Andresen Colheita port 1968: seasonal wine of the day

For both Port and Madeira, Colheitas (single vintage wines) almost always get my vote over aged dated styles (which are an amalgam of vintages).  I guess it’s like the difference between vintage and non-vintage Champagne.  For non-vintage Champagne, blending different years might reliably deliver house style, but vintage Champagne reveals the character of its year of birth. 

With single cask colheitas like Andresen port, the wines are even more singular because, not only are they stamped with the mark of the vintage, but also that of the barrel.  It’s all about the magic of mutability.  Take today’s seasonal wine of the day.  The wine to which I’m referring was bottled at the beginning of November 2010 and, after 42 years in bottle, it’s deliciously á point and raring to go. 

Andresen Colheita 1968 – pointing out that, after 40 years, wines pick up more colour from the pipa (barrel) and no longer precipitate tannin, winemaker Vanzeller describes this mahogany-coloured wine as a “macho style.”  It’s certainly very generous, richly nutty and round (more sugar daddy?), with delicious buttered hazelnut and singed (tarte) tatin .  Very good.

Check out my regional report page here for my notes on a vertical of Andresen Colheitas tasted last month, the oldest dating back to 1910 (pictured right) with the much earlier bottled, lighter 1937 Colheita (pictured left).