2007 Port – Wolves in Haute Couture

The home of Taylor – Quinta de Vargellas – beside the mighty Douro

Hot on the heels of a fulsome and well-taken up 2008 Bordeaux campaign comes the declaration and release of the 2007 ports.

I must confess that I find myself in the dark as to who buys and cellars port these days. The 2000 vintage, which we offered some years ago, proved very popular and we sold a pretty healthy chunk of the stuff. Then along came the '03s - better wines, by and large - and the world showed what can only be described as indifference, leaving them, in the main, "on the shelf".

So what will become of these 2007s? As a vintage it is better yet than either 2003 or 2000; a harvest about which James Suckling of The Wine Spectator stated, "Great Vintage Port was made in 2007", going on to opine, "I was spellbound by the top Vintage Ports of my tasting".  Suckling rates 2007 as better than both 1977 and 1955…but will that help us to sell them?

I must confess to being a very occasional port drinker and I am not sure why that should be. When I do drink port, I drink mature bottles from top shippers and I very much enjoy them. Why drink cheap port? Keep it for mulled wine or cooking. For opening at the end of a fine meal only the good stuff will do. Thus a bottle of 1970 Dow, consumed recently on a visit to the Borders, was absolutely delicious and much enjoyed by all who consumed it.

The Vintage Style

2007 was a remarkably cool year. Various factors contributed to a reduction of the yield in the vineyard and the lower than normal temperature helped the fruit to retain a purity and freshness rare in these fortified wines. These are elegant wines, complex, with lovely acidity. In some cases they almost tasted like young claret. One could imagine drinking them quite soon, with roast beef on the Sunday lunch table.

These are not blackstrap blockbusters and as such, perhaps they are fine ports in something of a modern idiom. Okay, so all vintage port is tricky to evaluate at this stage. I tasted them all and then had a biscuit and a glass of water. Then I tasted them again. I had lunch; I tasted them again. Finally, I went 'round the room and retasted specific wines I thought I should if I wanted to fully understand them in the egg sacs of their youth. I think I now have. And I think them very good indeed.

The Wines

N.B. The tasting notes below are amalgams of all notes taken at the two tastings at which I sampled these wines

Vintage	Wine	Drink dates	Case size	Price IB	Notes	Order
2007	Smith Woodhouse, Douro, Portugal	2018-2035	6x75cl	£141.00
2007	Quinta do Vale Meao, Douro, Portugal	2017-2030	6x75cl	£150.00
2007	Croft, Douro, Portugal	2019-2035	6x75cl	£156.00
2007	Warre, Douro, Portugal	2020-2028	6x75cl	£171.00
2007	Quinta do Vesuvio, Douro, Portugal	2018-2030	6x75cl	£183.00
2007	Niepoort, Douro, Portugal	2019-2035	6x75cl	£186.00
2007	Dow, Douro, Portugal	2020-2040	6x75cl	£186.00
2007	Fonseca, Douro, Portugal	2022-2040	6x75cl	£189.00
2007	Taylor, Douro, Portugal	2022-2045	6x75cl	£195.00
2007	Graham, Douro, Portugal	2018-2035	6x75cl	£204.00
	Show all wines with notes in printable format