WTN: StAmant Vintage Port Reserve '83..(short/boring)

Shared this old Port at BacchusBadBoys last night:
1. St.Amant Vintage Port AmadorCnty Reserve (19.0%; Portugese grapes) Camino 1983: Med.light ruby color w/ no bricking; lovely complex licorice/chocolaty/grapey/smokey rather oldPorto quite complex fully mature beautiful nose; soft elegant/delicate/smooth/graceful light chocolaty/licorice/grapey mature oldPorto complex beautiful flavor w/ light smooth/gentle tannins; very long/lingering bit licorice/pungent/light chocolaty/bit grapey very elegant/delicate/graceful very complex beautiful oldPort finish w/ light smooth/gentle tannins; a beautiful fully-mature complex oldPort; no signs of alcoholic heat whatsoever.
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A wee BloodyPulpit:
1. Back in the '70's, when it came to Calif Port, ChristianBros & PaulMasson & Almaden were about the only game in town. The wines were soft/soupy/grapey and dreadfully boring. After my first PaulMasson Port, trying to impress a lady that I eventually married (big mistake there), and the ensuing headache, I pretty much blew of that genre. And then I tried a LateBttled and Vintage Oporto (Taylor-Fladgate), my eyes opened wide to the glories of Port. I then bought a '63 Vintage Oporto and was blown away, even at less than 10 yrs old.

But in the early '70's, there was a stirring interest in making authentic Vintage Port style of Port in Calif. These three folks were JimOlsen/J.W.Morris Port Works, Russ Woodbury, and Andy Quady. Each one had a different schtick. RussWoodbury asserted the variety of grape was irrelevant, so he made Zin/Cab/PetiteSirah ports. I did a visit in the late '70's w/ Russ over in Marin.

JimOlsen, whose J.W.Morris Port Works was located in Emeryville in an old stationary warehouse, felt that to make great Calif Port, it was important to use low-proof/pot-still grape brandy, with its higher congener (higher molecular weight alcohols) content, rather than neutral/pure ethanol grape spirits. Once did a visit w/ Jim in this grungy wnry there in Emeryville.

AndyQuady's schtick was that it was important to use authentic Portugese Port varieties to make a great Port. Of which there were virtually none available then. Andy was originally working at Lodi's EastSideWnry when I first met him at DarrellCorti's before starting AndrewQuadyWnry. Alas, I've yet the visit Andy's wnry there in Lodi, but have encountered him many times at events over the yrs. His son, Herb, makes Rhone-style wines up in SouthernOregon under the QuadyNorth label.

In the late '70's, TimSpencer planted a bunch of Portugese varieties in his vnyd in AmadorCnty, with his first crop in 1981, after he'd fallen in love w/ Porto. Those grapes were sold to JimOlsen. I met Tim briefly, also at Darrell's, one time. The story of how Tim came to start St.AmantWnry is told here:
StAmantWnry .
Alas, I just read on their WebSite that Tim died in 2006, and the wnry is now run by his son, Stuart. I need to revisit the StAmant ports of more recent vintages. Have one more btl of this '83 available.

I pulled this Port out because I usually provide a dessert wine and dessert snacks for our BBB get-togethers. I really had no idea what to expect. I was mightly impressed. It showed no alcoholic heat whatsoever. It was a delicate/elegant/very complex and very good example of as fine a mature VintagePort that I've ever had.
Tom

Back when my pals and I were making wine, we bought a half ton of tempranillo from Tim Spencer. The wine turned out all right, so we went back a year or two later to get more grapes from him and brought a bottle along with us. Tim was in the tasting room, and we ended up drinking our bottle, a bottle of his tempranillo, and a fair amount of other wine. Tim was on some sort of chemotherapy at that point but it didn't slow him down. We had a great time with him and I can't forget how happy he was even with the difficult medical issues he was facing. He was a great guy.

Some comments from StuartSpencer:

Tom,

Thanks for sharing. Interesting stuff. Here are a few more tidbits of info on our history with ports and Portuguese varieties in California. In 1980 my dad went to UC Davis in search of traditional Douro varieties to graft in our vineyard. He secured Bastardo, Touriga, Tinta Cao, Alvarelhao, and Souzao.

Davis later identified Alvarelhao to be Touriga Nacional, although there our growers in California still selling "Alvarelhao" which is most likely Touriga Nacional. And Davis was not sure what the difference was in the "Touriga" we were given in 1980 and the "Alvarelhao," but I have observed subtle differences in the field to indicate it's either clonal or perhaps Touriga Franca. It's something I'm still trying to figure out.

In 1981 our first crop of port varieties were sold to JW Morris along with all our Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc. As your probably read on our website, my dad got word that they were going to file bankruptcy, drove down to Emeryville, and took back that first port wine. He took it to Madrona Vineyards in Camino, CA. Where we made our wines for several years including the 1983 vintage that you enjoyed. That wine came from our vineyard in the Jackson Valley of Amador, not from Madrona Vineyard as Bill Easton suggested. In 1994 our vineyard was dying of phyloxera and we began the process of replanting and adding several other Portuguese varieties to the mix.

With regard to making our port wines my dad always felt that traditional Douro grapes were the key to making complex port wines. And farming them as individual blocks and varieties picked at optimal ripeness. Plus, we have always picked as if making a table wine (usually between 24-26 brix), and not super ripe as some do. We have had the best results with neutral wine spirits around 170-175 proof. Aged material dominates the fruit, lower proof dilutes, and the really high proof (190 proof) can come with off aromas.

Sorry for the long winded and delayed response, but I got a little carried away explaining our history.

Thanks,
Stuart

I remember meeting Tim many moons ago and the fact he was a delightful person. I looked into my wine stash and lo & behold I have a bottle of 1981 St Amant resting there, I wasn't sure of the year until I looked. Maybe when one of you guys come to this part of the world we could give it a try.

Count me in!

Count me in!

Mike, Hoke Harden usually comes to Napa in the next few months maybe we can work something out then. Steve Edmunds is usuallly around then also. Maybe we can get an offline together.

Count me in!

Mike, Hoke Harden usually comes to Napa in the next few months maybe we can work something out then. Steve Edmunds is usuallly around then also. Maybe we can get an offline together.

I'd love to do that! Keep me in mind when the time comes.