© Wikipedia

Port is easily the most popular fortified wine.

As younger drinkers resist their charms, James Lawrence asks what is the future for Port and Sherry?

The magnificent fortified wines of Port, Sherry and Madeira are undoubtedly some of the greatest and longest-lived fine wines available in the market today.

However, they continue to languish far from the spotlight of hype; over Christmas, I drank an exquisite 1985 Taylors Vintage Port that retails for less than £90 ($130). In comparison, a bottle of Château Lafite from that year runs to at least $850. Which was clearly out of the question, not least because my bank manager has run off with his assistant to Bora Bora.

Yet, I probably remain a massive anomaly in this regard: a Millennial from the mid-1980s who drinks fortified wine on a regular basis. My circle of friends (of a similar age) regard the category with a mixture of disdain and disinterest. Port is for "stuffy old farts", apparently, whereas Sherry comes under the umbrella of "something Grandma enjoys", or words to that effect. As for Madeira, that's just an island, right? And so I often wonder – is fortified wine heading for a slow death as Generation Y continues to shun the style?

Richard Halstead, CEO of analyst firm Wine Intelligence, has spent years trying to answer that very question. "Both Sherry and Port face distinctive challenges to remain relevant to consumers in the 21st Century. For Sherry, owning the 'aperitif moment' is a distant memory, and the imperative remains to recruit enough new consumers to the category to prevent a further catastrophic fall in volume over the next 10 years," Halstead explains.

Halstead also underlines the point that the fortified category in the UK amounts to approximately 2.5 million 9-liter cases, down from 3.3m cases in 2003.

"Port's biggest worry remains the fragility of its occasion as a relevant part of food and drink culture. While pre-dinner drinks remain a fixture of British social life in the 21st Century, the Port and cheese course has become a vanishing rarity – perhaps a once or twice a year event," he says.

Nonetheless, the latest figures indicate that the category is in growth, at least in the UK. According to Nielsen, the total value of fortified wine sales over the past 12 months (MAT November 2014-15) was £76m ($108m), compared to £61 m ($86.5m) 12 months prior. Both Sherry and Port are growing in value and volume, although Madeira continues to command a tiny share of the market. "It has been a strong year for Sherry sales at Gonzalez Byass. We are seeing growth with more specialist Sherries, such as our Finos Palmas range, within the restaurant and specialist retailers sectors," says brand manager Sarah Pollard.

Her positive appraisal is shared by Paul Symington, one of the Port industry's most influential players. "We had a fantastic year in 2015. In the UK, Cockburn's has increased by 21 percent in volume compared to the same period in 2014. This is a historical record for our family and shows that Cockburn's is now driving the category. Graham's sales were up by 9 percent and Warre's up by 14 percent from 2014."

On Wine-Searcher, search figures for fortified wines have managed the odd trick of almost doubling in actual number, while remaining virtually static as a percentage of total searches over the past 30 months. Total fortified searches in June 2013 were 134,051, or 2.6 percent of all searches, while November 2015 searches had hit 306,100, which accounted for 2.5 percent of all searches in the months, reflecting the growth in total searches made on Wine-Searcher.

(Interestingly, something was definitely going on in February 2014, which was a record month for fortified wine searches. There were 357,350 searches and the individual styles of fortified wine almost all recorded their top search figures, with Port registering more than 300,000 searches alone. Sherry recorded 18,559 searches, while Madeira garnered almost 11,000. Even Marsala had more than 2500 searches.)

© Sogrape

Sherry's flor-derived flavors have won fans in some centers, but are making no impact in others.

However, as encouraging as these figures are, this gushing optimism from producers fails to reckon with the demographic involved in this apparent slice of good news. Sales figures don't analyze consumers by age, or offer any evidence that younger drinkers are driving demand. But, according to Wine Intelligence research, the majority of fortified wine drinkers are males older than 45. In contrast, they report that only 22 and 25 percent of 18-34 olds are drinking Sherry and Port, respectively. So, while parts of the category remain resilient, one must also remember that its consumer base is continuing to age. And as that generation eventually dies out, is there any evidence that younger drinkers will take their place?

"Making sure Port and Sherry stay relevant is surely the greatest challenge facing the industry today," agrees sommelier John Chan, of the two Michelin-starred Amber restaurant in Hong Kong. But the question remains: are the key stakeholders up to the task?

"Our Port sales at [London Michelin-starred restaurant] Hakkasan are to a wide age range of guests, and there is no obvious trend of younger people choosing it," says wine buyer Christine Parkinson MW. "When I talk to younger consumers, they don't seem to know why they should choose any particular style. Something seems to be missing in terms of how Port is communicated."

Her sentiments are echoed by Thomas Pastuszak, wine director at the NoMad restaurant in New York. "Sherry is an increasingly exciting category of wine for New Yorkers. But as far as Port is concerned, while I can definitely say we have interest in the category, it's not nearly as high as the enthusiasm over dry fortified wines."

But to give the Port industry due credit, several brands are making a concerted effort to appeal to a wider consumer base. Churchill's for example, set up pop-up bars in London and teamed up with renowned chefs to host dinners across the globe in 2015, in an attempt to seduce younger consumers. The Fladgate Partnership (owners of the Croft, Fonseca and Taylor's Port houses) have also displayed a willingness to embrace consumer trends, introducing a Croft rosé Port to the market.

"Over the past five years, one of our biggest ambitions has been to appeal to a younger audience," insists Paul Symington. "We have pioneered many key initiatives, which have helped us do exactly this. For example, presenting our Aged Tawny Ports in clear glass bottles; Tawnies are the most versatile in the Port category – there is no need for decanting, they will keep for up to a month at least after opening, informal yet very smart and these suit the way we lead our lives in a much more informal manner." Of course, it remains to be seen how effective these measure will be in the longer term.

Meanwhile Sherry continues to fight for more space in both the Spanish and premium sectors of the on-trade. "We certainly witnessed an acceleration of interest from a younger audience with the growth of quality Spanish food, bars and restaurants in the UK. Walk into any of these venues and you will see tables of Millennials enjoying Sherry," boasts Gonzalez Byass' Pollard. "Sherry sales at Bar Pepito are going well at plus-8 percent last 12 months compared to the previous," agrees London-based restauranteur Richard Bigg.

Pastuszak reports a similarly strong take-up at his restaurant. "At NoMad, we always pour several dry Sherries of different style by-the-glass, because they are such a great fit for chef Humm's cuisine – typically, we focus on exciting expressions of Fino and Manzanilla," he enthuses.

In contrast, Parkinson reports a lackluster response to her initiatives. "Sherry is quite simply going nowhere. We have put a huge effort in with Sherry at Hakkasan, for about the last 10 years, and we recently took a decision to move away from it," she admits. "We've tried both high and low price points, we've varied the glass size so people can try just a little if they want, we've put Sherry on different pages of the list – Blends, Age & Grace, etc – and we've tried focusing on En Rama but, whatever we do, it simply does not sell."

© Blandys

The complexity of Madeira has bypassed younger generations.

Overall though, the picture that emerges is a positive one, certainly in terms of the on-going investment from both the trade and producers in making the category appeal to a wider audience.

For, while much hard work remains to be done, there are tentative signs that, in some quarters, Millennials are being won over to the joys of an aged Oloroso. And for those of us already convinced of its charms, there has never been a better time to buy.

"If you look at 1963 – generally considered one of the greatest vintages of the 20th Century – and disregard Quinta do Noval Nacional, you'd struggle to find a Port from a top producer with a market price above £200 [$280] per bottle," notes Liv-Ex Exchange manager Robbie Stevens. A stark contrast to the generally overpriced recent vintages of top Bordeaux, only available to the world's millionaires.

That's reason enough for anyone to be cheerful – millennials, or no millennials.