Port 2015: A Buyer's Guide

Much of 2015 had the makings of a classic vintage in Port, but not all houses declared. Richard Mayson investigates the ups and downs of this standout year

- Richard Mayson

WHEN AN EXCEPTIONAL viticultural year comes to an end in the Douro valley, there is every prospect of a vintage declaration. As paul Symington, chairman and joint managing director of the Symington Family Estates, wrote just as the last grapes were being picked, 2015 was such a year. his cousin and winemaker Charles added for good measure that 2015 ‘produced the best Touriga Franca grapes in memory’. But it turns out that ‘exceptional’ and the ‘best’ of the Douro’s most widely planted grape variety is not quite enough. Declared outright by a handful of shippers, 2015 has turned out to be one of those knife-edge, oh-so-nearly-but-not-quite years that punctuate more than two centuries of port vintages.

So what happened in 2015 that prevented a more widespread declaration, and how good are those wines that have been declared? For Dirk Niepoort, whose family firm declared both a classic and single quinta vintage port (SQVp) , 2015 was ‘as perfect as it gets’. The Symingtons, who declared Cockburn’s outright, were apparently ‘a whisker away from declaring across the board’. But David Guimaraens, head winemaker of The Fladgate Partnership (which includes Croft, Taylor’s and Fonseca) said: ‘To begin with we were on the fence when it came to a classic declaration of 2015, but we came to the conclusion that the wines just don’t have the dimension of a classic vintage.’

Blowing hot, then cool

The 2014/15 growing season was an unusual one. Rainfall was 40% below average and if it hadn’t been for the heavy rain that fell in November 2014 and the cold winter that followed, 2015 wouldn’t have amounted to very much. Spring, when it came, was the warmest and driest for 36 years.