Port
This was probably port’s best Sommelier Wine Awards ever. The success, however, wasn’t just about the high Gold count, but rather the range of wines we found for our Gold List.
It’s not unusual for tawny styles to do well in this competition, and they made up half of the Golds again this year. But they were also backed up with an aged white, a vintage and a couple of LBVs. The Poças ruby was unlucky not to make it on too.
Strength in depth, in other words, just as you’d hope for from a classic category like this. Not too many of our Golds were what you’d call cheap, necessarily – but the quality on offer was exceptional.
From The Tasting Teams
‘Tawny prices are amazing for the quality of the wine, making them perfect for restaurants. They’re a lot more flexible than vintage port.’ Tanguy Martin, Blandford Comptoir
‘There’s a lot of confusion as to how these wines should be served and stored.’ Joshua Castle, Noble Rot
‘Port is generally unfashionable, and white is next-level unfashionable. These white ports were actually so good, and you don’t see them anywhere!’ Andres Ituarte, Tamarind Collection
‘Tawnies were the highlight of the day. There was lovely balance, and they work really well as a digestif, served with the right cheeses, or with the right dessert.’ Charlie Carter, L’Atelier Du Vin
‘Putting on a port has a lot to do with your menu. For us, port is really important because we do a lot of cheese platters.’ Savvas Symeonidis, Goodman Restaurant Mayfair
‘If you serve tawny straight out the fridge you have a journey in flavour as it warms up.’ Andre Luis Martins, team leader
‘Bloody good! I’m going to find these white ports and put them on my list. That’s one of the fun parts of judging here!’ Savvas Symeonidis, Goodman Restaurant Mayfair
‘My favourite ruby here had all kinds of aromatics on the nose. If people would just serve ruby port like this one, I would drink it.’ Sarah Jane Evans MW, team leader