Category Archives: Wine tasting

Port wine festival Copenhagen

Soon it is time for the annual Port Wine Festival in Copenhagen. As usual the festival is arranged by Henrik Oldenburg. Due to the fire at Børsen, the event has been moved both in time and place. The event will take place on Monday November 18 at Det Ny Teater in Copenhagen.

Tickets are available through Forlaget Smag, see details on their web site: https://www.forlaget-smag.dk/

Hope to see you there!

Theis Vine Bordeaux tasting

As usual Theis Vine arrange a fantastic tasting of the latest vintage of Bordeaux wines. We are sure many port lovers also love great Bordeaux wines, and this is a great opportunity for all of you to try Bordeaux vintage 2023 already now. There are as usual a wide range of other very good wines to taste as well.

The event will this year take place at Moltkes Palæ in Copenhagen on the 5th of September. Tickets are available from Theis Vine here.

Port Wine Festival, Copenhagen

This years festival, on November 6, started with a master class led by Christian Seely, owner of Quinta da Romaneira, and also Managing Director of Quinta do Noval (owned by AXA’s Millésimes).

Christian Seely

In 2004 Christian Seely bought Quinta da Romaneira together with several other investors. Today only one other investor remains. After several years of replanting and renovation the Quinta has improved the quality of their wines a lot. They produce not only Port Wine but also good table wines, both white and red of which we got to taste some nice examples.

From the companies Tawny Port Wine range we got to taste the 10 years old Tawny, the 40 years old Tawny and a Colheita 2007. All very good ports in their category. Of the Vintage Ports we were served the latest release, i.e. Vintage Port 2021 together with the 2016 and 2007. Both 2016 and 2007 are fantastic vintages and they are still youthful and will improve a lot with longer cellaring. The 2021 shows some impressive dark fruit and is very promising indeed.

Overall it was a perfect start on the day and Mr. Seely is always very entertaining when presenting the wines. Also thanks, JP & Troels from the Danish importers VintagePortvin.dk

In the tasting room we focused, as always, on the Vintage Ports and this year there were just above 55 different to choose from – impressive. A wide range of brands and producers were represented, many smaller producers like Quinta da Devesa, Kranemann and Quinta da Trovisca have not been doing Vintage Ports for very long, but also well-known houses like Dow’s, Warre’s, Sandeman and Niepoort were represented. Overall it was as usual a great event and you can find all the tasting notes here on our web site.

Theis Bordeaux tasting in Copenhagen

Keep an eye on Bordeaux 2022!

At Theis Bordeaux tasting in Copenhagen, on September 6th, we hade the pleasure of tasting the Bordeaux vintage 2022 as well as some other fantastic wines. The vintage 2022 is truly remarkable with an excellent quality. In addition to the fine wines the setting it very good. There are few times you have the ability to try as many outstanding wines as on this fair.

Most producers had one wine from 2022 and another from an older vintage. On these older wines we found several with a nice development. However, the main spotlights were all focused on the 2022 vintage. Some of the very best wines, not in order, include:

  • Château Pichon Longueville Baron 2022, but their vintage 2016 is also excellent.
  • Ch Clinet 2022 as well as their 2018 vintage
  • Ch Leoville Las Cases 2022
  • Ch la Conseillante 2022
  • Ch Pichon Longueville Comtesse 2022
  • Ch Pontet Canet 2022
  • Domaine Chevalier 2022

In addition, on the sweet side we must mention:

  • Ch Coutet 2022
  • Ch Suduiraut 2022 as well as their vintage 2016

In summary, the vintage 2022 is excellent and shows great potential for the future. It will be very interesting to follow it’s development.

Annual Port Wine Festival at Børsen, Copenhagen

This years Port Wine Festival in Copenhagen will as usual be held the first Monday in November, so this year November 6, at Børsen Copenhagen. The event is held by well known port wine expert Mr. Henrik Oldenburg and Forlaget Smag.

This is a perfect opportunity to taste a lot of high-quality port wines from a large number of importers/producers. Both from the larger port wine houses, but also from smaller and less well-known producers often with representatives at the location willing to answer any question.

Tickets can be bought from Forlaget Smag here: https://www.forlaget-smag.dk/kob-billet-portvin

The Big Fortified Tasting in London 2023

The Big Fortified Tasting, London

The Big Fortified Tasting in London is a great event with all kinds of fortified wines at the same place, not only port. As usual we focused on the Port wines and in addition to the general tasting, with more than 30 Vintage Ports, several old tawnies and Colheitas, we also visited Real Companhia Velha’s Master Class “History in a Glass”, with Pedro Silva Reis, President of Real Companhia Velha, and Tiago Silva Reis, Business Development Manager at Real Companhia Velha.

They guided us through seven colheitas and tawnys of diffenrent ages. Starting with Royal Oporto Colheita 2012, followed by the Colheita 2004, 1980, 1977, Carvalhas Colheita 1976, Royal Oporto Very Very old Tawny 1927 and finally Quinta das Carvalhas Very Very Old Tawny 1867. It is always a pleasure to taste these old wines and a tasting like this for sure gives you the history of port and a great understanding of the ageing potential of port wine.

Sherry Festival

On April 26 it is again time for the annual Sherry Festival in Copenhagen. If you love Port Wine you probably also like Sherry, and to there is no better chance to learn more and find your favourite than in this Sherry Festival.

The Festival is hosted by Henrik Oldenburg at ”Sceneriet” on “Det ny Teater”, Copenhagen.

Tickets are available at www.forlaget-smag.dk

Wine tasting at H. J. Hansen

Earlier this month we had the opportunity to visit H. J. Hansens Horeca On Tour in Copenhagen. The tasting was well organized and we must especially mention Delas Hermitage Domaine des Tourettes and Deutz Amour de Deutz Blanc de Blancs 2011.

Amour de Deutz 2011

We also had the pleasure of testing a range of six different Nyetimbre, from Classic to their “1086” Prestige cuvee 2010. On the Port wine section Graham’s and Vesuvio was present and we tried their new Six grapes special Vila Velha Edition. It is much better than their normal Six Grapes and better than you would expect from a Ruby Reserve.

Riedel was also present at the event and we were invited to try their new glasses, the Riedel Veloce. Some of you have already been on a glass tasting but it was the first time for us. It is quite astonishing that different grapes smell so different depending what glass you use. That good glasses makes big difference we did know, but we were still positively surprised.

Port Wine Festival in Copenhagen

At the Port wine festival in Copenhagen last November we visited both the port wine fair and a separate master class. The master class was focused on tawny port and led by Miguel Braga from Quinta do Mourao.

Miguel Braga

He led us through the 10-20-30-40- and 50 years old white, as well as “60” and “90” that is not official categories. The two last ones are not official categories but nevertheless both old and excellent! The “90” is actually 1927 white Colheita and was 95 years rather than 90. In addition we also had a chance to sample their new 50 year old tawny. All wines were very well made and we must say that Miguel Braga and Quinta do Mourao makes very good mature colheita and tawny and is one of the best producers for white port. They produce wine under the brands S. Leonardo and Rio Bom.

In the open tasting we focused on Vintage Ports and got the chance to taste some Ports we had never tasted before.

Quinta da Trovisca 2017

Portweinmesse in Leverkusen

The annual Portweinmesse in Leverkusen, November 2022, included two master class events. The first led by Carlos Alves from Sogevinus explaining how to blend old Tawny Port. Included in the tasting was a sample of the relatively new category 50 year old tawny port.

The second master class was led by George Sandeman, who currently is the Chancellor of the Confraria do Vinho do Porto. We had the rare opportunity to be able to taste the Confraria Vintage Ports. The Confraria Vintage Ports are only made the best vintages and is a blend of the member houses Vintage Ports. During the Master Class we tasted the following Confraria Vintage Ports: 1982, 1994, 2000, 2003, 2011 and 2017.

George Sandeman

Confraria Vintage Ports

The Port Wine Messe focus on providing the opportunity to taste the last declared vintage, this time 2020, but also includes several older vintage ports and special category ports. In general 2020 is a quite good year. It is not classic, but in general it is better than the two previous vintages, 2018 and 2019. Tasting notes of Vintage 2020 that we have tasted so far are available on our Vintage 2020 page.