Author Archives: Stefan

Time for Theis annual Bordeaux tasting in Copenhagen

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On September 2 Theis Vine opens its doors for the annual tasting at the Stock Exchange in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The main focus for the tasting is the great chateaux of Bordeaux, with both samples from the current year 2014 as well as beads of older vintages directly from the producers’ own cellars! Furthermore, a selection of some other wines from the rest of the world are also available.
The event takes place on Wednesday, September 2 at 17:00 to 20:00. Tickets to the event are available at www.theis-vine.dk/produkt/prestigesmagning-boersen-private and a list of wines available for tasting are shown on www.theis-vine.dk/hvad-kan-du-smage-til-prestigesmagningen-paa-boersen-2-september

Great vacation wines

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Due to a Birthday within the family we went to Skagen, Denmark to celebrate. We started already at home, 3 days before with Reichsrat von Buhl’s Forster Ziegler Riesling Auslese 1945 as aperitif which was delicious indeed. After that Grand Cru Moenchberg Riesling from Guy Wach, Alsace to the first course, followed by Ch. Latour 1987, Ch. Haut Brion 1975 and Ch. La Misson Haut Brion to the main course. La Misson was outstanding indeed. A marvelous wine after 40 years to enjoy today and it will keep for some years more. To the dessert we followed up with F. Martin’s vintage 1977 and 1982.

BollingerWhen we arrived in Skagen we started the celebration with Bollinger Vielles Vignes Francaises, Blanc de Noir 2005 because we dared not to take too old wines with us in the car. It was a truly marvelous champagne and the first time we drank it. After that, before eating, we had another Champagne, 2004 Brut, Grand Cru from Petit-Lebrun just to make sure to feel that celebration week had started. To the first course we had Moutonne Grand Cru 2003 from Dom. Long-Depaquit, Chablis. The wine was elegant as always. After that Ch. La Misson Haut Brion 1997 and Clos de la Roche, Grand Cru 1998 from Vicent Girardin, Morey St. Denis and ended up with a dessert and Silval Vintage 1999 from Noval and Calem Vintage 1960.

Next day the evening started with a new lovely and elegant Champagne from Bollinger; their R.D. Extra Brut 1996. We continued with a Riesling 2012 Grand Cru Frankstein, Dom. Mersiol from Alsace and a white Ch. Latour Martillac 2011, Grand Cru Classe from Grave. To the meat we enjoyed Corton – Clos de la Vigne au Saint 2006 Grand Cru from Louis Latour, and Ch. Palmer 1985 and ended the evening with Ramos Pinto Vintage Port 1945 and a Madeira, Bual Solera Centenary 1845 from Cossart Gordon. Both wonderful wines.

The next day we started with Henriot champagne vintage 1996 (excellent) and continued with Riesling, Grand Cru Wineck-Schlossberg 2008 from Albert Schoech, Alsace and Les Fourneaux Prem. Cru 2011 from Louis Moreau, Chablis. The meat was enjoyed with Corton -Le Rognet Grand Cru 2006 from Maison Ambroise and Ch. Beychevelle 1975 both really mature and exciting. This evening we ended with Wiese-Krohn Vintage port from 1967 and 1965.

The 4th of August we started the evening with a wonderful champagne from Michel Gonet, Vintage 1996 and the paté was enjoyed with a marvelous Ch. d’Yquem 1973. To the grilled salmon we had Riesling Grand Cru Altenberg de Wolxheim 2013 from Arthur Metz, Alsace and Gewurtztraminer Grand Cru Kirchberg de Barr 2004 from Dom. Hering, Alsace. The ports this evening were Messias’ Quinta do Cachao Vintage 1966 and 1976.

RamosPinto1945The next day we started with two champagnes. The first bottle was Cuvee Cleo Blanc de Blanc from Esterlin which was followed with the Vintage 1996 Cuvee Fleur de Champagne from Duval-Leroy. How lucky we were! The wine to the first meal was Riesling Grand Cru Rangen 2008 from Wolfberger, Alsace and the entrecôte was enjoyed with Ch. Leoville Barton 1980 and Ch. Leoville Poyferre’ 1962, both wonderful and mature. Now we had no more port left so to the dessert Ch. Doisy Daëne 2007 and Bernkasteler Doktoren, Riesling, Beerenauslese 1976 from Lauenburg was drinking well.

On the 6th of August the champagne was vintage 2008 from Louis Roederer. The paté was enjoyed with Riesling Auslese Steinberger 1976, Staatsweingut and Ch. Suduiraut 1990. The meat was accompanied with Lacryma Christi del Vesuvio Reserva 1999 and “Les Crais” Prem. Cru 2009 from Camille Giroud, Gevry-Chambertin. Due to weight increase no dessert wines this evening.

The last day in Skagen the champagne was Huré Frères Blanc de Blanc from 1996. We continued with a Gewürztraminer Grand Cru Prelatenberg 2012, Alsace and Rauenthaler Baiken’s Riesling Auslese from 1976, Staatsweingut. The meat was enjoyed with Clos de Mouches 1986, Prem. Cru from Joseph Drouhin, Beaune and Cabernet Sauvignon Bella Oak vineyard 1982 from Heitz, Napa Valley. Both wines perfect mature and wonderful to drink. The day was lucky for us because we found a cheap Rozes Vintage Port in Skagen and the 2010 was a perfect ending of an unforgettable week.

Summer with no Port

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Stefan and Sten at Schloss Gobelsburg.

Stefan and Sten at Schloss Gobelsburg.

We have terrible summer weather in Sweden this year and we also have a new record in the family. We were not drinking Vintage Port for a whole month exactly! The reason is simple. We have been on vacation in Franken, Germany and Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), Austria. We had some very nice tastings in Würzburg at the Burgerspital, Juliusspital and Staatlicher Hofkeller. In Austria we were at tastings in Winzer Krems, Aufreiter’s, Schloss Gobelsburg Schlosskellerei, Domäne Wachau and a few others. The tastings were especially good at Gobelsburg and Domäne Wachau. We were very surprised to see some Vintage Ports from Niepoort for sale at Schloss Gobelsburg. It turns out that Dirk Niepoort is a friend to the manager of Schloss Gobelsburg. We tasted Wonderful wines of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling but also some red table wines. However, we also found an Austrian “port wine” in a wine shop in Salzburg, which we just had to taste and it was terrible indeed!

Some Smaragd quality wines tasted at Domäne Wachau

Some Smaragd quality wines tasted at Domäne Wachau

The last couple of weeks have been more normal for us, with some new Vintage Ports tasted and added to the page. Now we are going to Skagen in Denmark for a celebration week and we will write about the wines we taste there in about 2 weeks. Hope you have better weather than we have!

Winter 2015

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We have had a wonderful winter with some excellent tastings.

In February the Wine Society 18% in Malmö had a Semi-Great tasting (i.e. below 20 houses) of the vintage 1984, which we have already written about here. You find all our larger tastings in the special section for Great Tastings.

In March we had a very interesting tasting of all seven vintages from Quinta do Vesuvio in-between 1989-1996 in the Danish Port Wine Club est. 1981 in Copenhagen. They were all very wonderful and many of them still needs some more age in the bottle.

On the 18th of March i.e. after 3 years 2 months and 18 days we had our 100.000 visitor on our web-site. These visitors have been from more than 150 different countries! We are very surprised, but of course also happy, to see that Vintage Port seems to be popular all over the world!

Borges 1955

Easter started on Thursday and we started with Mercier vintage 2004, elegant and tasty and Ch. Mouton Rotschild 1993 with the duck breast, which was quite good and attractive. Good Friday we started with Belle Époque vintage 1990. Then we had lobster with Alsace Grand Cru Engelberg Riesling vintage 2010 from Dom. Pfister and Ch. Bouscaut vintage 2008, Grand Cru Classe from Grave. The main course was horse filet which was accompanied with Ch. Lafite Rothschild 1985 and Ch. Margeaux 1985 and the dessert was accompanied with vintage port of course. They were 1955 Borges which was old, turbid and when decanted, it looked like a white port in the beginning but muddy and terrible at the end. The cork was from Borges but said 1980!? This was not good at all. The other vintage port was Calem 1955 produced by Quinta da Foz and Santo Antonio and it was delicious.

Calem 1955Easter Eve we started with de Venoge’s  Grand Vin des Princes vintage 1993. With the pâté we had Scloss Johannisberg Riesling, auslese, Cabinet from 1893 (sic), still knit together but of course a bit dry which we maybe had expected and Ch. Filhot, Sautern from 1904 still wonderful sweet and very attractive. With the lamb we enjoyed Ch. Cheval Blanc 1985 and Ch. Latour 1985 and with the dessert we had 2 very mature and delicious vintage ports, Tuke Holdswoth 1935 and Ramos Pinto 1935. We had a nice night‘s sleep after that.

Vintage Port 1935

Tasting of the 1984 Vintage

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The Wine Society 18% had a Semi-Great Tasting 19 February 2015 of the Vintage 1984. We call it Semi-Great because we had only 16 Vintages and not 20 Vintages which is our limit for calling it a Great Tasting.Gumaraens 1984

One member of our Society wanted in 2014 to celebrate the vintage of 1984 but unfortunately we had no opportunity during this last year why the celebration was now instead.

This Vintage was an off vintage, and was judged by us as Good (see our Vintage Rating).

Only 15 houses declared this vintage according to our knowledge. Michael Broadbent gave this vintage 2* out of 5*, and Suckling gave it 81 points out of 100 points.

The vintage made some very attractive wines, but it is not surprising none of the major houses declared 1984. We think the wines are rather lean and one-dimensional, but some are very attractive and worth hunting and some will even develop a little more which surprise us.

For tasting notes and more information about this tasting see here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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As you may have read, most ports enjoyed by us are at home with the family. At Christmas of course the family is joining at home and we always enjoy a lot of great food and great wine together. This year we started at the 21st of December with vintage Brut 2000 Cuvee Nicholas from Bilcart-Salmon and after that duck liver mousse together with Suduiraut 2006.

On the 22nd we ate warm goat cheese with honey together with Gewürztraminer Trockenbeerenauslese Selection 1980 from Lenz Moser in Rust, Austria and after that warm smoked salmon together with L’Homme Mort Prem. Cru from F.Gueguen in Chablis and then dessert with a port i.e. Vintage  Quinta Vale D. Maria 2001.Lillejul

On the 23rd we started with Champagne, vintage 1983 Salon. After that a breast and terrine of teal together with Ch. Corton Grancey from Louis Latour, then filé of red deer together with DRC’s Richbourg 1984 and Ch. Mouton Rotschild 1943 and as dessert orange cheese cake with dulce de leche together with Vintage Port Quinta do Noval 1934 and No 1 Especial Vinha Velha 1834 from Quinta de Romariz.Lillejul2

On Christmas Eve we had traditional Swedish Christmas food and ended with Malvedos 1988 from Graham and before bed-time our Christmas wine which is a Ruländer Trockenbeerenauslese from Jakob Neumer in Rheinhessen which has received both Grosse Preis and Goldener Kammaer Preis.Juldag

On the 25th we started with Champagne Brut Vintage 1989 Grand Année from Bollinger. Then we enjoyed a terrine of salmon with a sauce of gewürztraminer from Alsace together with Chablis 1er cru Vaulignot from Louis Moreau and Alsace Riseling Grand Cru Wiebelsberg from Kreydenweiss, after that springbok and sauce from morels with Ch. Mouton Rorschild 1964 and Ch. Lafite Rotschild 1950 and ended with a Christmas pudding an stilton together with Vintage Port Taylor 1955 and Croft 1914.JuldagPort

We in the family had a wonderful Christmas!

Copenhagen Port Wine Festival

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Thank you Henrik Oldenburg for continuing the Port Wine Festival. We have only missed one of all these wonderful Festivals since the start in 1988. This year Cristiano van Zeller gave us a wonderful history of Port wine and red wines in Douro. The family has been in wine business since 1620 and his daughter is now the 15th generation in the business. In the tasting room we could taste around 50 different vintage ports, the oldest a Martinez from 1987 but also four vintages from the 1990s. As usual Portal was most generous with 6 vintage ports but both Borges and Quinta de Roriz were also very generous and let us taste 4 different vintage ports of excellent quality.

Fourteen dealers presented the already famous 2011 vintage for tasting. The vintage is very exciting and sound. It seems to be a long runner even if some houses continue to do a more modern style of vintage port. Many compare this with the famous 1963 vintage. Read what point your favorite house got from us in the Last tasted section to the right.

Trip to Oporto and Douro

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View from Quinta do Noval (Photo: Jörgen Bergengrip)

The Port Wine Club est. 1981 from Copenhagen went for its 6th trip to Douro and Oporto in September this year. It was a wonderful and interesting trip where we had a few unforgettable old white Ports. Maybe a Ports first duty no longer is to be red. We also had several tawny, colheita and some vintage during the trip. We visited the following houses: Conceito, Pocas, Quinta Santa Eufemia, Q. do Pego, Q. da Pacheca, Q. do Noval, Q. do Tedo, Bulas, Q. do Vesuvio, Q. do Crasto, Q. do Vallado, Gran Cruz, Dalva, Croft, Krohn, Kopke, Graham and Ferreira. You can see which vintages we tasted under each house.

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Quinta do Noval Nacional
(Photo: Jörgen Bergengrip)

We also had a marvelous dinner at Rui Paula’s Restaurant DOC on the road between Régua and Pinhão. In addition we visited Vinologia Bar in Oporto where we enjoyed seven vintages we have never had before, such as Quinta das Lamelas, Quinta da Prelada and Quinta da Revolta and in Vila Nova de Gaia we also enjoyed Gilberts.

Copenhagen Port Wine Festival 2014

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Now it is time to buy tickets for this years Port Wine Festival at Børsen in Copenhagen. The event will take place on November 3.

As usual it is Forlaget Smag and Henrik Oldenburg that is arranging the event and we already know that Christiano van Zeller will be present at the festival. With a history in Quinta do Noval Christiano is now part of some very interesting projects that produces Vintage Ports under the names of Quinta Vale D Maria and also VZ (van Zeller). See more on our info site for Lemos & van Zeller.

There will as usual be more representatives for port producers around during the festival.

Tickets are available at http://forlaget-smag.dk/ and you will also find more info about participating importers.