Wagyu for the music

matching port and steak

The shippers claim that their more modern-style vintage ports can work with food. Richard Woodard assembles a team of hungry sommeliers, slaps a cow on the barbie and pulls the cork on 20 of the Douro’s finest recent vintages to find out whether they’re right

Poor vintage port. Many wines find no shortage of partners at the Food Matching Ball, but classic vintage is often the proverbial wallflower, sitting on the sidelines enviously eyeing the bright young things of the wine world as they strut their stuff with all manner of fine dishes.

But is that altogether fair? Should we really tuck this noble drink away in the file marked ‘keep for 20 years and serve with Stilton’? And, as young vintage port becomes ever more drinkable – epitomised by 2003 and 2007, the most recent widely declared years – can we expect it to last the pace with a wider array of savoury foods?

Will it, in short, work with a decent slab of beef?

That’s what we set out to discover in this tasting hosted by the extremely hospitable and accommodating Vivat Bacchus in Farringdon: a small group of pioneers, determined to push the boundaries of port and food matching – to boldly go where no vintage has gone before…

The format: taste the wines on their own first, tackling about a dozen ports from 2003 and 2007, before pitting a small selection against two steak-based main dishes.

the panel

Christine Parkinson, group wine buyer, Hakkasan; Stephane Sanchez, sommelier, Hotel du Vin; Henley Laura Ward, sommelier, Vivat Bacchus; Richard Woodard, freelance drinks writer

THE 2007 VINTAGE

A word of warning: when tasted, these were either only just bottled, or cask samples. That might partly explain why some wines showed a slightly metallic character and a vaguer sense of not being altogether integrated.

‘I wouldn’t be telling anybody to drink these now,’ said Christine Parkinson of Hakkasan. ‘But I have a feeling that several of them will taste better with food, and the fruit will show a little better. There’s probably more life than the 2003s, thanks to all that acidity and tannin.’

Our pioneers were

determined to boldly

go where no vintage

has gone before…

Laura Ward of Vivat Bacchus was more upbeat. ‘There’s good structure to a lot of the wines, and some of them have very great tannins, which could be good with the meat,’ she said.

STAR WINES Niepoort (83 points), Cockburn’s (83), Quinta do Vesuvio (82)

THE 2003 VINTAGE

Conventional port wisdom suggests that these wines should have lost their first flush of youth, entering a period of sulky early adolescence – but not a bit of it.

‘I thought they were showing nicely, with a good balance of flavour and quite regular,’ said Stephane Sanchez of Hotel du Vin Henley. ‘Each house has its own character, and they still have acidity with good potential for ageing.’

Parkinson was impressed too. ‘There’s lots of pure fruit – they’re attractive wines,’ she said. ‘Even when the tannins are evident, they’re not astringent. There’s nothing to put you off drinking them now. The 2003 is a fruity vintage.’

STAR WINES Quinta do Noval (87 points), Graham’s (86), Quinta do Vesuvio (83)

THE FOOD MATCHES…

The dishes were served alongside six selected ports.

2003 Quinta do Noval, Graham’s, Fonseca

2007 Niepoort, Cockburn’s, Quinta do Vesuvio

GRILLED RIB-EYE STEAK

The first match backed Parkinson’s theory, with the acidity and tannin of the 2007s standing up better than the lusher, fruitier 2003s.

‘Precisely because the 2003s were so balanced in themselves, that extra sweetness kicked in with the food,’ she commented. ‘The 2007s were not so together on their own, but with the food, the minerality started to show and the fruit was there.

‘The tannin and acidity just held it all together – at this stage of their lives they’re food wines. It’s the same mechanism that you get with Left Bank Bordeaux – not good on its own, but alongside a steak, it really starts to come into its own.’

All the tasters were agreed that extra flavours alongside that of the beef – mustard, garlic, tomato – helped the match. ‘You want to add some flavour, some spice,’ argued Sanchez. ‘But English mustard is a little powerful – I think Dijon is better.’

STAR MATCHES Cockburn’s 2007, Quinta do Noval 2003, Niepoort 2007

WAGYU BEEF, PEPPERCORN JUS AND WILD MUSHROOMS

An altogether richer dish, with a complex mix of strong flavours. And an altogether different result – this time it was the 2003s that shone, while the 2007s reverted to their previous, slightly disjointed character.

‘Peppered steak is supposed to be a good match for young vintage port, but I wasn’t convinced by the 2007s here,’ said Richard Woodard. ‘Having said that, the vibrant fruit of the 2003s sat a lot better alongside the heat of the peppercorn jus – particularly the fine tannins of Noval.’

‘I felt that the Noval worked, but not really very much else did,’ added Parkinson. ‘Maybe Fonseca too. But the 2007s seemed to come apart, with powerful flavours clashing with the powerful flavours in the dish. Because the 2003s were more harmonious they worked quite well, at least until you got the sweetness on the finish.”

STAR MATCHES Quinta do Noval 2003, Fonseca 2003, Quinta do Vesuvio 2007

CONCLUSIONS

The overriding impression from the tasting was not so much the success of the individual matches – there were no eureka moments here – but the challenge to the panel’s preconceptions of how drinkable the wines would be.

‘The one thing it does clearly say to me is that vintage port is worth drinking young,’ said Parkinson. ‘There are wines here that are immeasurably different to anything else on the market. The 2003s are delightful to drink now – really, really super. I’d love to drink some of these slightly cool on their own.’

But everyone was cautious about potential food matches. ‘You definitely have to know the dish and know the wine,’ said Sanchez, drawing attention to the wide variation in house styles. More specifically, he said he loved the idea of trying Graham’s 2003 alongside a slightly spicy, sausage-based dish – or Niepoort 2007 with something Asian or Spanish.

‘A more wintry dish – say a cassoulet with sausage or even chorizo – could be really interesting,’ added Ward. ‘But not a summer menu. You want something full of flavour and contrast. What about trying these with some regional Portuguese dishes?’

In short, these are wines that need careful handling and pinpoint accuracy in matching individual bottles to individual dishes – but there’s clear potential there.

‘I think there’s almost no place for young vintage port in a restaurant as a general wine,’ concluded Parkinson. ‘But it could have a super impact on a tasting menu. It could do interesting and wacky things that your customers would be really wowed by.’

Editorial feature from Imbibe Magazine - September / October 2009