Category Archives: News

Queen Elisabeth’s Celebration

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In week 14th it has been announced that Graham will honor Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday with a special Port Wine. The wine is a blend of 40% tawny from 1935, 20% of a tawny from 1824 and 40% of a tawny from 1912 which means an average aged of 90 years, i.e. the same age as the Queen in 2016. The Queen is one of the greatest ambassadors for Port in the world as she always in every official dinner at Windsor Castle and at Buckingham Palace will serve Port with the dessert.
There has been some problem with these bottles as the wines are neither colheita nor tawnies according to the law. Only one of the years has the Port Wines Institute’s registration and that is the 1935 due to the Port Wines Institute’s legalization was not until 1933. Symington, who own Graham, has got a special authorization to offer the wines to the market. The prices will be around 700 pounds+ shipping.

Port Wine Festival, Copenhagen

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Forlaget Smag is arranging the annual Port Wine Festival at Børsen, Copenhagen on Monday November 2. Henrik Oldenburg is as usual the man behind the Festival and we have been informed that João Nicolau de Almeida from Ramos-Pinto will be this years special guest.

There will as usual also be many more representatives from port producers during the festival.

If you have not already bought your ticket, now is the time to do so, as they are selling out fast! Find all information about participating importers and producers and buy tickets on http://forlaget-smag.dk/

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

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.

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

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.