Vintage years so far into the 21st Century
As of today, the world of port has seen three years in the 21st century being declared as vintage. The first year, 2000, was a very unstable year in terms of weather, Febraury and March were warm, April and May were rainy, in July and August there was some rain and in September the temperature stabilized around 40°C. As a result, harvesting was delayed a couple of weeks but all this gave the grapes such a quality to cause various wineries to declare the year 2000 a vintage year.
The second year which was declared as a vintage was 2003. This year, the winter was rainy, spring was dry and temperatures were normal except for in July and August when temperatures were around 45°C during the day and 30°C during night. The port wines produced had a lot of body which may turn out to be a good base for aging.
2007 has been declared by most of the well known producers to be a vintage year. It was a very cold year in comparison to previous years and so 2007 ports seem to follow the general trend of being acid, concentrated and with little body, which results in a very balanced and structured wine. While this year has produced a lot of good wines, certain people seem to think that the 2007 ports will not age as well as the 2003 wines. Wine tasting expert Roy Hersh (who was knighted into the Port and Douro Wine Institute (IVDP)) has the opinion that ports from this year will age well over the next couple of decades but doubts that further aeging will improve the wines.
For your reference we have listed all the vintage years from the 20th century below
20th Century Vintage Years
1900 1958
1904 1960
1908 1963
1911 1966
1912 1967
1917 1970
1920 1975
1922 1977
1924 1978
1927 1980
1931 1982
1934 1983
1935 1985
1942 1987
1945 1989
1947 1991
1948 1992
1950 1994
1955 1997
