I recently had the privilege of taking part in a vertical tasting of three vintages of coffees from Brazil’s Daterra Farms, all roasted by Barrington Coffee Roasting Company. According to Barrington Coffee’s Barth Anderson, “each year Daterra chooses what they deem to be ‘the best’ of all of their coffees and they give it the Daterra Reserve distinction. It is a choice they make based upon cup quality, rather than uniformity of varietal or terroir.” Excitingly, what this means is that because Daterra grows a number of different varietals of coffee, each year the Daterra Reserve distinction may be bestowed upon a different varietal. Anderson stated that, “As they use an appellation system for keeping their coffees geographically distinct, they certainly have the ability to offer exactly the same coffee from each years harvest. But this doesn’t necessarily guide them in their choice of each year’s best. This did, however, happen to be the case in ’05 and ’06 with the Acaia.”

Barrington Coffee created their Landed Aging Program as a means of carefully aging those coffees that they believed would further develop and improve with time. In their warehouse they have a number of coffees aging, from a variety of producers and vintages. They began the program several years ago, and now have multiple vintages on hand from many of the same producers, allowing them to stage exactly the kind of vertical tasting that I took part in. Coffees that are part of their Landed Aging Program are sealed in special bags and stored in a temperature controlled environment, with the goal of allowing them to age gently and evenly.

Now, as anyone who has thought about aging wines knows, not all wines get better with age. Some, such as those from Barolo and Sauternes are known to improve with age, showing well after decades. An extreme example of this would be the longevity of Vin Jaune from France’s Jura region, wines that are known to show beautifully after six decades or more! Yet, most wines are not meant to be aged, and holding onto them too long simply results in a wine that is a lesser shadow of its former self. Barrington Coffee faces a similar dilemma in choosing which coffees to include in their Landed Aging Program. Not all coffees will improve with aging, and yet the very practice of aging coffee (on purpose) is in its infancy, and we know little about what qualities a coffee needs to have to age well.

From the outset of their Landed Aging Program, Barrington Coffee has been putting away vintages of the Daterra Farms Reserve, a coffee that has a very good reputation. The varietals are not the same each year, but vary from year to year. The 2005 and 2006 are both Acaia and the 2007 is Yellow Bourbon. The 2008 and 2009 (not included in this tasting) are Red Bourbon. All this really means is that Daterra Farms felt that for each of these specific vintages, these varietals were the best of their many lots of coffee. It’d be interesting to speculate as to why Acaia was the choice two years in a row, followed by three straight years of bourbons. Anderson stated that, “[this] helps to illustrate how even the same varietal on the same plot of land can exhibit different characteristics from year to year.” So what leads to these year-to-year differences? What in the growing season results in such vintage variations?

Tasting Notes

This vertical tasting was done as a cupping, with the coffees initially presented one at a time, followed by side-by-side comparisons.

2005 Vintage (Acaia varietal)
The nose has notes of macadamia nuts, milk chocolate, black cherries, and cinnamon. The palate is gentle and softly textured, with warm sweet flavors of almonds, chocolate, caramel, and roasted peanuts, complemented by a touch of orange zest. The finish is tantalizing, lingering, and sweet. Of the three vintages, I found this one to be the nuttiest of them all, full of peanuts, almonds, and cashews.

2006 Vintage (Acaia varietal)
The nose on this vintage has notes of cayenne, cardamom, brown sugar, and roasted nuts. The palate is softly textured, opening with flavors of smoke and toast, and then transitioning to sweet flavors of vanilla, turbinado sugar, and cocoa powder, with an undercurrent of almonds and lime citrus. The medium-length finish leaves lingering flavors reminiscent of the palate. This coffee was the sweetest and smoothest of the three.

2007 Vintage (Yellow Bourbon varietal)
Right from the start, this coffee is an entirely different experience from the previous two vintages. Notes of smoky game, chocolate covered cherries, spices, and pie crust waft out of the cup. The body is firm with a supple texture supporting sweet flavors of caramel, apple butter, milk chocolate, almonds, hints of citrus. A brightening acidity offsets this collection of sweet, mellow flavors. The gently rolling finish exhibits flavors of milk chocolate and key limes.

In sum, this was a very fun, thought-provoking experience. Being able to taste three consecutive vintages of the coffees that Daterra Farms felt were the best from each year’s crop really illustrated both how coffees change over the years, and how different varieties age in such unique ways. As I mentioned earlier, the last two vintages have been bourbon varietals, same as the 2007. It would be a great experience to taste the 2007, 2008, and 2009 side-by-side when the 2009 is released this fall, and then again a couple of years down the road, when they’ve all gotten a few years of aging in. Something to look forward to I hope!