50 years of consistency

[SushiNorth]

g-man recently started planning an offline to compare VPs of the same house but 30 years apart; this got me to thinking...
Given that the bottles we are most likely to see around are not more than 50 years old (1960's and 70's being about the tail end of it), what historic changes have happened for the different major houses -- or the industry as a whole -- that would affect a new-vs-old comparison?

(i.e. changing labels, no effect. Changing weather, anticipated effect. But buying lots of new quintas could mean the wine is significantly altered in composition. The change in bottling location (PT vs UK) would also have a big effect)

[jdaw1]

Three observations:

• The ≤1977 Cockburns taste different to those after.
• Fonseca 1985 has a strong family resemblance to the ’63/’66/’70 triumvirate.
• Taylor 1900 tastes like an older version of Taylor 1970.

[RonnieRoots]

• The ≤1977 Cockburns taste different to those after.

Interesting. Did Miguel Corte-Real give an explanation for this? And was it a change for better or worse?

[DRT]

I think the answer to the old v new Cockburn question is primarily down to the extensive re-planting of Quinta dos Canais during Miguel Corte-Real's reign. It is likely that these re-plantings have turned what was once a field blend into an array of single varietal plantings from which the modern Cockburn's are blended.

As far as I am aware the core of the vineyards that Fonseca and Taylor are produced from have remained as they are now for many decades, which explains the other examples given by Jdaw.

Derek

[JacobH]

I think the answer to the old v new Cockburn question is primarily down to the extensive re-planting of Quinta dos Canais during Miguel Corte-Real's reign. It is likely that these re-plantings have turned what was once a field blend into an array of single varietal plantings from which the modern Cockburn's are blended.

That’s an interesting point, which brings up a tangential question: what effect has the move to single varietal planting in some of the Quintas had on Port in general. Dirk Neipoort was talked about it briefly at the Uncorked tasting and I was surprised at how relaxed he (and I think many other shippers) seem to be about the lack of control of these mixed plantings.

[Andy Velebil]

Really three things have happened in the past 50 years, and the majority of that was in the past 30.

1- Since the 1980's there has been a large amount of replanting in the Douro, with the majority of that being varietal specific block planting. So young vines that the viticulturists and field workers are not familiar with, then the winemaker blending lots that he is not familiar with, and no previous track record as to how that will all turn out. So now that they age, and the wine making team gains experience with all those new vines, the results can be seen and they can tweak things to improve it. I think this is very evident in Cockburns during the verticle. You could really see things get better after the replantings, oh say about 1985 and onwards (1983 was still a bit new and young vines...see old vines aren't always better). But back to the subject at hand....even though some of those late 80's and early 90's had some VA issues the underlying fruit and structure was there. Had the VA not been there, they would have been very nice bottles.

2- Something that rarely is talked about but has a very important effect is there was a major change over of wine makers in the 1980's and early 1990's. Many of the "old guard" were getting older, retireing, and their children or in-laws then stepped in as young men/women to fill the roles. So you have very young winemakers with different dreams, ideas, experience, etc. Plus the older wine makers...were they getting tired and their palates weren't quite as sharp?? I'm not talking bad about them, not at all, but it's just a fact of life that as we get old we're not as sharp as we used to be. That all has an effect on the outcome of a wine.

3- Major technological advances in the Douro during the late 1970's to late 1980's. Autovinification, electricity finally (Vargellas didn't get it until 1979!), a lack of treaders led to less foot treading, etc. There was a lot of change going on during that period and you can't say that didn't have some effect on the wines.

[Glenn E.]

1- Since the 1980's there has been a large amount of replanting in the Douro, with the majority of that being varietal specific block planting.

I think there's a side effect to this that I haven't seen mentioned.

Prior to block planting, the winemakers were more-or-less at the mercy of Mother Nature to determine the blend of their wines. If the weather was good for Touriga Francesa and bad for Touriga Nactional, the Port blend was going to naturally have more Touriga Francesa in it

With block planting, that same situation can now be adjusted easily during blending so that the same amount of each grape is used regardless of how much is actually grown. It might result in less Port being produced in order to keep the ratio consistent, but it should result in far more consistent flavors and styles from each of the shippers.