Sunday drinking: 20 August
A look at 650 years of Anglo-Portuguese cooperation through two extraordinary values ports. Plus a word on Britain’s ‘simplified’ new duty rates on wine.
This year marks the 650th anniversary of the longest alliance in history, between Portugal and England. The Treaty of London was signed on 16 June 1373 between King Edward III of England and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal. The alliance was further cemented when Phillipa, daughter of John O’Gaunt, one of Edward’s sons, married King John I of Portugal 1387 - one of Portugal’s great monarchs.
In our family we had our very own little Anglo-Portuguese alliance with Alexandre, the manager of the Penina Hotel (behold its magnificence below). My grandparents had a flat near Portimão. Every year on the drive from Faro airport my father would tell us that the Portuguese were our best allies. It was as if there was a direct link from the Treaty of London to us turning up at the Penina Hotel with a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label to give Alexandre so he would let us use the swimming pool - an informal arrangement set up by my grandfather who was good at persuading people to get what he wanted.
I’ve just recorded a podcast on the intoxicating shared history of England and Portugal - more news on this to follow - and naturally we finished off with a glass of port - in this case a Taylor’s Quinta de Vargellas 2013 - a wine that offers an extraordinary amount of deliciousness for your pound. But good value port is under thread thanks to a bit of misguided legislation. In an effort to simplify the country’s complicated taxation system, the Sunak et al have somehow contrived to make it not only much more complicated but worse still more expensive too.
Rather than have flat rates for still wine (£2.23), fortified (£2.98) and sparkling wine (£2.86) - duty will go up according to the percentage of the wine. So a three tier tax rate has been replaced by over 20 different rates. Read Gavin Quinney for a full breakdown of the horror. It’s a nightmare for small retailers and importers. But worst of all, the duty on 20% alcohol port has gone up from £2.86 to £4.28 (with 20% VAT on top of that). While this won’t put off hardcore port drinkers, it will deter the port curious, the kind of people who might buy white port or a bottle at Christmas, and could potentially destroy the market for good value port - £10-25 a bottle. There really should have been questions asked in the Portuguese parliament because this is nothing less than a betrayal of our old alliance.
At the moment many retailers including my employer Master of Malt are absorbing the extra duty, but soon we’ll see prices rapidly rise. My advice would be to buy now. I’ve just noticed that two extraordinary value wines have just appeared on the website. Both are single quinta ports: Croft Quinta do Roeda 2004 at £14.95 (!) and Smith Woodhouse Madalena Vintage Port 2013 at £19.95. I tried the Croft last year and it was just gorgeous, and while I haven’t tried the other, it’s usually a great wine and I loved that 2013 Vargellas so I reckon it’ll be drinking well now. There’s only a few bottles of each in stock, so hurry with these.
And finally, when I was writing my book on English wine, Vines in a Cold Climate, I was most nervous at the reaction from THE expert on the subject, Stephen Skelton MW. Skelton used to make his own wine at Spots Farm in Kent in the 1980s and ‘90s, was involved in the early days of Chapel Down, and is now a consultant to the industry, as well as having written several books on the subject. He came to my book launch at Balfour St. Barts in London, kindly laid on by Balfour winery, and I nervously asked him what he thought of the book. ‘I haven’t read it yet!’ he replied. Two days later he gave his verdict on Twitter:
“Just read “Vines from a Cold Climate” & never read a wine book so full of swear words and blasphemies! Hope the publisher has a good libel lawyer on speed-dial. It’s a good read though in a warts-and-all style, especially if you are in the business & know all the people mentioned.”
One for the paperback, I think.
The worst aspect of the new duty regime is that appears to regard wine as an evil whose consumers need to be penalised for drinking higher degrees of alcohol. Only someone wholly unfamiliar with wine could have concocted such a piece of malicious nonsense.