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Basic Tawny Port | Wine Challenge
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Jan 18, 2024
Basic Tawny Port is the least expensive style of Tawny Port wines. Here's what you need to know about Basic Tawny Port wine and what you can expect. Explore: All Styles of Tawny Port: https://terravenos.com/trellis/tawny-port/ What's the Difference Between Port and Tawny Port: https://terravenos.com/trellis/tawny-port-vs-port-whats-the-difference/ Port FAQs: https://terravenos.com/trellis/what-are-the-basics-of-port-wine/ Cheers to this MorgadoTawny Port! Hope you join me in a tasting - Erin
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0:00
Hi everyone, welcome back to the Terravinos channel. Today's wine challenge and hypothetical pairing question is if you had to pick a wine that paired with camping, snow days, brownies, game nights, and passionate one night stands, which wine would you choose
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If you said basic Tawny Port, you and I think alike. I'm Erin and let's jump into it
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Tawny Port is made in Portugal's Douro Valley. It's considered an entry-level wine. It's always a blend of red grapes and it's non-vintage. Non-vintage means that they take grapes grown in different years and blend them together into the final wine
0:45
It's tawny in color, so it's not that rich, bright ruby that you'd get in a typical red table wine. It has a brownish, garnet color
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The other thing you need to know about Tawny Port is that it's inexpensive. Don't expect to pay more than about $15 or $16 for a basic bottle of Tawny Port
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The other thing you need to know about basic Tawny Port is that it's made to be enjoyed now. This isn't a wine that can last for a long time on your wine shelf, so pop that cork and enjoy it
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What's basic Tawny Port taste like? It's going to be sweet. All port wines are sweet and basic Tawny Port isn't an exception
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You're also going to have some spirity qualities to it. During the winemaking process for port, the winemaker adds aguardente, which is a distilled grape spirit, to the wine
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This is going to give it some kick. Expect it to be high alcohol, anywhere between 19-22% alcohol by volume
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In comparison, a regular red table wine is around 12-15%, so basic Tawny Port is much stronger than a typical table wine
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In terms of flavors and aromas, expect rich caramel, apricot, butterscotch, maybe some purple flower, and then some red fruit as well
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Today's case study is this Morgato Tawny Port. I found it at a Trader Joe's in California. It cost me about $10
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I purchased it during the holidays, and if you're looking for affordable, fortified wines, right around the holidays is the perfect time to stock up
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This Morgato is made by So Grape. So Grape is the largest wine producer in Portugal
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They have vast access to holdings of grapes to be able to make affordable, entry-level wines, and higher quality wines as well
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They also have holdings outside of Portugal. They make dry and fortified wines
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I'll be curious to taste this Tawny Port. Take a look at the color of this basic Tawny Port wine. You can see it has a brickish, orangish, brownish colors
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This is what we would call tawny, and it's where the name for the wine comes from
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In higher quality Tawny Ports, this would come through aging the wine over an extended period of time
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But because these are basic Tawny Ports, they make this wine, this tawny color, through the winemaking process
3:20
That starts by limiting the amount of color they extract from the grape skins during fermentation
3:26
and then also using fining agents or additives that will extract color of the wine and make it this lighter color
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All right, your job is to go find a basic Tawny Port wine
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I have my Morgato here, and looking at it, I can see that it is a pale tawny in color
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I can see right through this, and I expect that from a basic Tawny Port
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If I give it a good swirl, let's see what you can smell
4:00
Right off the bat, you can smell that it is spirity. That fortification process where they add the Aguardente, it's really smelling alcoholic, and I expect that
4:12
This is a fortified wine, so no surprises. I can also smell caramel and butterscotch and some dark fruit, a little bit like black cherry
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Go ahead and take a sip of your basic Tawny Port wine and see what it tastes like
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Remember that we said that all Port wines are going to be sweet
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so the very first thing you'll probably notice when you drink your Tawny Port is that it's a sweet wine
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It tastes viscous. It has weight to it. This particular wine also has some licorice and confected notes
4:52
along with that black cherry and the caramel as well. The tannins are medium minus
4:59
These aren't grippy tannins in this wine. They're very smooth. The other component that we have is alcohol
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Port wines are always going to be high alcohol. You'll feel the alcohol burn on your tongue and then in your throat as you swallow
5:15
You'll feel that burn and then in your chest as well. This is no different. It's a high alcohol wine
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We have a sweet, high alcohol wine with a little bit of bitterness
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We have a sweet, high alcohol wine, which means it's going to be full body
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You'll feel the weight on your tongue. You'll feel it in your mouth and you'll feel it going down your throat
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This is a classic structure of Port wine and this basic Tawny is no different
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The last thing you're going to want to pay attention to is the finish
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What is the wine like after you've swallowed it? For basic Tawny Port wine, you're probably going to have the pleasant flavors
5:55
the sweetness and the fruit fade rather quickly. Again, this isn't an intense, high quality, long finished wine
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My finish is medium minus and what becomes readily apparent is the burn from the alcohol
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I'm not surprised. This is what I expect of a basic Tawny Port wine
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All it really means is that I need to take another bite of chocolate and another sip of wine
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Alright, thanks so much for joining me. I'll leave a few links below if you're curious and want to explore more
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Until next time
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