Category Archives: non-Port

Theis Bordeaux tasting in Copenhagen

Theis Bordeaux tasting in Copenhagen was this year truly massive. The number of cru classified wines at the fair was significantly larger this year compared to last time. An astonishing amount of good high class chateaux and some nice Champagne, Port and other wines. 

Bordeaux 2021 will most likely not be remembered as one of the greater vintages of the century. 2021 is rather medium quality. It is lighter in colour and lighter and fresher in taste than the last few years. Probably most of the wines will also mature quicker since they lack a bit of structure and body.

For Port lovers it was interesting to see that Niepoort presented some of their Ports but also some of their other wines.

Niepoort has recently changed suppliers in Denmark, and is know imported by Theis Vine. Stefano Marello, Export Director at Niepoort Vinhos says that the change of distributors was made to support the sales of Niepoort’s growing portfolio of white and red wines and in order to get access to the best restaurants in Denmark, such as Geranium and Alchemist. 

As for many other Port wine companies the table wines have been growing in sales over the last couple of decades. Actually, for Niepoort, the table wine sales are bigger in both volume and value compared to Port wine.

Bordeaux 2021 – Theis Vine Prestigesmagning, Copenhagen, Denmark

On September 8, 2022, Theis Vine will arrange a Bordeaux 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, 2021, 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.

We will surely be visiting this tasting and you can expect our review of the event in September.

Tickets are available at www.theis-vine.dk

In addition, for all port wine lovers, we can reveal that Theis Vine will present their new partnership with Niepoort.

Danish Sherry Festival

Update!!
Due to the Corona-virus the Sherry Festival has been cancelled.

On April 21 it is time for the second Danish Sherry-festival. The event takes place at “Det ny Teater” in Copenhagen and is hosted by Henrik Oldenburg, the arranger of the annual Port Wine festival at Børsen.

There will be a wide range of different Sherry served by 22-25 exhibitors.

Tickets will be available from February 1 and can only be found here www.forlaget-smag.dk

Bordeaux 2018 at Theis Wine Prestige Tasting

On September 4 it is time for the annual Bordeaux tasting, focusing on the latest vintage- 2018. Theis Wine is arranging this opportunity to compare many of the best chateaux of Bordeaux.

In addition to Bordeaux some selected wines from Burgundy and Tuscany as well as Champagne and Rioja are served.

Tickets are available at https://www.theis-vine.dk/products/bordeaux-2018-theis-vine-prestigesmagning-prestigesmagning-axelborg/

Christmas greetings

As you may have read during the year, most port we enjoy are at home with the family. At Christmas the family is of course joining at home and enjoying food and wine together. This year we started early, on the 19th of December. We started the evening with a vintage 2000 champagne, Cuvee Nicholas from Billecart-Salmon and after that lobster together with Les Lys Prem. Cru  2013 from Chablis and to the elk entrecôte a Ch. Cheval Blanc 1976. On the 20th we started in the afternoon with a bottle of O-Port-Unidade Vintage Port 2013 that we very kindly got from Axel Probst. Krug88We started the evening with Krug’s vintage champagne from 1988 which was delicious and then we had scallop, duck liver and pâté from shell fish together with Montrachet, Marquis de Laguiche Grand Cru from Joeseph Drouhin and Ch. Haut Brion Blanc, Grave both from 1990 and wonderful with the course. As main course we had yak (yes a bit strange, but we always try to eat something special during one dinner the days before Christmas, and the yak was delicious) and this was accompanied by Ch. Latour 1945 and Ch. Mouton Rotschild 1955 both unbelievable and wonderful. As dessert we had saffron ice cream with figs and chest nuts from Baskien together with port wine; Silva & Cosens vintage 1915 and Starling vintage 1887, probably from Taylor, both were delicious.

The 21st of December our dinner was first pâté from roe-deer with Ch. Daise-Daene 2005 and after that Ch. La Lagune 1982 to filé of a deer?

On the 24th of December, to the stilton, we had Royal Oporto vintage from 1977 and Constantino’s vintage from 1950.SilvaCosens1915

On the 25th we started with Alfred Gratien Brut Champagne, an old bottle, and after that we ate spare-ribs with Ch. Montrose 1970, and to the cheese-cake we had a bottle of Feist vintage 1995

The next day we started with Belle Epoque 1990 Champagne and to the first course, a pâté of salmon, we had Beauregard Prem. Cru from Chablis 2014 from Fournier and Gewurztraminer Grand Cru Mambourg 2012 from Dom. Weinbach, Alsace. To the main course was filé of elk and we enjoyed Ch. Lafite Rotschild and Ch. Latour both from 1983. An intermission port i.e. a Bicentenary Crusted Port from Fonseca bottled 2008 was needed before the Christmas pudding and Kopke’s vintage from 1935 and Chaplin’s vintage from 1945.Constantino1950

On the 30th   we just had a glass of Calem’s Quinta da Foz 1996 on the afternoon and on the 31 st we started the day on the afternoon with a vintage champagne 2006, Grand Cru from Mailly and as always on the last day of the year an old “dead” German wine, this year it was a 1945 Mettenheim from Rheingau. In the evening as usual lobster together with A. Bergère’s Cuvee Prestige vintage champagne from 2000. To the rein-deer we had Ch. Pichon Longueville Comtessa from 1989 and ended with Quinta do Noval 1960 to the dessert which was soufflé of French plums.

The Christmas celebration for the family ended on the 5th of January. This day we started with Blanc de Blanc Grand Cru Champagne Cuvée St-Vincent 1996 from R.L. Legras mature and lovely. To the terrine from pheasant we had a Vendage Tardive Pinot Gris, Grand Cru Brand 1988, Alsace. The main course was entrecôte of deer accompanied with Reserva 904 1973 and 1970 from La Rioja Alta and to the dessert which was glace au four we enjoyed Borges & Irmao’s  vintage and their Quinta do Junco vintage both from 1960. As we are already longing for next Christmas we ended the day with Bual vintage 1878 from Christopher’s. No better way to end two lovely weeks.

During our web-site existence 2012-2015 we have now passed 125.000 visitors and during the last 3 years we have had approximately 35.000 visitors per year. Now we have had 170 different countries visiting our web-site. Amazing we think, and we are very proud indeed. This year we have added or updated more than 175 tasting notes, which are quite a lot we think. Hope to see you and receive more mail from you during next year. Please do not forget to read our “Help needed” so we can give you as much information as possible.

Summer with no Port

Stefan and Sten at Schloss Gobelsburg.

Stefan and Sten at Schloss Gobelsburg.

We have terrible summer weather in Sweden this year and we also have a new record in the family. We were not drinking Vintage Port for a whole month exactly! The reason is simple. We have been on vacation in Franken, Germany and Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), Austria. We had some very nice tastings in Würzburg at the Burgerspital, Juliusspital and Staatlicher Hofkeller. In Austria we were at tastings in Winzer Krems, Aufreiter’s, Schloss Gobelsburg Schlosskellerei, Domäne Wachau and a few others. The tastings were especially good at Gobelsburg and Domäne Wachau. We were very surprised to see some Vintage Ports from Niepoort for sale at Schloss Gobelsburg. It turns out that Dirk Niepoort is a friend to the manager of Schloss Gobelsburg. We tasted Wonderful wines of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling but also some red table wines. However, we also found an Austrian “port wine” in a wine shop in Salzburg, which we just had to taste and it was terrible indeed!

Some Smaragd quality wines tasted at Domäne Wachau

Some Smaragd quality wines tasted at Domäne Wachau

The last couple of weeks have been more normal for us, with some new Vintage Ports tasted and added to the page. Now we are going to Skagen in Denmark for a celebration week and we will write about the wines we taste there in about 2 weeks. Hope you have better weather than we have!

Visit in Champagne

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.