For The Love Of Port

Well... I'm biased as I really like Quinta do Vallado... Luckily we can get their wines on this little rock that I call home... and I think that, thanks to my friends and me, Vallado has a larger market-share of Portuguese wines here than in any other country... Of course I drink mainly their aged T...

Well... 1815 seems to be the better answer. Fonseca writes on their own web-page: "The house of Fonseca traces its origins to the early nineteenth century. The first evidence of the firm trading in Port is an entry dated 8th April, 1815, in the ledgers of the Real Companhia Velha, the royal mon...

Spot the difference... and no, I'm not talking about the difference of a 10 year old Tawny vs a LBV...

"O Paparico" is a marvelous restaurant - and for me no Porto visit is complete without stopping by there! Here is the menu in Portuguese and English: https://www.zomato.com/porto/o-paparico-antas/menu#tabtop They have a really interesting wine list - also especially for Port Wine. I rememb...

Just last week I had a fantastic Brazilian Picanha-steak paired with Graham's "Six Grapes". It was just perfect together. The more I drank, the better was the steak - the more I ate, the better was the Port...

Thank you, Frederick, for this great report. I nearly felt like being in the Douro while reading it! I have never been in the spring in the Douro Valley - must be really interesting now. I have seen photos and videos of the high water level in the Douro in Regua... It really seems to be a very wet A...

I really like the hotel Infante Sagres - just looking at the photos of the hotel brings back great memories from the FTLOP Harvest Tour 2012... :D As I understand, TFP has also bought a hotel in Lisbon: Hotel da Estrela. We Port Wine freaks that travel regularly to Porto and the Douro can confirm th...

Looking at the bottle, I would think the words "Garafeira Particular" explain the missing seal of the IVDP. I googled the words and wanted to get them translated into English - and I realized how famous Roy has become: http://www.linguee.com.br/portugues-ingles/traducao/garrafeira+particul...

Thanks for sharing this, Roy. How I regret that I don't live (yet) in Portugal. I'm sure this will be a very impressive tasting - I really do like their wines. And it's difficult to find a nicer person than Carlos Flores dos Santos, their General Manager. This is one of the few, old, independent fam...

70% - and I'm absolutely positively surprised by that... Normally, if it's not Port and/or not from the Douro, I don't drink it...

I may postpone the Port today. We're having a winter heat wave and it's gonna be 90+ today. This weather is killing me, I want my winter back. [help.gif] Dear Andy, I have good news. There is help available. When I moved to Cayman, I did a few online-courses to get prepared for the island. These ar...

Thanks, Eric. This is a really great overview of the 2015 harvest. The funny thing is that - when I was in the Douro in September 2015 - the wine makers were by far not so optimistic... seems like this year the rain has saved the harvestand gave the grapes a good push at the end of the harvest... Bu...

Somehow I have heard little to nothing about the winter 2015/2016 so far. Has anybody some news about the rain-situation?

Well... The latest developments are not as nice as I hoped for with the "new" TAP. Tap announced to cancel several routes from Porto: Brussels, Rome, Barcelona and Milan. As these flights have an average occupancy rate of 90%, it seems like this is a move by the airline not to get rid of i...

With regards to everything Port Wine related I'm so conservative and traditional that compared with me the Catholic Church looks suddenly modern and flexible... I understand that the Port Trade has to approach new consumers... I understand that Cockburn's want to distinguish itself from other Port P...

I will say that I have posted a couple of links to articles in the past and although not directed at me personally the articles were ripped to shreds. Sort of makes me wish I had not posted the link. Well... I think a lot of people here love to go through every article about Port Wine and to search...

and i feel i look like a jerk if i post in a bunch of threads and no one comments after me in them. like i shouldn't see my name in the index so much. Mental note to myself: Whenever I see a posting from Scheiny I have to quickly comment a "+1" so that he doesn't see his name anymore as t...

We here in the FTLOP forum know that there are a lot of really fanatic Port Wine friends out there (and we see them every morning when we look in the mirror). The Port Wine Institute and the shippers should create something like "Port Wine Ambassadors" (which would be people like us - fana...

+3

I fly two, three times a year from Miami to Lisbon and then on to Porto. Normally I fly TAP - and I'm as happy as I can be! Only once in maybe 15-20 trips came my suitcase a day later than me to Porto... On some occasions I flew on American Airlines... what a difference... day and night... The AA ai...