Vintage character ports are alternatives to bargain versions

Many types of port line the shelves, from ruby to tawny to vintage ports, and the prices range from under $20 to well over $60.

One of the bottles least appreciated on the shelves is vintage character port. In some places it is hailed as a hint of what great ports can be. Others give it short shrift.

Vintage character port is cheap, usually under $20 and usually about one-fourth the cost of vintage port. The character it is supposed to describe is the style each port house makes for its best wines -- vintage port.

As wine writer James Suckling of Wine Spectator magazine describes:

"Not only does vintage character port usually sell for a fraction of the price of the real thing, it's easy to find on the market and doesn't need decanting. The only problem is that it's often difficult to tell what you're getting when you buy a bottle of vintage character port.

"In theory, a vintage character port -- really nothing more than a glorified ruby port -- should have about five years of age and should offer some of the same fruitiness and richness of a relatively young vintage port. By blending various wines in their cellars, port shippers do what years of bottle maturation do for vintage port: they round off and polish up the rough edges.

"However, in practice, vintage character ports range in style from young, almost raw ruby ports to slightly tired tawnies."

So what's a port drinker to do? Many followers of this column tell me they prefer vintage character ports over other inexpensive ports because it is the closest representation of the best ports.

It's not unlike a maker of French champagne that also makes a nonvintage champagne. It may not be up to the style of a vintage champagne, but it provides a nice clue of what the expensive stuff will taste like.

I asked the wine-tasting group to compare five vintage character ports. Here is what we found:

- Ferreira Porto at $16.99. It had sweet fruit, particularly plums, but it was too sweet for some of my tasters. Some thought it would go well with Stilton cheese.

- Ramos Pinto Collector at $18.99. The aroma offered orange rind and caramel. It had a rustic taste in the mouth, not as sweet as the Ferreira. It was a simpler style but smoother.

- Cockburn's Special Reserve Porto at $16.99. The Cockburn's had an herbaceous aroma with notes of raisin and caramel. The raisins carried through to the finish. Well-balanced, it had much more going on in the mouth than the others.

- NV Taylor Fladgate First Estate Reserve Porto at $17.99. The aroma had lots of alcohol, sherry and orange rind. In the mouth, we picked up chocolate. This wine was sweeter than then Ramos and Cockburn but not as sweet as the Ferreira.

- Sandeman Founders Reserve Porto at $18. This was a medium-bodied port that was easy to drink. It had fig flavors and suggestions of mild wood and vanilla. The texture was smooth and the finish long for such a wine.

Questions can be sent to Frank Sutherland, editor, The Tennessean, 1100 Broadway, Nashville, Tenn. 37203 or e-mailed to editor