Graham’s 20 Year Old Tawny Port 75cl

Product Information

Rosé port – Just like rosé wine, here you can expect to find notes of strawberries and raspberries, alongside a caramel sweetness. Cheese, chocolate, fruity puddings and sorbet are all excellent pairings – serve ice cold for maximum enjoyment.

Tawny Port is often regarded as a dessert wine due to the intense flavor and high ABV. It’s commonly served in a smaller glass and portion (around 3 oz.), just under room temperature.

Port is a Portuguese fortified wine often enjoyed alongside a cheese board, after a big meal or simply as a relaxing evening treat. It’s safe enough to drink, but if you’re sensitive to the smell, it can be offputting, and impacts the flavour of the drink. There has been an unwelcome tendency for some 20-year-old tawnies to be marred by an excess of ‘Douro bake’, a characteristic that seems to be given credence by the tasting panel at the Port and Douro Wine Institute, which has to approve each and every lote of Tawny. The reason that Taylor’s scored so highly in the Decanter World Wine Awards was precisely because the wine had great poise, displaying remarkable freshness as well as age.

Both tawny and ruby ports could benefit from a slight chill, and white ports should be kept at fridge temperature. White! Rose! Tawny! Vintage! There are different ports for different people. Whites are bright and best served chilled, vintage ports are pricier, but ready to sit in your cellar. Rose ports are a happy medium – easy for sunny days, after dinner drinks, and beyond. Provided the wine has been well nurtured, a certain amount of bake can be a positive characteristic in a mature tawny. Many shippers use a small component of Douro-matured wine in their aged tawnies. Burmester, Fonseca, Niepoort, Noval, Sandeman, Taylor and Ramos Pinto all produce 20-year-old tawnies in the premier league. The port shippers themselves often prefer to drink a 20-year-old in preference to vintage. The refinement of a 20-year-old tawny befits the climate and temperament of the Douro better than the heftier, bottle-matured wines which are more at home in cooler climes.This tawny’s appearance follows the footsteps of the previous one: garnet-red with pinkish-orange highlights, a polished amber shininess, and the transparency of looking through golden-brown sunglasses. The main shippers look to maintain their own house styles, but it is the ageing process which is of crucial importance to the style and character of a tawny port. In small casks or pipes of between 600 and 640 litres, the wine undergoes a slow process of oxidation and esterification as the colour fades and ethyl esters and acetals develop in the wine. To use the local parlance, the formation of these volatile components – known colloquially as vinagrinho (little vinegar) – are directly influenced by the ambient storage temperature and the rate of evaporation. Red ports tend to spend fewer years ageing in wooden barrels or vats, which should give them a fruitier, more tannic profile and a vivid red-purple colour. Tawny spends more time aging in wood before bottling, specifically smaller-sized barrels, which permits slow oxidation and significantly affects its appearance, aroma, and taste. Make note, each producer makes a unique style and identity, as well as some proprietary practices, that distinguish their products from anyone else’s.

A good rule of thumb for pairing with desserts is that the more intense the flavor of your delicious confection, the older you should aim for your Tawny Port wine.White port – Best served cold, white port is delicious and refreshing with a splash of tonic, and makes a great alternative to your beloved G&T. Often drunk as an aperitif, we’d recommend serving it with a side of salted almonds. A tawny port aged in the Douro ages differently and more rapidly than that aged in the cooler conditions of Vila Nova de Gaia where most of the shippers’ lodges are to be found. Here, annual evaporation tends to be no more than 1% or 2%, whereas in the Douro the figure is around 3%. One single quinta making 10-year-old tawny estimates that by keeping the wine up in the Douro, the ageing process is accelerated by around 30%. A higher rate of evaporation serves to concentrate the natural residual sugars and the higher temperature produces wine with a distinctive toasted richness, known as ‘Douro bake’. Late bottled vintage ports are of even higher initial quality, and are matured in wood for four or five years. We asked Charles for his tips on choosing the best bottle of port, and explain what we found when we tested supermarket ports.

Read on for our full guide including what the difference is between red and tawny ports, decoding the label, and the best way to serve it for maximum flavour.It depends on how long you anticipate aging it for! If something is left to sit for time, let it rest on its side away from direct sunlight, just as you would any fine wine. If you have an open bottle, you can store it at room temperature or in the fridge. Chilling a bottle will extend the lifespan — the cold slows down the oxidation process. Will my expensive Port get even better the longer I keep it? Yes… no… maybe. First of all, if you want to age a wine, you need good basic conditions in which to do it: cool, constant temperature, moderate humidity, and no light. There are two kinds of wine that are distinctly Portuguese. One is the very satisfying mostly-white, rosé, and red wines from the Vinho Verde region, and the other is the sweet fortified port wine which also happens to be one of the country’s national treasures. Geosmin is a chemical compound that can give wines and ports an unpleasant, earthy odour, usually the result of using grape crops having been affected by rot. You can find a range of ports at most major supermarkets, as well as specialist retailers. Supermarkets that sell port wines include: