For The Love Of Port

Thank you all for your great questions. They make my think and research about this passionate wine that is Port. I had a great time being the guest of this wonderful corner. Thanks Roy for the invitation.

"Holy grail" Port and other Ports that I would like to taste Reply to: Glenn Elliot As I said in a previous post, the Port that I would like to (re)taste is the Noval Nacional 1931. This doesn't mean this is the best Port ever made, but it's the one that I would like to check if it is :-)...

Adulterated wine/Port Reply to: Andy Velebil When tasting, elderberry or plum juice are quite noticeable and different from grape juice (sweeter aromas) so an adulteration using these (or other fruits) in a "wine" would lead to a rejection on tasting. There's a second issue that prevents ...

Number of 2011 Vintage Port and Producers Reply to: Roy Hersh This is a harder question that it seems. There are some Produces that send several samples to a Vintage and then, they choose only one (that has been approved) to make their Vintage On another hand, there are Producers that have a Vintag...

Use of Port from wines outside the Douro region Reply to: Paul Fountain The agreements do not fall within the jurisdiction of Portugal but of the European Union (anyway IVDP is working on them). The agreements are included in the free trade agreements, including intellectual property (which include...

Regulation white D.O. Douro
Reply to: David Spriggs
There’s a regulation on white Douro, the same of red. You can find it here (in Portuguese, but I think the tables at the end are understandable): http://www.ivdp.pt/pt/docs/legislacao/361.pdf

Port I’ve never tasted Reply to Stewart T. Noval Nacional 1931. In fact I’ve tasted but it wasn’t good. There was a doubt if it was a counterfaction… From a previous post: “ My top 5: it’s a difficult question. Some of them could be: Ferreira Vintage 1815; Constantino Vintage 1948 and the very old ...

Total number of Port and Douro wine Agents
Reply to: Roy Hersh
Figures from the statistical data available on IVDP’s site (data from 2010)
D.O. Douro: 548
D.O. Porto: 154 (where 78 are Producers)

Magazines and favourite Portuguese wine regions (excluding Douro) Reply to: Roy Hersh The magazines that I read more frequently are: Revista de Vinhos (Portugal), Wine (Portugal), Decanter (UK), Wine Enthusiast (USA), Wine Spectator (USA) and Wine Advocate (USA). Favourite Portuguese wine regions (...

Rejections by JCP Reply to: Bjarne Mouridsen Yes, you’re right, there’s 44% of rejections on the appeal tasting panel in 2012. Yes, it’s a usual number. Frequently even higher (around 50% or more). There’s a tendency in having more rejections when approving “Vintage years”, like in 2009 (Vintage 20...

Typical tasting notes for Port wine
Reply to: Moses Botbol

You can find typical tasting notes here: http://www.ivdp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=65 ... 2&idioma=1 and also here http://www.ivdp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=64 ... 2&idioma=1

Wines produced in Douro without Denomination of Origin (Port or Douro) Reply to: Derek T It’s forbidden to produce fortified wines in Douro without Denomination of Origin (D.O.). The legislation which forbids is: Decreto-lei nº 191/2002 from September, 13th. You can find it here (sorry it’s in Port...

Control of entry of grapes and wine in the Douro region Reply to David Spriggs During the harvest there are IVDP’s brigades on the region, on the borders and even outside the region near the border. With this control and knowing that the Douro region has more than enough quantity of vines to produc...

Order of tasting Ports Reply to: Christian Gollnick White (from the driest style to the sweetest, if we know the sugar content), Reserve White, White. Ruby, Reserve Ruby, Tawny, Reserve Tawny, LBV’s (from the youngest to the oldest, even if personally I prefer the opposite), Vintage (on the same wa...

Aguardentes (brandy used to fortify Port wine) Reply to: Christian Gollnick Yes we taste the aguardentes that are going to be used to make Port wine and Moscatel do Douro. We taste them diluted with water (4ºC) to 1:3. Over the last years “aguardente” had an increase in price. To try to counteract ...

Vineyard ratings Reply to: Roy Hersh There’s no update on vineyard ratings. You can find the actual criteria here: http://www.ivdp.pt/pagina.asp?idioma=1&codPag=17&codSeccao=4& or in a more detailed way here (but in Portuguese): http://www.ivdp.pt/pt/docs/legislacao/111.pdf As to classi...

Garrafeira
Reply to: Eric Fune
I don’t notice an increase in Garrafeira wines. It’s almost exclusively used by Niepoort.

Hi to all,
I’ll answer everyone’s questions. Most of the cases by chronological order. At this moment I’m answering yesterday’s PM

Tasting panel decisions and specific anosmia Reply to: Eric Menchen None of the tasters of IVDP tasting panel has specific anosmia (incapability to smell a specific aroma) for the most important faults (acetaldehyde, acetic acid, ethyl acetate, volatile phenols, sulphur compounds, moulds (TCA, TBA,...

Crusted and IVDP accreditation (1st in the world) Reply to John 1- I think there are 2 main reasons for Crusted being less known, the first is, in my opinion, a good value for the money, and producers are less interested in producing it. The second, and probably the most important one, is, as the c...