For The Love Of Port

Rede Nacional de Expresso is some help http://www.rede-expressos.pt/default.aspx from major cities to the Douro Transdev is another major bus service with regional services http://www.transdev.pt/index.php Within the Douro it's CIC and pretty feeble http://www.transdev.pt/CIC/4/ For example, to get ...

Well, you were speculating in another thread about consolidations in the Port trade and possible divestitures of existing brands or properties. So... here is news of one. In 2012 Sogrape sold Quinta da Boavista to Lima Smith. Boavista is the quinta most closely associated with Joseph James Forrester...

The past little while we have posted two articles from the Newsletter 79 from 6 months ago: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/2014/07/10/ten-tawnies-twenty/ Ten Tawnies at Twenty which is an interesting account of a tasting of - you guessed it - by reader Rune Gustavsen (who had help from the family i...

Just spoke with a viticulturist friend, who confirmed they too had the heat spike in the Douro weekend before last, temperatures close to 40ºC in some areas, but luckily little to no problem with queima - sunburn - on the grapes. He also said they had a strong thunderstorm sweep through last night, ...

End of May through beginning of June was relentlessly lovely, I hated to brag, but day after day the temperatures were comfortable low mid 20's with lots of warm sunshine, pleasant breezes. There was an odd shower or two but nothing of significance. We got our usual mid-summer heat spike a bit early...

Hi Andy, our TNDB has no notes for the Unreported brand Ports - including a 30 YO - that he makes for Schlossadler (CA based importer). There is a link in the text to the releveant page on their site. I was wondering how those might compare, if you or anyone reading this should taste those I would l...

Just posted today, a profile of Quinta do Mourão, who produce the S. Leonardo ports as well as Rio Bom Douro DOC wines. Subscribers to the Newsletter may recall that the S. Leonardo 30 Year Old Tawny Port was singled out by Roy for the 2014 FTLOP Awards. Miguel Braga was a very gracious and entertai...

Have you ever seen the full film of the trip of the last barco rabelo? Clips have appeared in a lot of promotional videos, but at one time the Museu do Douro in Régua had the entire film on loop projecting on the wall in the upper room - I sat and watched it a couple times through. In places the riv...

Well, I am disappointd none of you took the bait to try to identify the quinta featured in the 1936 film clip featured on our last blog post. Today's article compares stills from the film with recent photos to reveal the identity of the property. http://www.fortheloveofport.com/2014/05/25/quinta-tua...

For four days - Monday 19th through Thursay 22nd May - we had a mixture of showers, some quite heavy, and occasional sun here in Gaia. Up in the Douro there were some showers, but nothing significant, I was told. Friday, Saturday and today, Sunday, have all been brilliantly sunny and beautiful, but ...

We have a great Video Gallery (access it from the top menu bar of the site at any time) which we are always updating, but we just featured a new-to-our-collection film clip on the blog. Read the story and play "spot that quinta" with us: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/2014/05/19/for-the-l...

Well... bummer! The rain arrived today, we are "enjoying" showers and cool temperatures here in Gaia today, and forecast says this will continue through Friday. Am waiting to hear from Douro contact about what's happening up there, though often he doesn't get my messages till end of day. B...

Oops, got it! I understand what you are getting at now. Given that my contact in the Douro was quite clear that they have had no mildio in Douro Superior and Cima Corgo, I am guessing not. My guess is, the winter rain has soaked in deep enough to the poor old parched earth that this was not an issue...

Hi Andy, actually, it's not the rainfall over the winter, it's the levels of humidity in the spring when it warms up that sets the mildio proliferating. This year it seems that when it was damp, it was cool (minimising risk), now it is warmer, it is dry (minimising risk) - my contact yesterday was c...

More news, from a viticultural contact in the Douro Superior: May so far has been dry - a few drops of rain on the 4th, but nothing significant. Temperatures are getting up to 30ºs C in the day, but the nights are unseasonably cool. The development of the vines is probably 10 days ahead of normal - ...

Sorry to have fallen quiet ... the days are slipping by - though still cool for the time of year and very breezy. The first week of May, up to around the 8th, were overcast mornings which more or less cleared in the afternoons maybe, very cool. Since then, we have had crystal clear cloudless days, t...

We've just added Roy's Vintage Forecasts for 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 as downloadable PDFs from the main FTLOP site. Read the blog article for a bit of background what the Forecasts bring you: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/2014/05/04/roys-vintage-forecasts/ Or cut to the c...

oooh, sorry about Seattle, Glenn.

On the other hand yesterday and today were/are gloriously sunny, warm, dry, perfect...

10 day forecast up in Douro is for mostly sunny days high temps in low 20s

May I ask you what does "Mizzley" mean? Mist + drizzle + misery .... something along those lines. Soggy but not a good honest soaking. Andy... yes, I was in town the other morning and noticed a lot of tourists - sunburnt and peeling but bundled up in fleeces. But if the vines are thriving...

The past week has been ... variable, to be polite. Tuesday evening (22nd April) we had showers overnight but Wednesday 23rd was sunny and nice Thursday I woke to the rumble of thunder (no, not my stomach) and we had thunder showers off and on with the odd moment of blinding sunlight Friday was clear...