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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

1977 California Port is Equally Delicious and Mysterious

Everything about this bottle of 1977 J.W. Morris Vintage Port fascinates me. The wine is six years older than me, from an era when California wines numbered far fewer and received far less respect. Also, it’s made in the style of vintage Port, meaning the grape juice was stopped during fermentation by the addition of brandy, resulting in a wine with high alcohol (20%) and significant residual sugar.

I bought this mysterious relic at auction about 18 months ago because it seemed interesting and it only cost $30. But I’ve found it difficult to get much information about this wine.

I found a reference to J.W. Morris’ California port in a 1989 LA Times article: “Quady and J.W. Morris make some of California's most consistent vintage and non-vintage Ports.” My searching turned up a few more references of J.W. Morris’ fortified wines, but most of the hits consisted of broken links or archived bits of information from the late 1980s, back when the interweb was just a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye.

CellarTracker.com, the world’s best tasting note and cellar management software, doesn’t have much information on this stuff either. One user tasted the 1978 vintage in 2007 and rated it a stellar 96 points. Wow.

Where are the grapes from? I’m not exactly sure. “California” is the only place named on the label. I’ve come across a bunch of references to this wine coming from Black Mountain Vineyard, but Black Mountain Vineyard appears to be a winery in Healdsburg, in Sonoma County. Maybe the grapes were sourced from the area around Healdsburg? At the last minute before this post I found out that K&L Wine Merchants is selling a 1978 vintage of a Black Mountain Vineyard Sonoma Port from J.W. Morris, which I assume is the next vintage of this same wine. So I guess the grapes come from Sonoma...

Which grapes are in the bottle? I don’t know. I can make an educated guess that at least some of the wine comes from zinfandel grapes, but that’s only because zin has been grown in California for a long time and frequently used in dessert-style wines. Perhaps there’s some petite sirah in here as well? Maybe some mourvedre? Who knows...

After all my searching, this wine still remains something of a mystery. And  you know what? in the age of instantly-available information, that’s kind of cool. (Although, if a knowledgeable wino stumbles upon this post, please tell me more about this delicious stuff!)

Finally, my tasting notes:

The cork was soaked all the way through, but I found only a slight sign of past seepage. When I finally got the cork out, I was a bit worried the wine would be spoiled, but those worries quickly disappeared. This wine is a bright ruby color with thick legs in the glass. The aromas are strong, with caramel, dates and an alcoholic-smoke aroma that reminds me of a Highland single malt. Overall, a pretty interesting on the nose, although the alcohol does burn a bit. On the palate, the tannins have waned and the acid is a little low, which means the caramel, fig paste and dried apricot flavors really dominate. The alcohol provides weight, and the richness of the residual sugar and the mature fruit flavors are enough to keep this wine together. Raisins and caramel linger on a very long finish. This is not an epic dessert wine, but it’s a darn good one, and very intriguing.

89 points IJB

12 comments:

  1. Issac,


    Not sure if you have already seen this, but...
    there is a reference to the winery in "A Companion to California Wine" by Sullivan. University of California Press, 1998

    Mentions the J.W. Port Works was founded in 1975 in Emeryville, but due to financial issues was acquired in 1983 by Toth Cellars in Sonoma, which had Black Mountain Vineyards. Unfortunately, I can only access half the entry, so that's all the information that shows up.

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    1. Hey Tfols! What's up! I did come across that little snippet, but, as you found out, you can only view like half a page. Interesting that a "Port Works" company started in a tiny Sonoma town in 1975. I mean, in 1975 Sonoma was still like the wild west of winemaking. History in a bottle, I guess. Cheers!

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    2. I figured you might have, but wanted to pass it along. There are a few random copies of that book floating around according to WorldCat. I'm curious to know what else the book mentions. Might have to check it out.

      I'm particularly curious about the Black Mountain Vineyards connection - several folks mention Morris using that vineyard, BEFORE the acquisition by Toth. Wonder if Morris was buying grapes, started to fail financially, and Toth came in due to a prior relationship.

      Certainly very interesting and a very cool little bit of history/mystery.

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  2. Isaac, Good post. I too just drank a mysterious bottle of Californian Port: Inglenook, Cabinet Port which had no vintage tag. It is fun digging into the past.

    Aaron

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    1. Aaron, interesting stuff. I had no idea Inglenook made port in the past. I love digging back into the salad days of California. Cheers!

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  3. I have 2 bottles of this port in my cellar, that I bought from the Culinary Institue in Napa. They were pouring it about 10 or so years ago, saying they "found" it in a back room when they took over the Greystone Cellars at the old Christian Brothers facility. It was so good, and I knew it was rare, so through much cajoling a got them to sell me some to take home. I'm waiting for the right occasion to open them.

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    1. Mr. B., thanks for the information. That sounds like a great story. I love wines that have a story, and this one sure does. I hope you have some delicious cheese or desserts when you open your bottle. If you ever stop by again, let me know what you thought about the wine. Cheers!

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  4. Just came upon a bottle of this in an auction lot and snagged it. Google is turning up a NYT Magazine article written in 1981 about California Vintage Port. It reveals the blend of the 1975 vintage to be equal parts zinfandel, petite sirah, and ruby cabernet. Can't wait to crack mine!

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    1. @streetcarwines, that's awesome! I'm glad others have found this wine. It's one of those interesting finds. If I find any more, I'm definitely going to snag it up. California history in a glass. Cheers!

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  5. Issac, If you would like to know more I may be able to help. JW Morris was my grandfather, and the principle vintners for the company were my parents. Drop me a line if you're interested. Cheers -Jamie

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    1. Hi Jamie,

      I just bought a magnum of the 1980 J.W. Morris Chardonnay at auction, and found out about the port and a very limited bottling of PInot. What other wines did your grandfather bottle and where was his plot in Sonoma?
      Thank you! —Britt

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  6. Issac, If you would like to know more I may be able to help. JW Morris was my grandfather, and the principle vintners for the company were my parents. Drop me a line if you're interested. Cheers -Jamie

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