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Why do Tawny's last longer than others once opened
Posted: 23:40 Wed 04 Jul 2007
by DRT
KillerB's
TN on Dow's 10 yr old made me think of this again.
Why is it that Tawny ports seem to have much more staying power after they are opened than the red ports do? Is it just the extra oxidisation they get during the ageing process or is something else causing this?
Derek
Posted: 23:45 Wed 04 Jul 2007
by KillerB
I think it is the oxidisation. If you consider it as a semi(OK , slightly)-madeirized Port, it starts to make sense. Madeira is indestructable - if only it were scarlet.
Posted: 00:02 Thu 05 Jul 2007
by DRT
That confuses me when you consider old VP's. They have aged in the bottle and gained oxidisation through exposure to air through the cork (or so we are told
). Why is it then that when you pop open a leaker or a very old VP it is unlikely to last more than a few hours before falling apart - whereas a 3 or 4 year old standard Tawny will last weeks in an open bottle with virtually no change?
Derek
Posted: 00:07 Thu 05 Jul 2007
by KillerB
The amount of oxidisation through a cork is miniscule compared to 10 or 20 years in a barrel. A VP goes a tawny colour but it doesn't have that tawny tang. An LBV can go properly tawny in the bottle because it has been barrel-aged.
I'm interested to know what will happen to very old unfiltered LBV - will it become almost colheita-like? I may be losing the plot slightly here.
Posted: 00:26 Thu 05 Jul 2007
by DRT
KillerB wrote:I may be losing the plot slightly here.
Hmmmm
I agree that aged Tawny's, particularly 20 yrs and over, will have had far more exposure to air than your average bottle aged wine but what about the young uns? A 50 year old VP with a dodgy cork will have had hundreds of times more oxygen than your average 10 yr old tawny and certainly more than a satndard tawny which will have spent around 3 or 4 years in wood.
Is there something in the vinification, filtration, fining or blending process that contributes to this?
Derek
Posted: 09:10 Thu 05 Jul 2007
by RonnieRoots
KillerB wrote:I'm interested to know what will happen to very old unfiltered LBV - will it become almost colheita-like? I may be losing the plot slightly here.
It does. See
this thread
Posted: 09:47 Thu 05 Jul 2007
by KillerB
So now all I have to do is keep a couple of Warre's 1995 LBVs for another 28 years? OK.