Author Archives: Stefan

Rui Maderia 2011 Vintage Ports

We have just tasted the first two Vintage Ports from producer Rui Roboredo Madeira Vinhos (www.ruimadeira.pt). Wine maker Rui Madeira has been involved in several wine companies in Douro and Beira for the last two decades. His company Rui Roboredo Madeira Vinhos has not produced any Vintage Port before the generally impressive 2011 vintage. CastelloDAlba2011

The company is using two different brands, Fafide and Castello d’Alba. Through a very positive contact with Rui Madeira we got the opportunity to taste both Vintages some weeks ago. Both are very impressive and are nice structured. Please read our full tasting notes on our pages for Fafide and Castello d’Alba.

We hope to see more Vintage Ports from this new family owned company in the future and we also hope we get the chance to follow the 2011 Vintages for many years from now.

Great Tasting – Vintage 1980

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The Wine Society 18% has had a Great Tasting on 25 houses of the Vintage 1980. We think our Great Tasting is valuable to compare the different houses and also to get a good overview of the vintage as a whole. 1980 was, we think, overlooked by many port drinkers but not if you are a Port lover. The Symington group made the stars of the vintage – Dow, Graham, Warre and Smith Woodhouse, but also Taylor was excellent and maybe Noval Nacional. However a few major houses such as Croft, Martinez, Noval and Cockburn did not declared this vintage. You can read all the tasting notes and the ranking on the Great Tasting 1980 page.

Fonseca Guimaraens tasting

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The Port Wine Club est. 1981 in Copenhagen have during 2013 had some very interesting tastings, especially vintage tastings from 1963 and 1977. The new year started exciting with a tasting of 6 Vintages from Fonseca Guimaraens.

Even odd years from this house are wonderful. 1984 was peaking and lovely but the 1976 is still waiting to reach its peak. It is still very dark in colour and the question is if it will ever reach the mature and elegant state that the 1984 was displaying. We also tasted the 1988, 1991, 1995 and 1996 Vintages. See our tasting from March 5.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

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We thank you for a wonderful and, for us, inspiring year with now more than 55.000 visitors from more than 130 countries. It has been very stimulating for us. Please read about our Great Tasting of the magnificent vintage year 1963. They are still wonderful to drink and enjoy. Some are maybe a little old but the best are marvelous. This is the second time we have a 1963 tasting and this time we had only 38 houses, but in 2005 we had 39 houses. Both tastings included a joker which was Quinta do Noval Nacional 1962 and both times it was Best in Show! Marvelous!

As usual we had an interesting Christmas Tasting in the Wine Society 18% and especially the comparison between 1976 Fonseca Guimaraens and Malvedos was worth-wile. Guimaraens is still very young, incredibly dark in colour, and we think this will be better with some more years in the cellar, but the Malvedos is wonderful today, much paler in colour and fully matured, maybe even a little old. Very interesting and a quite good vintage.

Grahams Malvedos 1976

Christmas the whole family spent in London and we did of course eat in some really marvelous restaurants and we also got the chance to taste a lot of Vintage Ports.

The Port Wine Festival in Copenhagen

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Thank you, Henrik Oldenburg, for continuing the Port Wine Festival in Copenhagen. We have only missed one of all these wonderful Festivals since the start in 1988.

This year Dalva presented their exciting Colheita of White Port. They are indeed very lovely and exciting.

Many dealers presented the already famous 2011 vintage for tasting and 30 out of 32 served this exciting vintage free of extra charge in our glass. The 2011 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. If you have children or grandchildren you are to be congratulated indeed, since this is a vintage that we think they will be able to enjoy for a long time. Read what point your favorite house got from us in the tasting notes. You find them to the right, or here on the date 4th of November.

The annual Port wine festival in Copenhagen announced

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Forlaget Smag has announced the annual Port Wine Festival at Børsen in Copenhagen on November 4 this autumn. As usual the event will give Port lovers a chance to taste a lot of port wine available on the Danish market. This is also an opportunity to meet with wine makers and representatives from many of the port houses.

This year we hope to taste a lot of 2011 Vintage Port. Many producers report that this is one of the best Vintages in recent years and it is the first general declaration after the 2007 vintage. All top houses have declared.

Tickets are available at http://forlaget-smag.dk/
This is a list of declared 2011 Vintage Ports that we currently know about. If you know of any more, please let us know.

Alves de Sousa
J.H. Andresen
Bulas
Churchill
Cruz
C. da Silva

Dalva
Presidential

Duoro Boys
Duorum
Feuerheerd
Niepoort:

Niepoort
Bioma

Pintas
Poca
Portal
Quevado
Quinta Casa Amarela
Q. do Crastro
Quinta do Noval:

Q. do Noval
Q. do Noval Nacional

Q. do Passadouro
Q. da Prelada
Q. da Romaneira
Q. de la Rosa
Q. Seara d’Ordens
Q. da Senhora do Convento
Q. do Tedo
Q. do Vale Dona Maria
Q. Valle Longo
Q. do Vale Meao
Q. do Vallado
Ramos Pinto
Real Comp. Velha:

Delaforce
Quinta das Carvalhas
Real Velha
Royal Oporto

Rozes:

Rozes
Q. do Grifo
Q. do Pego

Sogevinus:

Barros
Burmester
Calem
Quinta do Sagrado
Kopke

Sogrape:

Ferreira
Offley
Sandeman

Symington:

Graham
Graham’s The Stone Terrace
Dow
Warre
Cockburn
Quinta do Vesuvio
Capela da Q. do Vesuvio
Smith Woodhouse
Special Blend for The Wine Society
Quinta de Roriz

Tanners (BOB, UK)
Taylor-Fladgate:

Croft
Fonseca
Skeffington
Taylor
Vargellas Vinha Velha

Viera de Souza
Vinho Comp. De Vinhos:

Quinta Dona Matilde
Maynard
Barao de Vilar

Vista Allegre
Wiese & Krohn:

Krohn
Q. do Retiro Novo

Visit in Champagne

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As you all must know we do love drinking Vintage Port, but now and then we are of course also drinking many other interesting and wonderful wines. We are often visiting other wine regions, and so we did this summer too; and this summer we visited Loire and Champagne. Why can’t the great Champagnes Houses take care of champagne lover as for example the great Port Houses do? When you are visiting most of the great Champagne Houses you have to visit their cellars (or even a Tower – God help us) to have a glass of their standard Brut, which we of course had enjoyed many times before. If you have seen 50 cellars the 51st is not very exciting – just dull. This year we decided that it was the last year we visit the great Champagne houses where we have to go through their cellars to have a glass of their standard Brut to taste.

This is in contrast to most of the great Port Wine Houses. They have tasting rooms and you can visit their cellars if you want to, but it is always possible to just buy a glass of their vintage Port or an old Colheita and have an interesting conversation with the person serving it. They take care of Port Lovers indeed when we are coming.

If you are going to Champagne, visit the small Houses, like Michel Gonet in Avize where we had a marvelous morning discussing both Grave red wines and vintage champagne with Michel Gonet himself. Go to Launois in Le Mesnil sur Oger drinking their ordinary or vintage champagne or go to Jean Milan in Oger. All are wonderful small houses taking care of persons loving Champagne. If you are in Eperney there are wonderful tastings at Bergére, Collard-Picard and Paul-Etienne Saint Germain, all on Avenue de Champagne, and all offered different lovely champagnes without having to take a cellar tour.

The Fladgate Partnership acquires Wiese & Krohn

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The Fladgate Partnership, the owner of Taylor and Fonseca, continues the trend of consolidation in the Port industry by buying the Port firm of Wiese & Krohn, previously owned and run by the Falcão Carneiro family. Wiese & Krohn was founded in 1865 by two Norwegian entrepreneurs and is the owner of Quinta do Retiro Novo. Wiese & Krohn is renowned for its Colheitas and old tawnies.

The deal includes Wiese & Krohn’s brand, stocks and vineyard holdings, including an estimated 5 million liters of port dating back to 1863. By acquiring Wiese & Krohn Taylor is taking a major step in strengthening its position in the tawny and colheita market.

Dow vs Bomfim

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We believe we have found the answer to the question which producer is behind the Vintage Port 1960 bottled by Fredriksberg Vinimport 1963 in Copenhagen and which has a special certificate number on the label.

Usually the Port Wine Houses are not producing Single Quinta Vintage Port the same year as the House is producing a Vintage Port under the name of the House. This was extremely unusual during the 1960s and the 1970s. However, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1977 and 1980 Dow had a special agreement of delivery to Fredrikbergs Vinimport in Copenhagen, Denmark of Quinta do Bomfim and thus in Denmark both Quinta do Bomfim and Dow existed the same year. We believe that the vintage 1960 bottled by Fredrikbergs Vinimport in 1963 with a special certificate also is Quinta do Bomfim as some wine merchants in Copenhagen have written to us. We believe this was the first time it was delivered to Fredriksberg, and thus there was a certificate and not anything else on the label. We are very happy that we have had the opportunity to taste both Dow and Quinta do Bomfim in these years. Is there any other country this has been possible?

Vintage Port 1947 Tasting

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The Wine Society 18% arranged the second Jubilee tasting celebrating the 20th year anniversary on the 18th of April. We had our first Jubilee tasting in February with the Semi-Great Tasting of the Vintage 1979. This time we had a tasting of the magnificent Vintage 1947. Even if the expectations were high on a Vintage like that, we were very surprised to find that all 8 Vintage Ports were still very good and very complex.

For the evening we were able to set up a really strong set up with 8 Vintages, some of them from top producers.

The following Vintage Ports were in the tasting, in this order:

Sandeman
Rebello Valente
Quinta do Roncao
Cockburn
Messias
Warre’s
Dow’s
Fonseca

We were surprised to see that all bottles were still fresh, and none of the wines had tendencies to crack although Messias was slightly tired. They were all rather pale red, almost tawny in the colour. Fonseca, and also Sandeman were a bit more colourful than the others.

Overall we thought the Vintage 1947 lived up to its reputation and we hope we can taste even more Vintage Port from 1947 this year.

You find more information about the tasting and also tasting notes here.