Critically-acclaimed ‘Perfect Port’ wine made at family-owned Madera vineyard. Take a look

Uniquely is a Fresno Bee series that covers the moments, landmarks and personalities that define what makes living in the Fresno area so special.

Peter Ficklin says his winery, the oldest family-owned Port winery in the nation, is a “small fish” in comparison to others in Madera County.

One recent morning, he held up a bottle as he was surrounded by myriad wooden barrels in his winery’s tasting room, a warehouse-like building that houses an intricate bottling machine and is surrounded by row of grapevines.

The small winery, only 2.5 acres just west of Highway 99, produces award-winning Old Vine Tinta Port, considered one of the best in the world. It won a Double Gold, Best of Class award with a perfect score of 100 at the 2021 Sunset International Wine Competition.

“A 100-point wine is a benchmark wine,” Alexander Peartree, tasting director for Wine Enthusiast, said in a news release about the competition. “It represents the pinnacle of the category.”

Peter Ficklin, a third-generation winemaker in Madera County and president of Ficklin Vineyards, calls it “our ‘perfect Port.’

He described the Old Vine Tinta as a marriage of the plummy, jammy, berry fruit flavors of young Ports and the finesse, mature character and complexity of old Ports. The “Solera” blend dates back to 1948, the year his father, David, and grandfather, Walter, made Ficklin Vineyards’ first wines on the winery property, which has been in the family for more than 100 years.

Ficklin Vineyards has been producing wine for close to 80 years and has brought home hundred of awards over the decades, maintaining its excellence as it has shifted business strategies from wholesale to a more straight-to-consumer market.

Unlike some others, the Ficklins successfully navigated a changing industry that started to squeeze mom-and-pop winemakers out of important, far-reaching distribution networks after the 1980s. Peter Ficklin pivoted in the early 2000s to a more consumer-facing business strategy, opening up the tasting room and holding events. Ficklin Vineyards also has a wine club that entitles members to certain discounts and special invitations to bottle-release parties.

Tough times, fortified wines

Walter Ficklin, the grandfather, spent the years of the Prohibition era and the Great Depression in Kerman, where he worked in agricultural lending.

“They saw some tough times back then,” Peter Ficklin said about his grandparents.

Fortified wines — including Sherry, Moscatel, Tokaji and Port — dominated the industry in those days. They have a higher alcohol content than other wines.

“But they were all inexpensive imitations of the real thing,” Peter Ficklin said.

For the Ficklins, it began when the father, David Ficklin, returned from Europe after fighting in World War II and brought with him an interest in making wine. Walter Ficklin, a well-traveled wine enthusiast, encouraged his son to get into the business of premium Ports made with traditional techniques and true Portuguese grape varieties. They incorporated Ficklin Vineyards in 1946.

The following year, David Ficklin built the winery’s adobe-brick wine cellar by hand using Madera soil. Its interior immediately hits visitors with a powerful and pleasant smell that you can almost taste — that inspires a desire for a glass.

“It smells like aging Port,” Peter Ficklin said of the dark, cool and damp cellar. “It has wood character, like damp wood. But it’s a special wine smell, different from a dry wine cellar.”

Portuguese grapes for premium Ports

Because they’re fortified, Ports are considered age-worthy wines and develop flavors through the years, whether they’re bottled or barreled, Peter Ficklin said. There are numerous styles, including white, ruby, tawny, vintage, late bottle vintage, and more.

Peter Ficklin, now in his 70s, continues to work directly with the wines. To make Port, he uses Portuguese grapes at optimum maturity — as is done with pinot noirs, cabernet sauvignons and zinfandels — from all over California. But instead of allowing fermentation to metabolize all of the sugar and make a wine with a 12%-15% alcohol content, he stops that process using grape brandy, killing the yeast and yielding a wine with an alcohol content of between 18%-20%.

“So all of the sweetness, the sugar that one tastes in a sip of Port, is grape sugar from when those grapes were originally harvested,” he said.

Ficklin’s vintage Ports, bottled at 2.5 years to 3 years old, develop their character during the aging process. (The winery still has some vintage Ports from 1948.)

“Ports typically have a warm spirit finish,” he said, “but the vintage Ports tend to soften that. You build in some more earthy, leathery hints — sometimes hints of darker fruit and menthol.”

Ficklin’s Aged 10 years Tawny Port, along with its Old Vine Tinta Port, has been served during dinners at the U.S. Embassy in London, England. The tawny, which refers to this Port’s color, is aged in wooden barrels and usually takes about seven years for its flavor to develop.

“You build in a tremendous nuttiness, a dried fruit character and some vanilla tones,” Peter Ficklin said of the tawny. “And the brandy that is used to fortify the wines comes across in a beautiful cognac spirit warmth in the finish.”

‘Not just another bottle’

His parents took the business from selling wine to individual restaurants and retails stores to tapping distributors that helped them sell in 43 states by the 1970s. But then, increasing consolidation began swallowing “small fish” wineries and shut others out of the distribution reach they once had, he said.

“We didn’t have the horsepower in the market that they wanted to see to move the brand in some areas,” he said.

His Ports were already critically-acclaimed, internationally, when he decided in 2001 to open a full-time tasting room and focus on selling directly to the public.

Consequently, he said, Ficklin Vineyards’ wholesale market shrunk slightly, but it’s direct consumer market blossomed, allowing him to do more small lot production. Today, the winery sells about 50-60 different varieties in the tasting room.

It’s wine club has also grown under Peter Ficklin’s management, attracting members from all over the nation. It entitles members to attend two events featuring the release of three bottles, one in April and another in October. In December, Ficklin Vineyards plans a holiday event with carolers and marshmallow roasting, Peter Ficklin said.

“The real joy is sharing the wine and speaking to people at events that have a meaningful story about when when they first tasted it,” he said. “If they purchase a bottle and share it with friends, then it’s not just another bottle of wine. There’s an experience, some feelings and emotions behind that.”