: 96
Warre, 2000 Port - $65: Deep purple color. Still a bit diffuse on the nose; elegant and light with a beguiling floral quality alongside a noticeable hint of violets. Quite complex, uplifting aromas that are forward but not assertive. Plummy flavors emphasize red fruit and chocolate. Very elegant on the long, gentle finish. Score: 92 - LF
Senior Editor Lyn Farmer is also the restaurant critic for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
