We are astonished, as usual, to come to a tasting in such a lovely building, The Church House Westminster, next to Westminster Abbey. What a fabulous location to host the biggest fortified wine fair in the world!
The last vintages as well as some older ones were available for tasting. Port, as well as Madeira, Carcavelos, Sherry, Setúbal, Marsala and some other kinds of fortified wine.
One of the favourite vintages at the time is Vintage Port from 2003, which is in a very nice place right now. Fonseca as well as Churchill, Warre, Graham and Dow were all very good with Dow currently in the lead just a head of Graham. Please see our tasting notes from April 3 for further details.
There will be a new wine festival in Copenhagen dedicated to all types of Fortified wines, including Port wines. The Festival will take place on April 30 at the New Theater in Copenhagen and is hosted by Henrik Oldenburg, also arranging the annual Port Wine Festival in Copenhagen.
Since some years Henrik has arranged a Sherry festival, but he now decided to extend it to also include all other types of Fortified wines like Madeira, Marsala, Malaga, Moscatel, Port wine and even more.
Tickets are bought directly from the organizer here: Forlaget Smag.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
