colYEAYta

My father brought this along to share these holidays...After thoroughly enjoying the complexity and length on this puppy (at least a minute on the palate, moving through fruit to that gorgeous nutty subtlety that colheitas possess), my father the heathen then proceeded to declare the superiority of a tawny produced in Oz by Yalumba called Galway Pipe. Now, Galway is pleasant, drinkable, a nice simple finish to an occasion, a nonvintage with 12-15 years on it...but cannot hold a candle to a colheita.
I should step back, however, before I get into the beauties of colheitas and explain a bit about tawnies. Tawny ports go "tawny" and develop their nuttiness as a result of extended aging in oak barrels and oxidative exposure. They are nonvintage, a blend of years to maintain the house flavour; Reserve has been aged at least 7 years in oak, but other options are 10, 20, 30 or 40 year olds. And then, THEN, one has colheitas, tawny ports produced from a single vintage. These are rather special, rather particular, rather beautiful. A definitive 92.