Colheita

The 1976 Colheita Tawny Port is a field blend, roughly Touriga Franca (35%), Tinta Roriz (20%), Touriga Nacional (15%), Tinta Barroca (10%) and others, bottled in May 2023 with a long cork and 123 grams of residual sugar. It is only here in the Colheita lineup from the producer this time that we begin to get some serious complexity, and that’s why this one wins in the group. It is also, certainly, the most concentrated in flavors, leaning to dark caramel, although not as notable in mid-palate depth. Most of all, it has that nuanced finish. It still has notable freshness and it is still reasonably youthful, far from decayed. Nicely balanced and rather elegant, it is pretty tasty and hard to resist. This is a fine Colheita that wins points for both complexity and its tasty conclusion. As I like to note, barring cork failures, this will likely hold indefinitely. Of course, Colheitas don’t need to be held, so dive in.