There has long been a stark division between tawny and vintage Port, with the so-called ‘British houses’ majoring on vintage while the ‘Portuguese houses’ made a speciality of wood Port, meaning the tawnies and colheitas that are aged for extended periods in wood before bottling. Tawny is the name given to Australia's most popular fortified wine style, formerly referred to as 'Tawny Port'. Graham’s and Taylor’s have even begun to launch their own colheitas – single-year, aged tawny Ports – entering into an area that was once the near-exclusive preserve of the Portuguese-owned shippers. Australia recently agreed to discontinue the use of the term 'Port' in line with international labelling agreements, with 'Port' now used exclusively by the Portuguese. With the growing appreciation of tawny Port in English-speaking markets, that division is breaking down. ‘We always had strong sales in markets such as Brazil, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland and Portugal, where aged tawnies have long been considered to be among the finest styles of Port,’ said Jim Reader, Port consultant at Dalva. These wines are the top scorers (94 and above) in our recent Tawny Port panel tasting, in the January issue of Decanter magazine. With Christmas fast approaching it's time to start thinking about festive fortifieds. A new trend for tawny Port. There has long been a stark division between tawny and vintage Port, with the so-called ‘British houses’ majoring on vintage while the ‘Portuguese houses’ made a speciality of wood Port, meaning the tawnies and colheitas that are aged for extended periods in wood before bottling. See the full tasting here. Port & Tawny. And this year the once rather obscure colheita style has gone mainstream in the UK, with a listing for Kopke 1996 in Marks & Spencer, {"api":{"host":"https:\/\/pinot.decanter.com","authorization":"Bearer MTYyYmY5YzAyZGUzY2Y3YjMzMTg0YWYzODQyZmI5ZWViMjUxMGM5ZDRhZjA4NjI1YWQ2MWJkMmIxNDUwMjk0OA","version":"2.0"},"piano":{"sandbox":"false","aid":"6qv8OniKQO","rid":"RJXC8OC","offerId":"OFPHMJWYB8UK","offerTemplateId":"OFPHMJWYB8UK","wcTemplateId":"OTOW5EUWVZ4B"}}, {"location":"Keystone Header","subscribeText":"Subscribe Now","version":"2","menuWidgetTitle":"","myAccountLnk":"\/wine-reviews\/account","premiumLnk":"\/subscribe","menuLnks":{"2":{"text":"My Wines","href":"\/wine-reviews\/my-wines"}},"colors":{"text":"#ffffff","button":"#decc8f","link":"#ffffff"}}, {"wineId":"15824","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"15825","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"5556","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"5560","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"15826","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"15827","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"15828","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"15829","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"15830","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, {"wineId":"15831","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}, Expert’s choice: New World sparkling wines, Property: Washington State wine villa goes on sale for $3.75m, More property buyers eyeing Tuscan wine country, say agents, See also: Decanter’s tawny Port style guide. Port's name can be attributed to the nearest seaport being Porto at the mouth of the Douro River where this luscious fortified wine was shipped and introduced to the world.Tawny is the name given to Australia's most popular fortified wine style, formerly referred to as 'Tawny Port'. All the main shippers have been building their stocks of wood Port.