Tag Archives: Ramos Pinto

Our Christmas Tasting

Due to Covid, some of the family was ill on December 23 these last couple of years, when we were about to hold our Christmas tasting. Something we’ve written about on our website in January 2022 and January 2021.

But on the first of August this year, we finally managed to gather the family, something we had looked forward to. We kicked off the evening with two champagnes: Blanc de Blanc Sillery Grand Cru 2015 from Francois Secondé, and Brut Epernay 2004 from Alfred Gratien. To accompany the starter, we had Clos de la Coulée de Serrant 1992 from Joly, Savennières, Loire and Clos des Chevaliers 2011 from Jean Charton. The main course was served with Ch. Mouton Rotschild 1952 and Ch. Margeaux 1952, and the dessert was enjoyed with Burmester and Sandeman Vintage Port – both from 1922. It was a marvelous, but very late, Christmas meal.

This December, we did not want to miss another Christmas, so we started our tasting already on the 22^ndof December with Lilbert’s Champagne Cramant 2018, Blanc de Blanc, Grand Cru. To the starter, salmon and shrimp pie, we had a Chablis Premier Cru Troesmes 2018 by Le Domaine d’Henri and Clos de la Coulee de Serrant 2003. With the main course, a delicious deer, we enjoyed Ch. Margeaux and Ch. Haut Brion – both from 1973 – and with the cheese: Taylor and Fonseca Vintage Port from 1963.

On the 23rd of December, we finally had our great Christmas dinner, all 15 of us – the entire family. We started off with J. Lassalle’s Cuvee Angeline Prem Cru 2009 and Marie-Noelle Ledru’s Viticultrice Grand Cru from 2010. We had smoked heart from ox, reindeer, and elk, and with that we enjoyed Ch. Lafite Rothschild, Ch. Latour and Ch. Cheval Blanc – all from 1973. The main course was fish (witch flounder), which was served with the following wines: Clos Ste Hune 1991 from Trimbach, Alsace, Ch. Laville Haut Brion 1976 from Grave and Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet 2017 from Fontaine-Gagnard in Chassagne Montrachet.

The dessert was a Charlotte Russe cake and with it, we enjoyed Vintage Port Ramos Pinto and Hooper 1923 and Royal Oporto 1868. It was a marvelous meal and evening!

Port Wine Fair – Leverkusen

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We have had a marvelous month of November. It started with the Port Wine Festival in Copenhagen, which we’ve already written about, and ended with the Port Wine Fair in Leverkusen, Germany organized by Axel Probst and Christoffer Pfaff, World of Port.

Ramos Pinto had a Master Class tasting focusing on Tawny in Copenhagen (read about it here). In Leverkusen we once again had the great pleasure of meeting Ana Rosas from Ramos Pinto. This time the focus was on Vintage Ports and the importance of the different grape varieties used. Ramos Pinto has always been one of the companies leading the research on grape varietals. Joao Nicolau de Almeida, former winemaker at the company started to plant grape varieties separate, something that was not common at that time, and also bottled single variety wines from different vintages. All to better understand how the different grape varieties contribute to the final blend. These single varietal bottles are not for sale, they are only used for Ramos Pinto’s internal reference. Remember that Vintage Port is bottled already when two to three years old and then the final blend must already be made. So it was very interesting to get the opportunity to taste some of these single varietal bottles of Barroca, Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Roriz from 1982 together with the released 1982 Vintage Port.

This wonderful Master Class was rounded off by a magical white port from 1884, directly from Ramos Pinto’s cellars!

The Port Wine Fair in Leverkusen is focusing on the latest Vintage and this year we tasted about 60 different Vintage Ports from 2017 and we have now tasted more than 70 different 2017 Vintage Ports, a very great vintage indeed. Some of us are unfortunately too old to have the opportunity to drink this memorable vintage once it is matured, many years from now. We think there are too many houses with incredible vintages this year to be mentioned them, so just buy your favorite producers of the vintage and enjoy it. Our tasting notes are as always available. Check out all the 2017 Vintages we have tasted here. Last time in history seeing three consecutive such great vintage years as 2015, 2016 and 2017 was 1820, 1821 and 1822 if we remember correctly.

Now we are looking forward to Christmas, when we usually drink very old vintages (often > 100 years old). That will be nice indeed!

Copenhagen Port Wine Festival at Børsen

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For Vintage Port lovers like us the last year’s Port Wine Festivals have been exciting with three fantastic vintages in a row, 2015, 2016 and now the latest released 2017 Vintages. At this years festival it was possible to taste more than 20 Vintage Ports from 2017, more than ten from 2016 and 8 from 2015. There was also an impressive range with more than fifteen older Vintage Ports with at least fifteen years of age. From 2017 we especially liked Warre’s from Symington’s followed by Churchill, Wiese & Krohn and Quinta da Romaneira, but many smaller companies and some companies better known for their tawnies definitely impressed us as well. Some of these were Burmester, Kopke, Messias, Pacheca, Quinta da Sequeira, Quinta da Santa Eufemia, Quinta dos Mattos, Vieira de Sousa and Vista Alegre. As usual you find tasting notes and our ratings for all Vintage Ports we tasted here on our web site.

To honor that Mr. Henrik Oldenburg have arranged the Port Wine Festival for more than 30 years, Ramos Pintos led a master class with extra focus on the 30 year old Tawny. Master blender Ana Rosas of Ramos Pinto, and her cousin Jorge Rosas, CEO of Ramos Pinto wanted us to understand the enormous effort and persistent work over several decades that is needed to create these old wines.

Following the instructions by Ana Rosas we elaborated and blended our own 30 year old Tawnies from a range of base wines directly from Ramos Pintos cellars. Finding the balance between old complex heavy wines and younger wines with fresher notes and vivid acidity to create the perfect balanced wine is indeed a work of art. We can only conclude that our attempts led us closer to the goal but still far from the final blend by Ana Rosas sold by Ramos Pinto. Actually Ramos Pinto is one of the best producers of tawnies with indication of age.

Jorge Rosas from Ramos Pinto and Henrik Oldenburg

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.

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.

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!

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/

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.

When 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 4^th 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.

The 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 6^th 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.

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 18^th 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!

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.

Easter 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.