The Douro Valley is a modern family tree of British, Dutch, and Portuguese lines with one little twist: The region’s first Port house was German. In 1636, Nicolau Kopkë, a consul of north Germany’s trade league, moved from Hamburg to Portugal to capitalize on new European trade routes. He began selling and shipping Port wines to Germany, a humble love affair with wine that turned into a business in 1638, thirty-two years before two Englishmen opened an office called Burgoyne & Jackson (which would later become Warre’s).
From whites to rosés, Tawnies to Rubies, blends to vintages—not to mention Crusted, Late-Bottled, Reserves…wrapping your brain around Port wine and its hard-to-pronounce suitcase of native grapes is no picnic. What makes Kopke stand out is that they have found a niche, and prestige has followed. Kopke crafts the full range of Port styles, but Colheita (a.k.a. single-vintage Tawny) is their wheelhouse. For less than $100, it’s almost impossible to find something made this well—the perfect mix of dried fruits with silky threads of hazelnuts, toffee, and delicate spice. When I visited Kopke last month it Portugal, we sat and savored many old vintages, but when we asked the server her favorite Colheita vintage ever, she responded immediately: 1985. I smiled since I already had a bunch en route to the US for our customers. When you hear Kopke, think Colheita (col-yee-tah) and discover the best ‘secondary aroma’ wines you’re not drinking. The best part of all is that, unlike vintage Port, which can fall apart in days, you can have this wine open for weeks, if not months, with little to no degradation of character if kept corked, cool, and shielded from light. I have had numerous old vintages of Colheita Port months after they were opened, so there is no rush to enjoy this classic in a single evening.
The two general categories of Port are Ruby and Tawny, critically divided by how the wines age in the cellar. Colheita Port belongs to the Tawny category, meaning it spends most of its life in a breathable wood vessel before going into the bottle. Unlike the labels “10-, 20-, or 30-Year Tawny Port,” however, which are made by blending vintages, Colheita Port is made from the grapes of a single vintage (colheita is the Portuguese word for harvest). In basic terms, Colheita Port is a tawny style Port from a single vintage, but it is not a “Vintage Port.” Vintage Port belongs to a separate circle; it is technically a type of Ruby Port and goes into the bottle much earlier than a Colheita, which makes the taste much more dark, sweet and fruity. On the other hand, by law, Colheita Ports must spend at least seven years in cask, ample time to let oxygen interact with the wine, fostering the trademark “tawny” characteristics of amber color, dried fruits, and delicately spiced delight. One of the truly great beverages on earth, Vintage Colheita Port is the style I personally prefer to consume. Its complex aromas and savory characteristics lean towards Madeira in style.
Colheita Ports offer incredible value because they represent the best of both worlds: the singularity of a vintage enveloped by the process of slow and controlled oxidation. It’s important to point out that some producers lean on the flavors of oxidation in a Colheita style to mask the diluted fruit personality of a weaker vintage. On the market, you’ll typically notice superior vintages linked with Vintage Ports and lesser vintages associated with Colheita Ports. But, with Kopke there is no ‘lesser’ or ‘second place.’ 1985 is five-star vintage, certainly the best of the 1980s, and on par with fellow, middle-to-late 20th century icons like 1994, 1977, 1970, 1966, and 1963. 1985, though, has one other thing that the other vintages lack: soccer. Kopke reminds us that 1985 is the birth year of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, and for Kopke, soccer, like Colheita, is their heritage lifeline.
Kopke’s 1985 Colheita is an even match of four grapes: Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, and Tinta Barroca. The vines climb up to 600 meters and live in a mineral dream of schist, sandstone, and granite. Fermentation takes place in the traditional granite vessels called lagares. When the right amount of sugar converts to alcohol, grape brandy is added to halt fermentation, leaving behind residual sweetness. The grapes are blended and moved to cask for 7 years. When storing the bottle, keep it in a cool dark place, away from light and temperature fluctuations. We suggest storing it for a few days to settle the natural sediment in the wine, but there will not be much at all since most of the sediment fell in the cask over many years. A narrow white wine glass is perfectly fine if you don’t have a proper Port glass. Due to its delicate age, forgo the shock of decanting and let the wine unravel on its own by pouring a few ounces from the bottle into the glass just above cellar temp, roughly 60-65 degrees, a touch warmer if you wish. The wine is vividly amber with reddish caramel undertones and displays an immediate comfort in richness on the nose. There’s a warm welcome of dried fig and cherry, preserved orange, toasted and salted hazelnuts, sandalwood, and sweet pipe tobacco. The wine is persistent, wide and moving with tobacco, cocoa, crushed schist, and Christmas spice. The sweetness is not cloying, rather invigorating and invisibly hides in between the layers of flavor. This wine will drink well for decades longer. It is a meditation wine, perfect after a holiday meal with good conversation and something light and custardy. Clafoutis are clutch because they are time-savers, and you can adjust the recipes based on what fruit is available. Try the attached recipe from Julia Child, and think back to your special moments of 1985. Cheers!
