With the creation of a new Tawny Port and White Port categories in March 2022, bottles sporting a 50-year age statement on their labels began to make their debut in January 2023. Prior to the new ruling, cask-matured Tawny and White Ports were categorized as ten, 20, 30, or over 40 years of age; at 50 years, the wines were simply categorized as Very Old.

Fifty is the average age of the rare wood-aged Ports from several vintages comprising these blends. In the case of Tawny, one key sensory aspect is the absence of aromas and flavors associated with new oak, which it is never aged in.

Kopke, the oldest of Portugal’s Port houses, was established in 1638
and possesses one of the deepest inventories of aged Tawnies in the
Douro Valley. Along with a handful of other producers, including Messias, Sandeman, Taylor, Quinta do Mourão, and Quinta do Vallado, it has now released a 50-year-old bottling. In honor of the launch, Kopke master blender Carla Tiago led a blending
exercise hosted by Skurnik Wines & Spirits at San Francisco’s Press Club last October that was unlike any I have experienced to date.

The session began with a tasting of the extraordinary wine we were challenged to recreate, which was described by Tiago as having layered aromas of cinnamon-scented roasted almond, dried apricot,
orange zest, bergamot, and toffee tinged with salinity. “Synergy is very important in Port blending,” said Tiago. “We don’t rely
on numbers [like residual sugar] when creating a blend. In the 50-year expression, the whole is far greater than the sum of the parts.”

For this sensory scientist, the contents of the Kopke blending kit
amounted to an adult chemistry set: a graduated cylinder for measuring the components of the blend, a beaker for blending, and six different Port expressions to work with.

Lot A, at 20 years old, was the freshest expression, with sweet aromas of caramel, grapefruit, and citrus zest; Lot B (44 years old) was rich and weighty yet harmonious, with ethereal, high-toned notes of dried
fruit and spice; Lot C (49 years old) was confected, with notes of dried fruit, coffee, and brown sugar; Lot D (50 years old) was refined, with subtle notes of wood, tobacco, dried fruit, curry spice, and hints of smoke; and Lot E (53 years old) was exuberant and persistent, with
dried orange peel, mocha, balsamic, and salinity.

The exercise was far from easy, even for the most experienced tasters. “I found the subtle differences in the Ports challenging to blend compared to similar blending exercises with Scotch whisky and other spirits,” said noted spirits writer Camper English, “possibly because of the lower alcohol by volume or the residual sugar. But I very
much enjoyed the challenge.”

At $267 retail, Kopke’s 50-year-old Tawny represents the apex of quality; it’s a wine that has collectively improved during aerobic aging for five decades. According to Tiago, “It’s not only about making a wine you are going to bottle that year; you have to
blend according to the profile of the house and to ensure that the new blend is similar to the last.”