Category Archives: Wine tasting

Miguels tasting Vintage 1960 – 2011

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Just before summer we held a private tasting of Vintage Ports from the quite new port house Miguels.

Messias Miguel Valente, the owner of this house is related on his mother´s side to Messias Baptista who founded the house of Messias in 1926. After working several years at Messias, Miguel decided to create his own brand, Miguels in 2015. So if you haven’t heard about the producer before, there is a reason.

Miguels Vintage 1983 – 2011

Currently all Vintage Ports of Miguels are sourced from the Messias family stock. Miguels can therefore offer older Vintages as well, actually all the way back to 1960.

In the tasting we had almost all currently available Vintages from Miguels, only 2005 was missing (and 1965, but this is not available anymore).

It was very interesting to taste all of these at once, and there is for sure a consistent style, sweet with dried fruit, toffee, prunes and orange zest found in many of them. They also showed a quite distinguished acidity, especially in some of the older vintages.

Miguels Vintage 1960 – 1982

The winner, in the tasting group of 14 persons, was quite surprisingly the 1979 Vintage which was very generous on the nose and had a mature very balanced and elegant finish.

Please see here for full tasting notes and points.

Portvinsmessen – The annual portwine event in Roskilde

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On March 4 we were participating in the annual event in Roskilde, Denmark, called ‘Portvinsmessen’ (The port wine fair). As usual many Danish importers were represented and several of them were backed up by representatives from the port producers.

Both tasting periods of the event were sold out and it is apparent that Denmark continues being a big market for quality port. Focus was on quality ports like Tawny with age, Colheitas and Vintage Ports. As usual our focus was on the Vintage Ports and we provide tasting notes for all of them here on the site.

We were especially impressed by some of the more mature Vintage Ports available, like the range of Warre’s Vintages with 1980, 1985 and 2000 also accompanied by their single quinta Cavadinha from 1998 and 2001. All provided by Kjaer Sommerfeldt.

We also of course liked the Taylor Vintages from 1997, 2003, 2007 and 2009. All very impressive, and best of them was the 2007. These are available from Portvinsyd.

Last but not least, the brothers from Vintageportvin.dk, showed there wide range of mature quality Vintage Ports. This year they had extended there offering with a range of Romaneira Vintages and also with Sandeman. From Sandeman we could try some of the Vau Vintages, from the very first, 1988 (the only one called Quinta da Vau) to 1997 and 1999. Best of the Sandeman Vintages was the astonishing Vintage 1970 which is a fantastic port wine showing what this producer is capable of when it makes it best. For us, this was the best Vintage Port of the day.

We also tasted a fantastic old Colheita-blend  simply called Porto 201, a blend of 1843, 1870 and 1888 (43+70+88=201) from Maynard, very kindly offered to us by Alvaro van Zeller.

Carcavelos

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On February 16 the Wine Society of 18% in Malmö, Sweden, had a very interesting tasting of Carcavelos, the forgotten fortified wine from Portugal.

Carcavelos

Just west of Lisbon along the coast lies the small municipality of Carcavelos. This has been a place for wine growing since the roman times, and in the mid 18th century the wines from the region had a worldwide reputation. Marquis de Pombal had a Palace and wine estate here, and built a reputation for Carcavelos. Before the demarcation of Douro in 1756 he even sold grapes from Carcavelos to Port producers. During the 19th century the fortified wines were very popular, especially in the British market and in 1908 the region was officially demarcated and it still is classified as D.O.C (Denominação de Origem Controlada).

The 20th century turned out to be devastating for Carcavelos wines and its vineyards. As Lisbon grew and new hotels near the coast were built, more and more vineyards were sold in the real estate business. In the early 1980s there were only ten hectares of vines left.

The Ministry of Agriculture owned what was remaining of Pombal’s vineyards in the 1980s and they realized they had to do something to save what was left of Carcavelos traditions. Between 2002 and 2009 they doubled remains of the old Pombal vineyard to 12.5 hectares. Since 2004 the vineyard is owned by the municipality and a new brand was created, called Villa Oeiras.

Carcavelos wine is made from up to nine different grapes, both white and red. The most important of the white grapes are Galego Dourado, Ratinho and Arinto. The most important red grapes are Castelão and Preto. The wine is fermented completely dry and then alcohol (wine brandy) is added to bring the wine up to about 18-20% alcohol. A small part of the wine must containing residual sugar, called vinho abafado, is set aside before fortifying the wine and is then added to get a sweet wine.

The wine is then aged in barrels and receives a light Tawny like color. The style is very unique but it is somewhat similar to White Ports or some Madeiras.

CarcaGlass

In the tasting in Malmö we had 9 Carcavelos and 3 other more well-known wines for reference. Note that the tasting was conducted completely blind, meaning we did not know it was Carcavelos we tasted. The points are always affected to be more moderate in blind tastings, especially when the style of the wine is completely unique and un-common to what we are used to. This is what we tasted (in this order), with the average points from the group.

  1. Niepoort 10 years old White Port. Points 14.30
  2. Villa Oeiras, Carcavelos. The wine has been aged for at least 10 years on oak and chestnut barrels. Grapes used were Arinto, Galego Dourado and Ratinho. Points 14.40
  3. Conde de Oeiras, Meio doce, Carcavelos. A non-vintage blend of 1995-2007, bottled in 2009 from Villa Oeiras. Points 14.60
  4. M. Borges Bual 15 years, Madeira. Points 15.00
  5. Quinta de Ribeira de Caparide 1995, Carcavelos. Only available vintage found from this producer, owned by the bishop of Lisbon. Unclear if it is still in production. Points 13.40
  6. Casa Manuel Boullosa, Quinta dos Pesos 1991, Carcavelos. During some years this was the only producer of Carcavelos. No later vintages available, probably out of production today. Points 15.40
  7. Casa Manuel Boullosa, Quinta dos Pesos 1989, Carcavelos. See above. Points 14.80
  8. Alambre Moscatel de Setubal 1996, José Maria da Fonseca. Points 15.65
  9. Quinta do Barao 15 years, Carcavelos. Marquis de Pombal’s old vineyard now being revived as Villa Oeiras. Points 14.90
  10. Quinta do Barao +30 years, Carcavelos. See above. Points 15.10

    Wine number 11, Quinta da Bela Vista

    Back label of wine 11, Quinta da Bela Vista

  11. Quinta da Bela Vista, Carcavelos. Went out of business already 1969. The remaining barrels were bottled as a blend in 1991 and the average age is assumed to be about 40 years. Galego Dourado most important grape. Points 15.30
  12. Quinta da Bela Vista Antigo, Carcavelos. Bottle from the cellar of Bela Vista, i.e. bottled before 1969 but with unknown age. Points 15.85

Copenhagen Port Wine Festival 2016

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festival2016_1

Dominic Symington and Gustavo Devesas

The annual port wine festival in Copenhagen, arranged by Henrik Oldenburg, was this year visited by well-known Dominic Symington from the Symington Family Estates. Dominic arranged, with help from Gustavo Devesas (Market Manager at the Symingtons) a tasting to show that the terroir and micro climate of the quintas in the Douro valley are very different. By tasting six of the Symington Single Quintas we could all see the difference between Quinta da Cavadinha, Quinta do Bomfim, Quinta dos Malvedos, Quinta dos Canais, Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira and Quinta do Vesuvio. To understand the differences better we tasted all of these quintas from both 2001 and 2010 to also see the maturation aspect of the different terroirs. Dominic talked about the work the Symingtons are doing to improve the quality in all of the quintas using modern technology combined with their long experience. The harvest can for instance be done in a more optimal way by investigating how strong the vines are throughout the quinta and then harvest different parts of the quintas at different days for perfect grapes.

festival2016_2In the open tasting we could as usual taste quite a lot of interesting Vintage Ports. There were several mature Vintage Ports from some of the importers. We were as usual impressed by the range of mature Vintage Ports from Vintageportvin.dk, and we could taste a lot of mature Vintage Ports from the Symington houses Smith Woodhouse and Gould Campbell from the vintages 1977, 1980, 1985 and 2000 and also Quarles Harris from 1977. From these the 1977, 1980 and 1985 are really impressive and peaking today and the 2000 is also nice today but it is a perfect investment for the cellar. We could also taste Warre’s Vintage Port from both 1980 and 2000 at the Kjaer Sommerfeldt table, both really good.

We would like to thank Henrk Oldenburg, Dominic Symington, Gustavo Devesas and all Danish importers for an enjoyable festival and hope to see you all again soon.

Philipson Wine tasting

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In Philipson Wine’s tasting according to their 25 th birthday they had some marvelous Burgundy such as Ruchottes-Chambertin 2014 Grand Cru from Domaine Frédéric Esmonin, 2013 Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2013 from Domaine de la Vougeraie and Corton Grand Cru Cuvee Charlotte Dumay 2012 from Hospice du Beaune. Some Grand Cru from Chablis and of course lovely Colheita from Burmester such as 1957, 1985 and 2000.

We also enjoyed a large variety of Italian wine from Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino (with some remarkable samples from the praised 2010 Vintage) and Tuscany.

Theis Vine Bordeaux tasting at Børsen in Copenhagen

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Theis Vine had, as every year, a wonderful tasting at The stock exchange (Børsen) in Copenhagen a few week ago. Even though there are no Port Wines we must say that it is a really good tasting with opportunity to try the last vintage of Bordeaux. This year the focus was on Bordeaux from 2015 which shows fantastic potential and future! Generally speaking we found lots of nice pure fruit balanced with tough tannins in the wines. We recommend all of you with a wine cellar to invest in many cases of the 2015 for the future. We also tasted some Bordeaux’s from earlier vintages. Among the best were the excellent 2010s from Petit Village and Chateau Pichon Longueville – Baron. We also liked Chateau Leoville Barton and Leoville Poyferre from 2012.

In addition to top quality Bordeaux wines the tasting has the last few years expanded to include some Burgundy wines, Champagnes from Billecart-Salmon and other high quality wines. This year Billecart-Salmon had six vintage champagnes for tasting, among these the fantastic Le Clos Saint-Hilaire 1999. Marvelous!

If you missed the tasting this year we do recommend you to go next year.

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!