Colheita
By Scott Miller
COLHEITA (kuhl-YAY-tah) n. Portuguese : vintage, harvest, or
crop
when on a bottle of port, indicates that the bottle is not a
"vintage" port, but rather a tawny port harvested in the indicated
year and aged in wood until released. May also be referred to as
"dated port"
From a 150-year-old family Port house comes the 1988 Porto Rocha
Colheita Tawny. Touriga is the primo winegrape in this traditional
blend aged in wood for over a decade. The selection presents the
best of both worlds in Port: intense fruit flavors normally
associated with Ruby, and the lighter, delicate flavors of a Tawny.
It's an old, old story …
A November program door prize celebrates two centuries of a
uniquely special wine. Porto Rocha commemorated 15 decades of their
family Port house with a 150th Anniversary "sail" design bottle
packaged in a lined oak box. (You may have sampled it at Wine Fair
2001.) Guest speakers Todd and Bernice Cromwell donated a bottle of
this Rare Old Tawny for a giveaway at the Wines of Portugal program.
What makes this item even more extraordinary is an apparent
bottling "oops" in a mistake very much in the consumer's favor. It
was believed that blends of tawnies from 1937 to 1950 were used, but
following release and distribution it was discovered that some of
the lots blended in the cuvée were actually far older. In reality,
two-thirds of the 150th Anniversary blend is from scarce vintages of
the late 1800s to 1900 - wine that would sell for up to $700 a
bottle!
Smith Woodhouse’s Colheita is a rare Tawny Port produced from a
single harvest, in this case, 1976. The wine has been aging in oak
casks and was bottled this year (2001). In this aging process the
wine develops complex secondary aromas and flavors and surrenders
its vibrant red color to take on a deep golden hue like other
Tawnies.
- Smith Woodhouse’s 1976 Colheita does not need to be decanted
- Once bottled, Colheitas require no further aging
- Pour 3 ounces in a classic Port wine glass or in an 8 oz.
tasting glass
- Avoid using cordial or liqueur glasses as they reduce the
aromas
Suggested pairings: drier salty cheeses such as Aged Gouda and
nougat
or caramel desserts
Speaking of port:
By law, if the producer decides to "declare" the vintage, that
port must be taken out of barrel and bottled within two years of the
vintage.
But if the port is allowed to stay in barrel for years, sometimes
decades, and is then bottled with its vintage intact, it becomes a
vintage-dated tawny, or colheita.
A number of the "Portguese" houses make a specialty of colheitas,
including Niepoort and Barros.
The good news is that these ancient tawnies can be exceptional,
complex wines. The bad news is, they're expensive.
Case in point: Rocha.
The good news is that Rocha puts a lot of its colheitas in
half-bottles. The bad news is that the 1938 Rocha Colheita -- ****
-- is ... $125 a half-bottle.
However, the 1963 Rocha Colheita is only $40 a half-bottle, and
it's an outstanding vintage. And the 1977 Rocha Colheita is less
than $20 a half-bottle, and it's another very fine year.
Tawny ports have a sweet, caramellike flavor. You can serve them
with mild cheeses or a not-too-sweet pastry.
Or you can drink them by themselves. Now that's what I call
dessert.
Enjoy!
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