BREAKING NEWS: PORTO 2017

[Roy Hersh]

The IVDP's Presidente, Manuel N. Cabral released the Beneficio for 2017. As far as I can remember about the last decade, the Beneficio has never been at this level. The 2017 Beneficio was set at 118,000 pipes of Port for the entire Douro region. That is up 3,000 pipes from 2016s, 115,000 pipas.

Given that Vintage Ports were declared in 2015 and will be "generally declared" in 2016, that seems like a lot, (118,000 pipes) given that it is practically a given that only SQVP will be made from 2017 grapes.

Nonetheless, this bodes well for the Duriense!

Your thoughts?

[Andy Velebil]

Perhaps given the rise in popularity of tawnies it's so producers can stock up on some wood agers? Pure speculation there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Thomas V]

Given that Vintage Ports were declared in 2015 and will be "generally declared" in 2016, that seems like a lot, (118,000 pipes) given that it is practically a given that only SQVP will be made from 2017 grapes.

Since VP only account for less than 1% of total production each year, that doesn't seem so strange to me?

My take is they need more vine to produce tawnies, lbv and white port, which is in greater demand by the average wine drinker.

[Roy Hersh]

Well, I believe there are plenty of vines and plenty of grapes to do Tawny. After all, if not declaring a VP or LBV from a specific year, pretty much the majority of grapes grown can go into Tawny casks to age and while there's no shortage of 10 and 20 year old stocks; 30 and 40 is a different story. That has little to do with quotas on production of Port.

[Andy Velebil]

Well, I believe there are plenty of vines and plenty of grapes to do Tawny. After all, if not declaring a VP or LBV from a specific year, pretty much the majority of grapes grown can go into Tawny casks to age and while there's no shortage of 10 and 20 year old stocks; 30 and 40 is a different story. That has little to do with quotas on production of Port.

Not necessarily. If you've had two big VP declarations back to back you've used up a fair amount of grape musts that would normally be earmarked for LBV's, tawnys, and the like. So to raise it a bit to allow producers to add in more stock would not be out of the question. Then again, IIRC VP is such a short time frame it doesn't really count toward a producers "law of the third" anyways.

Perhaps they are trying to slow the growth of Douro DOC wines *tin foil hat wears to the front please*

[Tom Archer]

Given that Vintage Ports were declared in 2015 and will be "generally declared" in 2016, that seems like a lot, (118,000 pipes) given that it is practically a given that only SQVP will be made from 2017 grapes.

Of course, there's always the possibility that 2017 might be even better..!

That's not a prediction mind - I've picked up very little reportage so far this year and the summer weather seems have been pretty 'plain vanilla' in most respects. Although much of Portugal has been a tinder box, and other parts of the continent have seen extreme heat, the Vila Real temperature records have been showing figures close to long term averages during June and July.

But the season seems to be very forward - Dirk started bringing his wine grapes in on the tenth of this month - which seems incredibly early.

So whilst it's far too early to speculate about another 'lucky 7' vintage, the possibility is out there..

[Christian Gollnick]

These beneficio numbers are still much lower than they were around the year 2000.
As far as I know the IVDP doesn't really care too much about the prediction about the quality of the harvest for a specific year when they announce the beneficio numbers. Otherwise 2011 wouldn't have been the lowest number over the last 25 years...

Here is an old post that shows the development of the beneficio:
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... io#p130689

There is one thing that amazes me: the tourism in Porto. When I look at the Porto of the year 1997, 2007 and 2017 then it's beyond mind-blowing how the number of tourists has increased. I love to sit outside of a little cafe in Gaia and just to watch the tourists. They all visit the lodges, drink a few glasses of basic port and often buy a bottle or two.

Gaia must have become such an important outlet for the Port sales... I would love to see numbers from the past (30 years ago, 15 years ago) and now to see how much the Port sales in Gaia have increased.
These massive tourist numbers will have an long-term impact on Port. If you were at the lodges in Gaia, you want to bring back those memories and drink a few glasses when you are back home. Millions of people have been exposed to Port Wine thanks to Ryanair and what else might be flying to Porto... I believe that this will build a good foundation for the future of the Port consumption.

I really hope that the Port Wine producers will be putting sufficient wine aside to be able to cope with the demand for 30 or 40 year old Tawnies in the future...

However, for the grape growers in the Douro a large beneficio number is good news - so it's nice that the numbers continue to climb. However, 118.000 pipas are not so far from the long-term average, I would say.

[Roy Hersh]

Maybe not, Christian, but given the comparison to the beneficio of the past decade, this is a nice big number.

[Roy Hersh]

Andy wrote:

Not necessarily. If you've had two big VP declarations back to back you've used up a fair amount of grape musts that would normally be earmarked for LBV's, tawnys, and the like. So to raise it a bit to allow producers to add in more stock would not be out of the question.

Actually, given that Vintage Port makes up less than 2% of Port production, I'd say it matters not if there are two years with Vintage Ports produced. The quantity is really too small to matter and certainly doesn't affect LBV much. Best example, while yields and actual production of 2011 Vintage Ports were way down, (Beneficio too in 2011 was extremely low) and VPs were produced widely, yet 2011 LBV proliferates the marketplace and there was no shortage at all.

[Tom Archer]

An email this morning, from the front line..

Dirk says he has never started harvesting so early, however he does not expect great results from the wine grapes this year. On the other hand the port grapes are looking really good at the moment and acidity is amazing.

Comparisons are being made with 2003 at this stage, but not entirely in a good way. An atypical maturation pattern that may or may not come right..

[Roy Hersh]

It should not be forgotten that this was a very cold and especially rainy winter into late spring ... long before the intensity of high temperatures hit in Douro.

[Tom Archer]

Certainly loads of rain in November and February, and above average in January and March; but if you look at the data from Vila Real (the nearest station that has full data in the public domain) you can see that every month from November through to May was warmer than the long term average, which is probably why the grapes are so forward..

[Al B.]

Has anyone tracked the starting and ending dates for the port grape harvest over the last few years? I have the impression that this year is very early compared to last year, which seemed to be a very long and very slow harvest.

[Roy Hersh]

And last year was extended by a full week of rain, directly mid-harvest. Those who picked early were not so fortunate. It did get warm again after the rain, but unfortunately not much in the way of wind to help dry out the tight bunches and a good amount of rot was found by those that did careful triage. Those that were quick to get the grapes to the crusher, likely had issues. Those who were patient, did have long hang times and the grapes were on vine far longer than usual which in this case, was beneficial.

[Tom Archer]

Last year seemed to be very much the exception to the rule, at least in terms of the general narrative. Historically, when harvests have been interrupted mid-way by a deluge, the stock response has been 'but we got our best grapes in before the rain'. In addition, one does not normally hear glowing reports about the quality of the musts during the latter part of an interrupted season, implying that there's no quality expectation from the second half.

The 2016 harvest dragged on and on for an extraordinary length of time, and those who held off until well into October seemed to be taking a big gamble with the weather. Was that the product of a fundamental re-think in harvest strategy? - or just a bizarre year?

At the moment I'm inclined to believe the latter..

[Andy Velebil]

Last year seemed to be very much the exception to the rule, at least in terms of the general narrative. Historically, when harvests have been interrupted mid-way by a deluge, the stock response has been 'but we got our best grapes in before the rain'. In addition, one does not normally hear glowing reports about the quality of the musts during the latter part of an interrupted season, implying that there's no quality expectation from the second half.

The 2016 harvest dragged on and on for an extraordinary length of time, and those who held off until well into October seemed to be taking a big gamble with the weather. Was that the product of a fundamental re-think in harvest strategy? - or just a bizarre year?

At the moment I'm inclined to believe the latter..

Bolded part...that sounds familiar from a certain producer regarding his 2015's

[Tom Archer]

Bolded part...that sounds familiar from a certain producer regarding his 2015's

Did you mean 2014 ??

[Andy Velebil]

Bolded part...that sounds familiar from a certain producer regarding his 2015's

Did you mean 2014 ??

No, 2015 VP's. Dirk's statement that we all discussed, LOL.

[Roy Hersh]

Tom wrote:

The 2016 harvest dragged on and on for an extraordinary length of time, and those who held off until well into October seemed to be taking a big gamble with the weather. Was that the product of a fundamental re-think in harvest strategy? - or just a bizarre year?

At the moment I'm inclined to believe the latter..

Agreed, definitely the latter.

[Tom Archer]

Another missive from the front line..

The picking of wine grapes is fully underway and the Port harvest is expected to start next week - exceptionally early.

- Has there ever been a vintage in the past when port grapes were being harvested in August?