Croft Reserve Tawny Porto: A Lighter Sipping Port
Bold, viscous, and potent, port and port-style wines are excellent for those of us who like depth in our dessert wine. Port is fortified Portuguese wine made exclusively in Portugal’s Douro Valley. Though there are many “port-style” wines (I once worked at a place that imported a wine called “Fort”), the Douro Valley is the only region that has the stake on port.
When you imagine port, you’re probably picturing a deep maroon liquid. Well, there are different colors on the port rainbow spectrum. For instance, vintage ports only hang out in barrels for a maximum of two and a half years, retaining their dark color. After being barrel aged, vintage ports will often continue to age in bottles, sometimes for decades. However, vintage ports are considered extremely valuable because they’re made from grapes reaped from the top vintage, only from select years, which means they can only be few and far between.
But there’s also a lighter, more amber-colored port called tawny. Tawny ports are less selective and more common than vintage ports, but can be very interesting and tasty nonetheless. For one thing, tawny ports are aged much longer than two and half years, many of them sitting in the barrel for several decades. What’s more, they’re purposely aged in porous barrels in order to experience oxidation. While we don’t always think of oxidation in a positive light, in this case it’s responsible for a tawny’s unique taste and, of course, tawny color.
Croft, a port house that’s been around since 1588 recently released a “Reserve Tawny Porto” which has been aged for seven years. I brought the port to my in-laws for the holidays, thinking it might be a good accompaniment for typical heavy holiday food. However, one bottle led to another, and pretty soon I realized Christmas vacation was coming to an end and we hadn’t consumed a single drop of port. So I did the normal thing and opened the bottle at around 11 a.m. - fun!
Good thing this port was actually quite light in terms of taste. I must say, the color was swoon-worthy. It’s worth swishing around the hooch in your glass to get a good look. The nose was a nice blend of wax and brandied fruit, and it had me expecting an equally strong palate to accompany. What I actually tasted was some very predominant strawberry, followed by raspberry and a last note of richer fruits (like prunes). This is actually a fresh, casual port that can be easily enjoyed sans food or with fare both light and rich. No wonder it has a melange of high ratings - Croft Reserve Tawny Porto is indeed a versatile dessert wine.
Croft Tawny Reserve Porto clocks in at 19.9% ABV, a nice middle ground in terms of dessert wine strength. It’s typically sold for $20, which isn’t dirt cheap but is more than appropriate. Enjoy it at a meal or on a Sunday afternoon. Or hey, give it to your in-laws - whatever occasion suits.