Category Archives: Wine tasting

Theis annual Bordeaux tasting in Copenhagen, Denmark

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On September 7 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 last vintage, 2015, 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.

Some very interesting and unusual ports

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At the last tasting in our wine society 18% we tasted some very interesting and virtually unknown ports. In total we tried 11 ports, all new to the wine club and most of them new to us too. With seven new vintage ports, new houses/quintas and some other special port we did have a nice evening.
The first house we had was Vasconcellos, which is a very small and almost unknown house. In the past they had very close connections to Gonzalez Byass and Butler Nephew. Suckling (1992) writes that he has never had a Vasconcellos and that he tried in vain to contact the company. 1965 is the oldest known vintage port Vasconcellos produced. Vasconcellos is owned by the British family Christie, who sold the company’s port warehouse to Sandeman in 1989 but kept the brand. Since 2000 Christies har resurected Vasconcellos again and started to sell the port under the brand Vasconcellos, and in addition they have restored the Butler Nephew brand. Both are now produced by CCVP – Companhia Comercial de Vinhos do Porto. Gonzalez Byass has however had other owners and do not belong to Christie.
At the tasting we tried all the Vintage ports we know Vasconcellos has made, and a more than 40 year old tawny:
  • Vasconcellos Vintage Port 2003 (CCVP)
  • Vasconcellos Vintage Port 2000 (CCVP)
  • Vasconcellos Vintage Port 1989 (CCVP)
  • Vasconcellos Vintage Port 1965 (Vasconcellos Oporto & Cia)
  • Vasconcellos More than 40 years old Tawny (CCVP), bottled 2006
The line up of the tasting.

The line up of the tasting.

According to several sources on the web, Vasconcellos ‘More than 40 years old Tawny’ is composed of a blend of 1902 and 1942, but if this is true we do not know.
The second brand we tried was Maia. Maia is a brand that was sold as BOB (Buyers Own Brand) by Barros Almeida. Maia has been bottled under several of the houses former included in the Barros Group. The wine we had was Maia Vintage port 1987 that was bottled by Hutcheson-Feuerheerd.
The third brand was Quinta de Sant’Ana Vintage Port 1982, bottled by Feist. This was a quinta none of us at the tasting had ever heard about. Following the vintage of 1982 we had a Colheita 1975 (bottled 1984) of the same quinta.
Finally we had a Feist Colheita 1966 (bottled 1984), a Feuerheerd Colheita 1987 (bottled 2001), and Commendador (bottled by Feuerheerd).
Commendador is a very special port made by Feuerheerd and served on George VI’s state visit to France on July 19, 1938. At the banquet at the Palais de L’Elysée was served the following wines: Ch Yquem 1923, Ch Haut-Brion 1924, Chambertin 1923, Pommery Brut 1928 and Porto Commendador. The port we tasted had survived most of the participants on the banquet in 1938.

Port Wine Festival 2015

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This year’s Port Wine Festival was as usual held at Børsen, Copenhagen, on the 2nd of November.JoaoNicolaAlmeida

This year João Nicolau de Almeida from Ramos Pinto visited, and he talked very warmly about the Douro table wines, especially their own Duas Quintas that celebrates 25 years in 2015. It is without doubt a very good wine and the red reserva shows a fantastic ageing potential. João should know all about making good red table wines as it was his father Fernando Nicolau de Almeida that created Barca Velha, the best red wine from Portugal. If you like port wine and haven’t tried out the table wines from the Douro you should do so because the quality is better for each year. For Port lovers like us it was of course also very nice to taste the 1983 Vintage Port which was actually the first Vintage Port that Ramos Pinto made where they had kept all grape varieties separate until making the final blend. The wine is fantastic today, very elegant and delicious but still with power and it shows some soft tannins, see tasting notes here.

There were as usual a lot of port wines to taste from many different Danish importers. Maybe because both 2012 and 2013 are a bit weaker vintages compared to the amazing 2011 Vintage there were not many new, really young vintages to taste. On the other hand several fully mature Vintage Ports could be tasted. Grahams 1983, Dow’s 1985, Quinta do Infantado 1985 were some examples that could be tasted.PortBrothers

The two brothers Jens-Peder and Troels from Vintageportvin.dk were offering some of the best mature Vintage Ports this year. They had a range of six mature Vintage Ports. Both Gould Campbell and Smith Woodhouse from 1980 and 1985, all four very good and still with some power and soft tannins to make them last for another couple of years. Gould Campbell is a bit rounder and elegant with a very nice complex body, whereas Smith Woodhouse show more power and dark berries from the very dark coloured wine. Vintageportvin.dk also served a very nice Madalena Vintage 1996 from Smith Woodhouse. Finally, the best, the Quarles Harris 1977 Vintage Port; this is wonderful today, peaking and showing all you want from a mature Vintage Port. We must give our very best recommendations of Vintageportvin.dk to anyone seeking for a mature Vintage Port.

As usual the Festival was a great success and we would like to thank Mr. Oldenburg for continuing this tradition and hope to see you all again next year!

Philipson Wine tasting report

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Philipson Wine held their annual tasting in Copenhagen on 24-25 September in the nice premises at Børsen. A large assortment of wines were offered and many producers had representatives available to give information about their products. Some of the wines we liked the most were the Barolo’s from Luigi Einaudi, especially the 2011 Cannubi, Sassicaia 2012 from Tenuta San Guido, Brunello di Montalcino 2010 from Val di Suga and Galatrona 2013 from Tenuta di Petrolo in Tuscany.

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A really nice range of quality Burgundy were also available for tasting with several premier cru wines from various good producers like Henri Boillot and Domaine Arnoux-Lachaux.

We also very much enjoyed the wonderful English sparkling wine from Nyetimber. Those who claim that the future of the best sparkling is to be found in England might be correct. Nyetimber already shows that they can compete with Champagne.

Philipson Wine has for a long time now been selling a lot of Burmester port wine and at this tasting they offered both the Colheita 1981 (rare year for a Vintage Port fanatic) and the Colheita 1937 from Burmester in the open tasting. Both were really good and you can read our tasting notes for the 1937 Colheita here.

Report from Theis Bordeaux tasting

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Even thought there are no Port on Theis annual Bordeaux tasting in Copenhagen we must say that it is a really good opportunity to try the last vintage of Bordeaux as well as some older vintages. This year the focus was on Bordeaux from 2014 which shows fantastic potential and we recommend all of you with a wine cellar to invest in some cases for the future. Some of the producers had some older wines from vintages, many from 2006-2011 but also some from 1998, 1996 and even a Chateau Suduiraut from 1989.

In addition to top quality Bordeaux wines the tasting has the last few years expanded to include some Burgundy wines, some Champagnes and other high quality wines. If you missed it this year we do recommend you to go next year.

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