Quality white port wine has deservedly won the hearts of wine enthusiasts with excellent complexity, balance and drinking pleasure.
When producing the aged white port wines, Kopke draws on the house’s centuries-long experience with barrel-aged port wines, where they belong to a small, exclusive elite.
As with ‘ordinary’ colheita, white colheita requires at least 7 years of aging in wooden casks before release. Contrary to a traditional tawny, which is made from blue grapes, only green grapes are used here, i.a. malvasia fina, viosinho, gouveio, codega and others. For the same reason, the aging is felt to a particular extent, as the imprint of the grapes is less visible in the aroma picture than a corresponding tawny, as the latter must first throw away fruit and tannins before the aging aromas enter the picture. A white port begins to oxidize very shortly after it has been put into casks, which means that it has more aging aromas and appears older than a tawny of the same age. This white colheita 2010 is barrel-aged for 10 years before bottling; a period of time that has left its mark on the wine to that extent.
Poached pear, varnish, light caramel, roasted walnuts, a little smoke and citrus zest are matched by a golden acidity, so that the whole appears with the right weight. The aftertaste has exemplary length.
As a starting point, we recommend that you enjoy this wine alone, as it needs nothing more than a good glass and a little time to spread a good atmosphere, but for the sake of completeness, we can mention that it works well with many cheeses (preferably with nuts and some sweet accompaniments), crêpes suzette, Christmas cake and probably many other combinations we haven’t tried yet.
Serve at 8-13° from a good white wine glass, while you wonder why you haven’t drunk this wine before now.
