MALU LAMBERT SIPS HER WAY

from SA Connoisseur - Issue 289, Winter 2022

DAVID BIGGS ON WINE’S

FEATURE | From Port to Port Port to Port From

Porto is magni cent. Situated on Portugal’s Iberian peninsula and established in the 12th century, it’s one of Europe’s oldest cities. e antiquity is palpable, crumbling granite buildings, the spires of Baroque cathedrals punctuate the sky, winecoloured slate roofs ramble up slopes. It’s so ancient that its heart, the vibrant area known as Ribeira, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site: there narrow streets wind like tributaries around its centre, the scent of grilling sardines dri ing amongst the ornate neoclassical architecture.

As if to emphasise the treasures you’ll nd here, the city lights up like a jewel

Malu Lambert drinks in Porto —and plenty of Port while she’s at it; bringing home some winter sipping inspiration

box at night. I stood on the banks of the Douro River, the storied city at my back, gazing at the warehouse district of Vila Nova de Gaia, home to the famous Port lodges. Ablaze with golden lights, the two-tier Dom Luís I bridge connects the two districts, its ironwork structure reminiscent of the Ei el Tower. Across the dark water illuminated signs announced the familiar names—Dow’s, Graham’s, Taylor’s—my eyes hooking onto the iconic Sandeman Don, cloaked in the famous black cape of Porto’s students.

Housed in those mysterious lodges is largely the world’s supply of Port; the contents of barrels of every possible size ticking over in the underground cellars below the river line. In the subterranean maturation wings, the ground is carpeted with powdered chalk; I found this out when exploring the labyrinthine insides of Graham’s. It’s how they spot the leakage, I was told, the inky port splashing onto the white.

Port is unlike any other wine processing system in the world in that fermentation and maturation take place at two di erent locations. Port wines were historically sent downriver aboard rabelo (sailing boats) from the Douro Valley to mature here. ese days the boats bobbing on the river are mostly just for show and more modern modes of transportation are employed to get from A to B. e historical, and current reason for this practice is that Vila Nova de Gaia bene ts from the proximity to the Atlantic, providing the moderate temperatures and humidity needed for the long maturation period of Port wines.

TO THE DOURO

e next morning I was picked up by a representative of Symington Family Estates. e h generation wine company owns substantial holdings of

vineyards and wineries of Port as well as Douro DOC wines, meaning they were just the people to show me the wonders of the region.

En route to Pinhão, the Douro unspools in all its mythic beauty as the highway gives way to the river. e emerald water snakes through the rolling hills that typify the region, vines inch right up to the precipices of the schistous peaks. It’s early spring; the air is cool and crystalline, nothing like the scorching temperatures that will descend in summer; the heat then aids in locking in the deep colour and robust avours needed for Port winemaking. A keen balancing act as extraction is halted before fermentation ends; so enough colour, tannin and avour compounds need to be present before forti cation with Portuguese grape spirit, aguardente. Hardiness in this extreme place it seems is a default characteristic for both the grapes and the classical straw-hat wearing farmers who tend them.

At Quinta do Bom m, home of Dow’s, we walk through the terraced vineyards, the schist and quartz soils glinting in the limpid sun. So proli c is schist here that even the trellising poles are hewn from the rock. Somehow vines push through the inhospitable geological terrain, which seems a miracle in itself.

And when you taste the wines, it is a marvel indeed. Dow’s 30-YearOld Tawny Port impressed the most. Chiselled out of earth and dust, gravelly yet somehow light and full of air. It’s a vignette of its home, ashing grainy images of sun-baked schist, the torpid water of the river, and of oak casks in gloomy cellars deep underground, sleeping through the decades as the world goes faster above. Port soaks up time and transforms it into avour.

ON HOME SOIL

From one of Europe’s oldest ports, to South Africa’s. Back in the Cape, the Dow’s tawny opened over a long Sunday lunch, we got to chatting about the decline in the popularity of Port-style wines here at home. e sweet forti eds slowly and seemingly irreversibly falling out of favour with the market. e Cape winelands have a long history (though not quite as mediaeval) of making these wines and of farming Portuguese varieties. At one point Stellenbosch-based JP Bredell Wines was the largest private port estate in the world.

Today Portuguese cultivars ourish in the Klein Karoo – its climate in many ways mimicking the hot, arid conditions of the Douro Superior. e most widely planted is Tinta Barocca, then Touriga Nacional, followed by Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), and to a lesser extent Tinta Amarela and Souzão. is ratio is generally also observed in the Swartland, the area can be credited with planting Portuguese cultivars in the rst place

‘Today Portuguese cultivars FLOURISH IN THE KLEIN KAROO – its climate in many ways mimicking the HOT, ARID CONDITIONS of the Douro Superior’

in 1939 by Allesverloren. e region, along with Stellenbosch and Paarl has a number of old vineyards, which are increasingly being used by younger generation winemakers to make more new wave expressions, concentrating on depth of fruit but with a certain lightness of being and drinkability.

While port-making remains a focus for traditional strongholds—De Krans, Boplaas, Allesverloren, Calitzdorp Cellar and Peter Bayly—many are now also diversifying and are exponentially using ‘port cultivars’ to make still, dry wines, expanding their portfolios, and with it hopefully their pro ts. e Cape’s Mediterranean climate is already well suited to Portugal’s indigenous grapes, and with climate change already turning up the temperature dial; these hardy grapes can take the heat.

According to the recent Sixth Assessment Report from IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) the mercury could rise to 1.5°C as soon as 2030, an alarming prediction that should see growers doing everything in their power to future-proof their vineyards, starting immediately. Bordeaux is already following suit; Touriga Nacional was recently named as one of the seven new permitted Bordeaux AOC grapes, in a bid to o set rising temperatures. And if the Bordelaise are doing it, we should probably pay attention. ough the Dow’s tawny may have been the highlight wine of my trip, dry Portuguese wines also made an impression throughout my stay. Not only do they o er climatic adaptability as stated above, but also a dazzling array of new textures and avours from the abundance of over 250 indigenous grape varieties. I’d like to see more planted in South Africa; the Chablis-esque nature of Arinto; the fragrant and fruity Albariño; to the intense and elegant Touriga Nacional, and all of its robust contemporaries.

Portuguese explorers have a long history with the Cape, perhaps it’s time we swing that around. is winter seems like a good time to explore Portugal, even if it’s in the glass.