Time, in the right hands, can do remarkable things.
That magic is especially evident in Port, where extensive aging in barrel or bottle (depending on the type of Port) helps integrate the layers of flavors, tannins, and alcohol. Port is a unique category of wine where the tradition of fortifying the aggressively extracted wine with grape spirits requires the necessary time to rest and develop. Port is also a complicated wine with different labeling indications that reflect the different styles and flavor profiles. But most unfortunately, Port is often misunderstood as merely a dessert wine due to its sweetness and alcohol level (20%). Port should really be seen as a time capsule that has the ability to transport flavors of previous generations in a bottle.
At Kopke, one of the oldest Port houses in Portugal, they continue the legacy of producing traditional Port. They have an extensive inventory of aged Tawny Port (especially White Tawny Port, a very niche category of Port wine) dating back to the 1930s that are still maturing in their cellars, only being bottled and released when specifically requested. These wines are truly from another time, and have been handed down to the following generations to maintain and care for.
As Carla Tiago, winemaker at Kopke, puts it, “…we are bottling wines that were made several generations ago. Our job is to take care of these wines made by the people that came before us, make sure they are maintained in proper conditions, and make new wines for the next generation.”
Grape Collective talks to Carla Tiago about Kopke’s tradition, the different categories of Port, and her thoughts on the future of Port.
Lee Pai: Hello Carla, can you introduce to us a little bit about Kopke?
Carla Tiago: Kopke is the oldest port house in Portugal, established in 1638. It stayed in the Kopke family until the end of the 19th Century, and was sold to an Englishman, Mr. Bohane. It was quite common at that time to have English trade businesses buying different companies. Mr. Bohane maintained the company until the end of World War 2. In 1952, Barros Company, another Port wine company, bought Kopke and maintained it until 2006, when Sogevinus Group decided to buy both Barros and Kopke.
(Carla Tiago)
Throughout this history, one of the things that is quite remarkable is that Kopke always maintained their profile of wines that are aged in barrel. For us it's quite an honor and privilege to preserve this legacy.
Before we go any further, can you walk us through the different kinds of Ports from Kopke?
First of all, Port can only be made in the Duoro valley, and we have very restrictive rules. To produce this wine, we can use more than 100 different grape varietals, both whites and reds, thus allowing us to produce White Port and Red Port.
In White Port, you have Fine White Port that is aged three years before release. They can have different taste profiles depending on the residual sugar level, but normally they are fresh and easy to drink. We recommend to drink them at the end of the day or to mix it with tonic; White Port with tonic water is very common in Portugal. Then we have White Tawny Port that is aged longer in barrels before release (like Tawny Port), and we select them to age for 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years old. Then, there is the White Port that we are going to select to make a Colheita Port. Colheita Port is a wine from one single harvest that we age in a barrel, and while we are legally allowed to start bottling it around seven years of ageing, at Kopke we only bottle them after 10 years of ageing. After the initial release, we only bottle the quantity that our clients want.
Then for the Red Port, made with red grapes, we have two different styles. One is Tawny Port that undergoes oxidative ageing in the barrel before release, like our White Port, and is aged for 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 years. These Tawny Port (and White Tawny Port) wines are blended before bottling to maintain a consistent taste profile of the house.
Then we have the Ruby Port. Unlike Tawny Port, we don't want any kind of oxidation during the winemaking process. Instead, we want to preserve all the freshness and fruitiness of the grapes. Within Ruby Port, we have the standard Ruby. Then we have an LBV (Late Bottle Vintage), which is a Ruby Port from one single year that we are going to age for four to six years in our cellars while minimizing oxidation before bottling. Then we have Vintage Port, the only Port that’s meant to age in the bottle. For a Port to qualify as Vintage Port, a sample of the wine two years after the harvest must be sent to the Port and Douro Wines Institute (IVDP) for their assessment and approval. If approved, we bottle the wine by the end of the year. The aging of Vintage Port ultimately depends on the person that buys them, since most of the aging is going to be done at the client's house. You can open it and drink it right away, or you can wait 30 to 50 years to see how it is - I'm pretty sure it's going to be quite good.
When we speak of Kopke, there is a lot of focus on your Colheitas and White Tawny Ports, that feels quite different compared to other Port lodges that are perhaps more Ruby Port focused?
We don't really know the real reason why Kopke chose this path, but this is a very Portuguese way of aging Ports. The most traditional Portuguese Port houses always keep a good amount of Port wine aging in barrels, and Kopke has preserved this practice the whole time, that's why we still have barrels of Port from 1934 waiting to be bottled, or a 1935 or 1937 or 1938, and good amounts of it. These were houses that really believe the best way to mature Port is to keep it in barrels as it goes through a very slow oxidation to develop different kinds of flavors. And, at Kopke, we keep doing it like that. So these kinds of Ports are quite important for us. Not only the Colheitas, but also the whites. We keep them in barrels and we only bottle them by request of our clients. We really believe that this is the way they should age.
What would you say would be defining the character of Kopke's different Port categories?
One of the things that we really try to achieve for all Kopke's wines is to make sure that they have the best balance between sweetness and acidity. We hope that every time someone tastes Kopke's wine, no matter if it's a Ruby, a Tawny, or White, they get more freshness than sweetness, so they'll want to keep drinking these kinds of wines. We always try to make wines that are not heavy, not boring, and are exciting. You are also going to find different kinds of flavor profiles, such as tropical flavors similar to ones you can find in young dry wines.
If it's a Port that has been aged in barrel, you are going to find flavors such as honey, peach, dried fruits, nuts, etc. For the White Ports, you would find a lot of orange and orange peel flavors.
For a Ruby, it's all about fruitiness. So you'll find red berries, blackberries, and sometimes some pepper in the end. This kind of Port always have fruitiness, they are beautiful and they have a great acidity. For people that really enjoy dark chocolate, they are absolutely incredible.
Tawny Port become more complex with time. In the beginning, they will start to develop these dried fruits and figs, and nutty flavor. And as they age, they start getting some spiciness, some cloves, some nutmeg. When they get to 30, 40, or 50 years old, we'll get more bitterness in the end that helps you to discover all the different layers of flavor. So these are wines that are really, really complex, and normally we need time to discover all these beautiful things.
(Kopke's library of Colheita Port)
How do you determine which grapes from your vineyards would go to producing the different Port wines?
Kopke is a historical house, and we have an estate in the heart of Duoro, Quinta Sao Luiz, that contains plots of vines that we use to produce some of our wines. Kopke's Vintage Port, LBVs, and Colheitas, are always produced from grapes from this estate.
What distinguishes the grapes from the different plots? To produce Ruby Ports such as Vintage or LBV, the grapes need deep colors, great acidity, and tannins, to produce a very robust and dark wine. For Colheita, the color is less of a concern since they get aged in barrels, but you need good structure and acidity, and beautiful flavors - this is very, very important. This wine is going to age in barrel, perhaps for a hundred years, so it has to have great ageing potential, that's why we need good acidity and good structure.
Most of the grapes for the other wines are sourced from different farmers that we have worked with for many years, even decades. So we know the potential of the grapes from each of these vineyards.
Every year in August before the harvest, we would try and analyze the grapes. If it's a good year, then we'll have wine for a great Vintage Port, a great LBV, and definitely Colheita. In some years that are not so brilliant, we'll choose the best grapes to try to produce a little bit of those wines.
Can you talk a little bit about Quinta Sao Luiz, and what makes it so special?
Quinta Sao Luiz was bought by Kopke back in 1923, after Mr. Bohane bought Kopke, because the original Quinta that Kopke owned was sold to someone else. Mr. Bohane decided to buy a new estate to guarantee that good grapes, especially for the best wines, will always be available. It was a small estate at that time, and over time, especially in the sixties and seventies, the company acquired all the different estates surrounding Quinta Sao Luiz - Quinta Lobata, Alegria, and Mesquita. So we now have around 100 hectares of vineyards and more than 20 different kinds of plants to maintain a diverse ecosystem.
It's a beautiful place, most of the vineyards are facing north so they are protected from the excessive sun, especially towards the end of the day. This is on a mountain where you have different terraces and different plots. On the highest place we have the white grapes and some Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca. We have the same grape planted in different plots, so we can have different altitudes, different expositions to the sun. And in the end, we are able to blend all the grapes from different plots. The objective is to capture this richness, and this diversity of acidity, sweetness, balance, everything.
(Quinta Sao Luiz)
Portugal is known for the different grapes that go into making Port: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinto Ruiz, and so forth. How do you achieve the quality and consistency of each grape variety, for blending the different wines?
It takes a lot of experience to make a decision when to pick each of them. And of course, each year is going to be different. Chemical analysis helps, but tasting the grapes is most important. You have to see how thick the skin is, if the grape is too hard to crush, if the pulp is too hard to squeeze, or even if the seeds are not crunchy enough, all of these little things are going to help decide when to pick them. It's very difficult to pick all of them at the perfect time. But the ones that you know that are going to give you more richness, you try to pick them at the perfect time.
In the Quinta, everything is well thought out and planned. In August, we are in the vineyards almost every day to try the grapes. Every time, you are always wondering, if this is the perfect time. I find that all of these questionings gradually help you become more focused, and in the end things will go well. You'll always try to have good balance, good acidity, and a good concentration of sugar (especially important for producing good Port). Some of the grapes will be more concentrated, others will have more acidity, so you have to always consider all of these factors as you decide on the final blend.
Can you tell us a little about the winemaking process for Port, and how different it is from table wines?
The fermentation of Port wine is relatively short, normally it only takes three or four days, depending on the quantity of residual sugar we want, then we stop the fermentation with spirits. After that, we allow the wines to stabilize over the winter. January following the harvest is when we decide what we are going to do with the wines: We select the ones for Vintage Port, for Tawny, for White Port, etc. After we have decided on the different wines, we bring them from Duoro to Vila Nova de Gaia.
Kopke is a traditional house, and we conduct most of the Port aging near the sea. The climate near the sea, with moderate humidity and temperature range, matures the wine slower. The resulting wines end up well balanced, delicate, but at the same time still very intense, with great acidity and different kinds of flavors.
What are you evaluating during the winemaking process for Port that is different for table wine?
At Kopke, we have two different wineries, in one of them we only make Port, and the other one we only make table wines. Before the harvest, we already know which grapes are meant for each winery. For table wines, one of the things that is very important is maintaining a perfect fermentation, especially towards the end, so that all the sugars are fermented. After that, especially for red wines, you have to worry about having Malolactic fermentation.
We don't worry about malolactic fermentation for Port because fermentation is stopped at the beginning with the spirit. We are more concerned about the aging process and how it affects the wine, since we might not taste much of the wines that we are producing from these harvests; case in point, right now we are bottling wines that were made several generations ago. Our job is to take care of these wines made by the people that came before us, make sure they are maintained in proper conditions, and make new wines for the next generation. Our role, as a winemaker, is only a very small part of the process.
Can you also share a little bit about the table wines that Kopke produces?
The project started 20 years ago more or less. Table wines are quite new to the Duoro valley compared with Port wine, and we've seen a lot of changes these past years in order to adapt. To produce table wine, the requirements are very different from producing Ports.
One of the things that really helped and changed, is the revival of some lesser-known grape varieties that we've been losing over the years. When you make Port, you seek grapes that give you deep color, great acidity, and so forth. So you reach for grapes that have more of those. Although we have more than 100 different native grape varieties, in the 1980s there was a promotion to focus plant only a small portion of those varieties. So, in the last 10 years or so, many winemakers started looking for the remaining grape varieties that have been forgotten. Ricardo Macedo, our winemaker for table wines is one of them. Thanks to him, we now have grapes such as Viosinho and Tinta Francisca planted, grapes that were almost disappearing. We are now able to have different kinds of wines, not only ones that are more extracted, but also wines that are more elegant. I think these wines are quite amazing.
For those that haven't bought Port before, how would you recommend them to store Port? The same as you would store other table wines?
The only Port that you should store for a long time and expect it to mature in the bottle is the Vintage Port. You can store it like other wines, on it's side, in a place without light, with controlled humidity, and constant temperature between 15 and 20 Celsius. In those conditions, you can keep it for as long as you want. Normally, people will buy a case, and open year by year to compare the changes.
The other ones, such as Tawny or other barrel aged Port, should always be stored up-right (because they have a bar top cork), in a place that is dry with consistent temperature. After opening a bottle of Tawny, all you have to do is to cork it and put it in the fridge, and then reach for it again when you want to drink it. A Tawny or any Port aged in barrel can be stored like this for six months without any kind of problems. Ruby Port can be stored like this for a month without problems. If it's an old Tawny or Colheita that has been bottled a long time ago, we recommend to drink it the same day you open it, because after opening it, it shows all the potential that it has, and after a day or two, it starts to lose the expression.
So a lot of the Port is the kind of wine that you can keep at home to easily sip on without any kind of problem.
To change track a little, what was your journey to Kopke like? Did you always want to be a Port winemaker?
It was a complete accident! My formal education is in biochemistry, and at some point, I had to choose between a scientific journey or work in the industry. I had a teacher who thought I was going to like winemaking, although at that point I was not really sure what I wanted to do.
So in 2005, my teacher introduced me to an internship in the lab at a Port house called Calem (also owned by Sogevinus). I enjoyed it, then when I worked a harvest with them, I realized that I probably want to do this for the rest of my life. I loved everything about it. You get to see all the different grapes coming to the winery, all the changes each day in the must and the final wine.
I did another harvest with Calem in 2006, and then in 2007 I joined full time. The first five years, I worked at Quinta Sao Luiz with the winemaker of table wines. Then in 2013, I started to work with Ports. I am very fortunate this happened because it's something that I really love to do.
As a Port winemaker, I have to ask, how often do you drink Port?
Every day! But if it’s not work related, at least two to three times a week for sure.
What is your favorite type of Port to drink?
I really like Tawny, I'm a Tawny girl. At the end of the day when everything is finished and I don't have to think about anything, I like to sit down and drink a little bit of Port before I go to sleep. It's something that I really, really enjoy.
There is this notion of Port being a dessert wine. What do you think, and how would you pair Port?
This is one of the things that we've been challenging people to try, to pair Port with a meal. Of course you are probably not going to drink it every day, but during special occasions, especially holidays, people are always looking for different experiences. I normally visit the US twice a year, and when I visit some restaurants and their sommeliers, one of the things that we are always trying is to try to pair Port wine with different dishes such as lobster, fish, steak, spicy foods such as curry or Thai food.
There are classical pairings of course, such as cheese. But, there are many more things that we can do. Of course we aren’t proposing to drink Port every day, but once in a while, especially in a restaurant, when people are there to have a different experience. I think you don't go out to eat what you eat at home, so why not try a different kind of pairing when you are at a restaurant.
If we manage to get people to start to have Port during a meal, it's going to be easier for us. But for now, the first step is to show people all the possibilities. And perhaps it will take some time, but we are working towards that. Hopefully in a few years, Port can be seen on tables more frequently.
Beyond Port though, what are some other kinds of wines that you like to drink?
Naturally, I drink a lot of Portuguese wines. We have plenty of different wines to taste here, and I think Portugal is producing great wines in all the regions. I'm also a big fan of Riesling, especially those from Germany and Austria. Even Gruner Veltliner from Austria, I really enjoy that acidity and complexity. Spain as well, I'm a big fan of Jerez too.
I think in the world of wine, there is always something new to discover.
Which sort of vintages do you, as a winemaker, appreciate more? The one that was perfect, there was rain when you needed, there was just enough sun, no pest, no rot, nothing, everything just went perfectly. Or, a vintage that despite everything that could go wrong - rain, landslide, anything - happened, but you were still able to make wine.
Well, during the harvest, I can tell you if everything is perfect, it just feels great, because during that time you have so many different things to think about. One of the most important thing is to have perfect grapes, obviously. If you have that, you can have good wine, while if you don't have good grapes, well, it's going to be very difficult - you can produce medium wines, so to speak, but they are not going to be fantastic. So, for me, of course during the harvest, I wish everything is perfect.
(Harvest at Kopke)
However, an especially hard or difficult harvest can give you a different sense of achievement, like completing a big conquest.
To be honest, there really is no perfect harvest. Something is always going to break, something is always going to go wrong. But, I work with a great team, and even when things are not as we wish, we can work through them. It's great when you work with people that you really trust, with people that also love what they do, they make the difference.
