Dear Little Bastardo,
We are not making Coca Cola.
What we do here is not a formula. It is not engineered for sameness, and it is not built around the idea that every bottle should taste exactly like the last one. That may work fine for some, but it is not how interesting wine is made, and it is certainly not how we make port.
Each vintage is different. Each variety is different. Each barrel is different. Time changes everything. Evaporation changes everything. Oxidation changes everything. Even two barrels filled with the same wine can slowly head in different directions over the course of ten years. Where it sits in the barrel room…near the floor, high up, or in the back. It all matters. That is part of the beauty of this. It is not production. It is evolution.
These are not products assembled from a recipe. They are one-of-a-kind wines made with intention, patience, and a willingness to wait. In a world that wants everything faster, cleaner, and more predictable, these wines go the other direction.
This shipment is a perfect example. All three wines were harvested in 2016. All three spent ten full years aging in barrel before bottling this spring. For a decade they sat quietly in our cellar, slowly transforming. No rush. No shortcuts. No attempt to force them into some predetermined style. We just let the wines become what they wanted to become.
Very few wineries have the patience, will, or vision to do that. Tying up barrels for ten years is not exactly a modern business strategy. But these wines were never about efficiency. They are about curiosity, conviction, and seeing an idea all the way through.
That spirit guides us. My dad built St. Amant around the idea that Portuguese varieties grown in our Amador County vineyard could make world class port styled wines. That was not the obvious path in California, and it still is not. But some ideas are worth pursuing precisely because they are not obvious. They are distinctive. They are real. And they cannot be hurried.
This release explores that idea through three very different wines. Same vintage. Same decade in barrel. Three completely different expressions.
2016 VERDELHO PORT
Verdelho continues to fascinate me because it can hold freshness and oxidation at the same time. After ten years in barrel, this wine has gained richness, texture, and nutty complexity, but it still has lift and energy. It draws inspiration from Madeira, but it is very much its own wine. A white port aged this long is a rare thing, and this one was worth the wait. – 326 bottles (500 mL)
2016 BASTARDO PORT
Bastardo is not an easy grape to grow, which is part of why I like it so much. It rewards patience in a way few varieties do. After ten years in barrel, this wine has moved well beyond youthful fruit into something deeper, more aromatic, and a little wild. Bastardo never seems interested in being predictable, and thankfully neither are we. – 313 bottles (500mL)
2016 TAWNY PORT
The 2016 Tawny is a blend of six Portuguese varieties we grow, aged ten years in barrel. This is where the broader vision of our port program really comes together. The wine is layered, harmonious, and complete, with the kind of depth and length that only time can create. If the Verdelho and Bastardo each tell part of the story, the Tawny ties it all together. – 338 bottles (500mL)
Taken together, these wines are much more than words on a paper. They are proof that wine does not have to be standardized to be great. In fact, the opposite is often true. The things that make these wines special are the very things that make them hard to reproduce. Variation. Time. Risk. Patience.
That is what makes them worth drinking. And more importantly they taste really good.
As always, my suggestion is to open all three together. Share them. Compare them. Watch how they change in the glass. These wines took ten years to make, and they are best enjoyed slowly.
I hope you enjoy them, and thank you for supporting our small family winery and our slightly unusual, one of a kind wines.
Enjoy,
Stuart Spencer
The Grand Bastardo
