Port Barrel Blending

[Tobes]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the Auswine Forum, I have been having a read of some of the posts on the forum and it has been very helpful.

I have a question that I haven't been able to find an answer for.

I recently bought a 9lt Port Barrel from The Keg Factory in Tanunda, it looks great, it's an early Christmas present from my wife.

I have followed the first filling instructions and have my first lot of Port in the barrel. I went for some port from Grant Burge Illaparra. I got 5lts of their Barossa Tawny 2-3 years and 5lts of their Rich Old Tawny 4-5 years. We went Port tasting to a few wineries around Tanunda and I found this was the nicest for my taste buds. I want to start pretty basic and then maybe get more adventurous.

My question is I want to put some Port in my barrel that comes from Portugal, I think it would be nice to have some port in my blend that comes from where it all began.

Can you people please offer any suggestions as to what I could, should or should not put in there, because I have been reading and have found that some are saying not to put some types of port in. I know not to put any vintage port in.

One that I have found just as an example is Cockburn's 10 Year Old Tawny Port from Dan Murphy's. It's a Tawny Port so I thought it would be ok to put in.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I get some info and suggestions soon.

Merry Christmas.

[Phil H]

Hi Tobes and welcome to the Forum.
My experience with a port barrel is not to start with anything special. The reason being that for the first few months all you can taste is oak. Fill the barrel with the cheapest tawny port, let it sit for a month or two and tip it out. Then start anew.
I tend to use a variety of brands, and usually they are under $20.
In relation to port from Portugal, I do not know much about the topic, however I am sure that others are more informed.
I believe a similar topic was on the forum about 6 months ago that you might locate if you do a bit of searching.
Good luck with youre venture, keep us updated.

[Mahmoud Ali]

Hi Tobes,

Welcome to the forum. To start with I should say that I've never done what you are doing but from what I understand it is an inexpensive way to get fairly mellow but inexpensive daily drinking port. I would think that it would be almost criminal to put a real 10 year-old tawny port into the barrel. By all means buy a 10 year-old, but drink it and use that experience to inform your palate about what to look for in creating your own blend.

That's just my own opinion but I will defer to those who have done it before.

Cheers..........................Mahmoud.

[paulf]

I've also not tried doing a port barrel so hopefully there will be a few that have that can offer some advice based on experience
Phil's advice about it being oaky early on rings true as I'm sure I've heard others say that. I'd also stick with tawny as a bigger part of the barrel aging has already been done for you, so in theory it will take less time for you to reach a more mellow mix.

I also fall into Mahmoud's camp, in that I would probably rather drink a 10yr old separately than blend it.
Having said that, the Cockburns price is actually pretty competative (for Australia at least)- Although I have just done a bit of a search on the website and note that they have gone to 500ml bottles, for pretty much the same money as what the 750s used to go for. There still isn't much price difference between that and some of the basic tawnies elsewhere. There is a basic Cockburns Tawny at DMs and some of the stores have some Burmeister Jockey club. (If they have it, grab a Burmeister 1996 Colheita but drink that one seperately)
You'll find a couple kicking around if you search online, such as Ramos Pinto and there seems to be a bit of Quinta de la Rosa tawny about as well.

[Tobes]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your information, it's been good. I had my first taste out of the barrel after one week and it didn't have much of a woody taste which is good. I will see how it goes over the next couple of months.

I have seen some younger tawny ports from Portugal in Dan Murphy's so I might go for some of that once the level drops in the barrel.

If anyone else has any information on my question it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Waiters Friend]

I fully endorse the comments about keeping the Portugese tawnies separate. The ethos of barrel blending is to produce something 'greater than the sum of the parts', and the tawnies have already received this treatment.

Cheers

Allan

[dave vino]

Or you could maybe blend with some of Seppelts stuff. Probably a cheaper option. But for my tastes I'd stick with the same supplier and maybe source some of their older stuff and blend that in.

http://www.seppeltsfield.com.au/shop/fo ... ome-tawny/

[malliemcg]

We recently got a (20L) muscat barrel that we've been running for nearly 12 months now. The barrel was from the keg factory, and made from the old wood option. We've been pulling around 1L/month from it, and it went through a few phases, it started off really good, but over time that oak characteristic built up quickly. We were fortunate enough to have a wine maker try a sample and give us some advice as to keeping it travelling along nicely (adding potassium metabisulphite once per year, in addition to recommending some topping material), and things are tracking nicely. I'd recommend keeping a close eye on it.

If it were me in your shoes (and I'm assuming that your motivation for wanting to put some in is for the spirit of it, rather than creating a port w/ the core being from portugal), I'd grab one of the younger portuguese ports, and taste them side by side with the existing content of the barrel, try some "blended" with the barrel content and see if I'd want to add it to the barrel and go from there.

I can say the biggest thing that I've learned running the muscat barrel is that they're not so much set and forget, as a bit of work to keep them choofing along nicely.

[rednut]

Hi Tobes,

I too purchased a 20l oval keg from the Keg Factory many years ago.
I did the water thing, then the cheap port thing.
Now I have Seppelts 10 - 15 year old Tawny in it and it is going spectacularly.
I have always used a premium port in my keg as has my brother with the same keg.
Last batch I added a Morris Show Muscat to it and it is a very special drop.
I spoke with the man who made my keg, who is no longer with us and he told me never add spirit to it. I have heard others talk about doing this, I have never done so and never will.
For Port contact Seppelts, ask for Nigel in CD and they will ship to you if necessary. You wont be dissappointed. Cheers

[Tobes]

G'day everyone,

Thanks a lot for the advice, it is always nice to get some advice from people who have been doing this for awhile.

It has given me something to think about and a few options.

Good work, I will let you know what I decide to do and how it is coming along.

Any more input would be great.

Thanks again,

Happy drinking.

[Tobes]

We recently got a (20L) muscat barrel that we've been running for nearly 12 months now. The barrel was from the keg factory, and made from the old wood option. We've been pulling around 1L/month from it, and it went through a few phases, it started off really good, but over time that oak characteristic built up quickly. We were fortunate enough to have a wine maker try a sample and give us some advice as to keeping it travelling along nicely (adding potassium metabisulphite once per year, in addition to recommending some topping material), and things are tracking nicely. I'd recommend keeping a close eye on it.

If it were me in your shoes (and I'm assuming that your motivation for wanting to put some in is for the spirit of it, rather than creating a port w/ the core being from portugal), I'd grab one of the younger portuguese ports, and taste them side by side with the existing content of the barrel, try some "blended" with the barrel content and see if I'd want to add it to the barrel and go from there.

I can say the biggest thing that I've learned running the muscat barrel is that they're not so much set and forget, as a bit of work to keep them choofing along nicely.

Good advice, I think I am going to get some young Portugal Port and do what you suggest. Thanks.

[Cloth Ears]

Until someone used our booze to get over a broken relationship, we ran a quite lovely 10l barrel. We'd put in anything nice (from old vintages, to young & fruity vintages to tawnies) and tended to do this by taste. The initial barrel seasoning was done with 1% (100ml) cheap brandy and a couple of casks of reasonably cheap tawny. After 6 months, we drained this into flagons and started again, this time with .5% (50ml) cheap cognac and a couple of nice flagons of different barrel aged tawnies. From then on, it was lovely. We bought a few very old vintages on the cheap from Langtons and added a few of those along with other tawnies we picked up along the way. And, every Xmas, we'd add 0.1-0.2% fine cognac. Maybe it's not for the purists, but nobody went for any of the other ports we had on offer.