Though not popular in Asia, vintage port could prove a fruitful investment in the future, writes James Suckling

Rows upon rows of Graham barrels

The best value in the world of fine wine must be vintage port. Where else can you find fabulous 50-year-old bottles for US$300 to US$400? Even older bottles from such great years as 1927, 1945, and 1948 aren’t much more expensive.

The best names in new vintages, such as Taylor Fladgate, Fonseca, Dow or Graham, are only about US$100 to US$150 a bottle. And these are great wines that will improve for hundreds of years. They have the pedigree and the quality combined. Plus, great old vintages from the 18th and 19th centuries are drinking beautifully today.

Fine vintages of Fonseca

“Port has not increased in price in the same way as top-end Bordeaux and Burgundy, simply because it is a much narrower market,” says Paul Bowker, one of the owners of London-based wine merchants Wilkinson Vintners, an excellent source for aged vintage port. “There are far fewer buyers in the world.”

John Kapon, president and CEO of the wine auction house Acker Merrall & Condit, puts it this way: “We auction the top brands of port when they come our way, but many port collectors prefer to keep them.”

The fact that the production of vintage port is relatively small compared to other popular wines may add to its limited popularity. Why would vintage port collectors want to sell their precious bottles?

Graham’s winery in the Douro Vallery in Portugal

The fortified wine from Portugal’s Douro Valley is only made – or, as port producers say, “declared” – in the best years. On average, about one out of three or four years are vintage port declarations. Recently declared vintages include 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2007.

Port producers may only make a few thousand cases of a given vintage, and they hold back a large amount of reserves to sell over the years. This adds to the drink’s rarity. It really is the crème de la crème of port production. Moreover, many producers are making table wines, so most of their best grapes are used for that instead of vintage port.

In addition, vintage port is traditionally consumed 20 or 30 years after production, although a growing number of people enjoy the sweet wine in its vibrant youth. I usually recommend opening bottles after about 10 years. Always remember to decant vintage port because it is unfined and unfiltered before bottling and sediment in the bottle needs to be removed.

It’s not difficult to be a vintage port expert, or at least understand who the best vintage port shippers are. The top names haven’t changed much in the last 100 years. The top producers in my order of preference are Fonseca, Dow, Taylor, Graham, Noval, Niepoort, Croft and Warre. There’s also the super-collectible and rare Noval Nacional, which is a tiny production of port made from ungrafted vines, as well as Taylor Vargellas Vinha Velha, produced from old vines on Taylor’s Vargellas farm. A number of single quinta, or specific-farm vintage ports, to look for include Quinta do Vesuvio and Quinta de Roriz.

The best vintages to buy for drinking at the moment are 1970, 1977, 1983 and 1985. Decant and enjoy them. Anything older, especially the legendary 1963, is beautiful to drink now as well. I would still hold the vintages of the 1990s and 2000s.

I think there has never been a better time to buy vintage port. Quality has never been better.

“We have made a number of advances in viticulture and port-making while still maintaining many traditions,” says Adrian Bridge, CEO of The Fladgate Partnership, which owns such prestigious names as Taylor Fladgate, Fonseca and Croft. “These changes are producing vintage ports with more profound depth and character, great purity of fruit and probably even greater ageing potential. However, vintage port is one of those wines that can be enjoyed at many stages of its life – that is what makes it so exciting.”

Historically, the UK was the biggest market for vintage port. Indeed, the British have been drinking vintage port since the late 1700s. However, the US became the largest buyer of vintage port in the 1980s, and producers now have high hopes for Asia.

Paul Symington, whose family owns Graham, Dow and Warre

“People in this region are looking for new and interesting wines,” says Paul Symington, the chairman of the Symington Family Estates, which owns such great names as Graham, Dow, Warre and Quinta do Vesuvio. “This is a pattern that we saw in the US and elsewhere in the ’70s and ’80s.”

When Asians pick up the taste for fine vintage port, the prices could quickly escalate. “It would take a very small move in market interest in vintage ports to make the prices move up quite radically,” says Christian Seely, who oversees Noval, as well as a number of wineries in France for axa Millésimes. “The quantities of vintage port that are made at the top level are infinitely smaller than, say, in Bordeaux. Available stocks would dry up very quickly in the event of a shift in market demand.”

However, Seely, like many makers, is unconcerned with their wines as investments. “I only ever think of wine as something to buy and keep to drink: for me, it is not an investment category,” he says. “It is true that Bordeaux or Burgundy have been better investments from a purely financial point of view in recent years, but that could easily change quite fast if, say, Asian demand began to put pressure on existing stocks of port. It might be a good investment now.”

Visit James Suckling at: www.jamessuckling.com