10 year old?????

I'm sat here, on new year's eve, not really wanting to celebrate the coming new year (they call me misery, you know), with a bottle of supposedly 10 year old Tawny port sat on the right hand side of my monitor, and I was asking myself just what makes a tawny port.

If I wanted to make a similar offering myself, would it be made from my own grapes of mixed colour? That way producing the tawny effect.

Would it be some other method I am not aware of? Judging by the label on the bottle, I think not.

It appears the tawny port is simply a mixture of what grapes are available in a particular region, crushed and fermented, then chemically sulphited to end the fermentation at a certain level, that way saving some of the sugars available (with alcohol added, distilled from the poor mixes of vine production) and that way incorporating the sweetness from the present ceased ferment and the alcohol from past ferments, making a very palatable 20% tawny port.

This concoction is then matured in oak barrels for ten years (supposedly) and allows the producer to charge the public at large a higher price for this product.

Fine, the extra alcohol does quickly effect my addled brain, but this would happen if it was contained in any liquid that was drunk, so what of the flavour?

It's the old story! Very pleasant, but once you've taken your first glass (at the 20%), you do not taste anything more.

Oblivion beckons!!!!!

See you soon,

George