Tawny Ports

Tawny are Ports that have aged in large wooden casks

In English "Tawny" means "Fawn Color". It is indeed the case, this aging in wood gave the Port a tiled, orange color, even going towards amber notes, far from the dark red color of its very young years. It is the gradual oxidation of the port which leads the Tawny to take on this amber color.

To obtain the Tawny appellation, a Port must have spent between 5 and 6 years in oak. Some Tawny are accompanied by an age mark, Tawny 10 years old, Tawny 20 years old, and sometimes even Tawny 40 or 50 years old. These Tawny are blends of several vintages of different ages, and the age statement reflects the weighted average age of the blended volumes. It is not enough to have put a bit of Tawny 40 years into the blend to mention those 40 years. These mentions range from 10 years to 10 years. Thus, the average age of a 10 year old can be 10 to 19 years old, a 20 year old can be 20 to 29 years old etc. Finally there are also Tawny Colheita, these are Tawny Ports, raised in wood but the notion of Colheita is the equivalent of the vintage. For example, a Tawny Colheita 1995 will be a Port from the only 1995 vintage aged only in oak in casks and barrels, it will have spent at least 7 years in oak and the date of its bottling will also be indicated on the bottle.

Tawny Ports offer woody, spicy notes and hints of dried fruits.