🍷 Colheita Port
A tawny Port from a single year's grapes, with the year on the label.
Colheita is a special Port made from a single harvest. The Portuguese word colheita means harvest, and the vintage year must appear on the label. In style it is a tawny: the wine is aged for a long time in wooden casks, where it slowly oxidises, turns paler and takes on an amber colour.
By the rules a Colheita spends at least seven years in wood, but often much longer, twenty or thirty years or more. The label gives both the harvest year and the bottling date. The taste shows dried fruit, nuts, caramel and spice. Colheita does not need cellaring at home: it is ready when bottled and changes little afterwards.
The key difference from age-indicated tawny is that 10 or 20 years is the average age of a blend of several years, while a Colheita comes from one year. Nor should it be confused with Vintage Port, which ages in bottle rather than in cask. Madeira Frasqueira follows a similar idea. It is a strong wine, around 20%, drunk in small amounts.
How it connects to Wine
🍷 Colheita Port → made in → 🗺️ Portuguese wine → kind of → 🗺️ Wines of Europe → kind of → 🍷 Wine
Links
- Part of
- 🍷 Tawny Port
- Where it is made
- 🗺️ Portuguese wine
- Similar and different
- 🍷 Tawny Port, 🍷 Aged Tawny Port, 🍷 Frasqueira Madeira
Frequently asked questions
What is Colheita Port?
It is a tawny Port from a single harvest, aged in cask for at least 7 years. The vintage is shown on the label.
How is Colheita different from Vintage Port?
Colheita ages long in cask and is ready on release. Vintage spends little time in cask and matures in bottle.
Does Colheita need decanting?
Usually not, since it throws no sediment after settling in cask. An opened bottle keeps for several weeks.
What to read next
- 🗺️ Portuguese wine — The country's wine and winemaking: regions, grapes, appellations.
- 🍷 Aged Tawny Port — Tawny with a number of years on the label: the average age of the blend.
- 🍷 Frasqueira Madeira — Vintage Madeira from a single year and a single grape.
Similar
🍷 Aged Tawny Port · 🍷 Tawny Port · 🍷 Espumante · 🍷 Reserve Ruby Port · 🍷 Single Quinta Vintage Port · 🍷 Rosé Port
⚠️ Wine contains alcohol: adults only, drink in moderation. Wine usually contains sulphites; egg white or milk proteins are sometimes used for fining — important for allergies and for vegans.