2015 Vintage Declarations

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Tom Archer
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Tom Archer »

I have to say I am greatly underwhelmed by SFE's media management so far this year.

The Symington site has two undated announcements relating to the Cockburn and Stone Terraces 2015 declarations, but there is no mention of it on the Graham site. The Cockburn site has a dated announcement, but the media link (which might have included a 'copy 'n' paste' story for the press, - is empty..)

Someone has told Roy that Dow will definitely be declaring. Given that Roy would observe an embargo on any information given to him in confidence, this news is presumably common currency amongst the Symington staff.

In short, SFE need to pull their socks up. This is a mess..
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Thomas V
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Thomas V »

Updated with Dow's, Graham's and Vesuvio.
Tom Archer wrote:I have to say I am greatly underwhelmed by SFE's media management so far this year.

The Symington site has two undated announcements relating to the Cockburn and Stone Terraces 2015 declarations, but there is no mention of it on the Graham site. The Cockburn site has a dated announcement, but the media link (which might have included a 'copy 'n' paste' story for the press, - is empty..)

Someone has told Roy that Dow will definitely be declaring. Given that Roy would observe an embargo on any information given to him in confidence, this news is presumably common currency amongst the Symington staff.

In short, SFE need to pull their socks up. This is a mess..
I agree. I am not even sure if I can post this on Facebook or talk with non FTLOP'ers about this information.
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Andy Velebil »

Roy Hersh wrote:Trust me, the SFE declaration is for real. I am not sure if they have publicly announced it yet, or not. So you can say you heard it here first. :scholar: :mrgreen:
Well, they just declared Vesuvio (which we figured was coming) and....Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira.

I've never seen them declare the classic Dow's and Ribeira in the same year. You sure about your sources info?


http://blog.symington.com/quinta-do-ves ... -declared/
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Thomas V
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Thomas V »

Andy Velebil wrote:
Roy Hersh wrote:Trust me, the SFE declaration is for real. I am not sure if they have publicly announced it yet, or not. So you can say you heard it here first. :scholar: :mrgreen:
Well, they just declared Vesuvio (which we figured was coming) and....Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira.

I've never seen them declare the classic Dow's and Ribeira in the same year. You sure about your sources info?
Updated.

That is a very interesting point Andy.

Another factor here is that Dow's last year said that they will ONLY be making a Dow's LBV in declared vintage years..
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Andy Velebil »

Thomas V wrote:
Andy Velebil wrote:
Roy Hersh wrote:Trust me, the SFE declaration is for real. I am not sure if they have publicly announced it yet, or not. So you can say you heard it here first. :scholar: :mrgreen:
Well, they just declared Vesuvio (which we figured was coming) and....Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira.

I've never seen them declare the classic Dow's and Ribeira in the same year. You sure about your sources info?
Updated.

That is a very interesting point Andy.

Another factor here is that Dow's last year said that they will ONLY be making a Dow's LBV in declared vintage years..
Will be interesting to see if they declare the regular Warre's or Cavadinha. As we already talked about, I don't see them declaring Graham's after that Stone Terrace press release not painting a very good picture. Given that there is no classic Dow's and presumably no classic Graham's, I'd hazard a guess they won't release the regular Warre's and will release a Cavadinha instead.

Two more days until TFP announces what they are doing.
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Thomas V
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Thomas V »

Andy Velebil wrote: Will be interesting to see if they declare the regular Warre's or Cavadinha. As we already talked about, I don't see them declaring Graham's after that Stone Terrace press release not painting a very good picture. Given that there is no classic Dow's and presumably no classic Graham's, I'd hazard a guess they won't release the regular Warre's and will release a Cavadinha instead.

Two more days until TFP announces what they are doing.
I don't know the track record for the Symingtons and split declarations within their brands. But couldn't it be the case that Warre's and its vineyards produced better grapes in 2015 than in 2016 and thus a Warre's VP will be declared, where we presume a Dow's and Graham's will not because of the news on a 2015 Stone Terrace and Senhora da Ribeira ditto VP?
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Tom Archer
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Tom Archer »

I've never seen them declare the classic Dow's and Ribeira in the same year. You sure about your sources info?
My thoughts entirely.

If they were going to go out on a limb and declare both the Dow blend and a separate Ribeira (which they might, given the success of Vesuvio) - would they announce the Ribeira first and the Dow blend later? - Surely not..

I'm pretty certain that we will see a bicentennial Fonseca declared in a few hours time, but will the other TFP houses also declare? If we end up with Cockburn and Fonseca declaring for their bicentenaries, but most of the other houses going for 2016, it will start looking a bit contrived. In that event, I think both Cockburn and Fonseca should bill their 2015s as bicentennial 'extra' declarations, and also declare 2016.
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Tom Archer
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Tom Archer »

Well, surprise surprise - it looks like there will be no bicentennial Fonseca blend - TFP have announced Guimaraens, Vargellas and Roeda '15s, but do not appear to be otherwise declaring..
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Eric Menchen »

From their Facebook post:

Taylor Fladgate is delighted to announce its decision to bottle a Quinta de Vargellas 2015 Vintage Port.

Located in the remote eastern reaches of the Douro Valley, the outstanding Vargellas estate is recognised as one of the world’s finest vineyards, and is known for its elegant, scented wines, with their fine focused fruit and well integrated sinewy tannins.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/2oVgHR7

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk
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Thomas V
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Thomas V »

More on the Fonseca Guimaraens as well.

http://fonseca.pt/en/news/fonseca-to-re ... tage-port/
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Tom Archer
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Tom Archer »

Such gushing accolade of the vintage, yet no full declaration..

C'mon Adrian - we're not stupid - tell it as it is...
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Thomas V
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Thomas V »

Added

Gaivosa, Quinta da
Grifo, Quinta do
Passadouro, Quinta do
Pégo, Quinta do
Pintas
Rozès
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Andy Velebil
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Andy Velebil »

Tom Archer wrote:Such gushing accolade of the vintage, yet no full declaration..

C'mon Adrian - we're not stupid - tell it as it is...
I wouldn't call it gushing. They are pretty up front that they will be earlier maturing VP's. And I guess when the two majors don't declare their stuff this isn't going to be considered a classic declaration year. I think we can all guess that 2016 most likely will be.
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Roy Hersh »

Andy's speculation:
I don't see them declaring Graham's after that Stone Terrace press release not painting a very good picture. Given that there is no classic Dow's and presumably no classic Graham's, I'd hazard a guess they won't release the regular Warre's and will release a Cavadinha instead.
The Warre's is not official, but as I announced earlier in the thread, Cockburn's, Dow's, Graham's and Vesuvio are in the books for 2015.
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Andy Velebil »

Roy Hersh wrote:Andy's speculation:
I don't see them declaring Graham's after that Stone Terrace press release not painting a very good picture. Given that there is no classic Dow's and presumably no classic Graham's, I'd hazard a guess they won't release the regular Warre's and will release a Cavadinha instead.
The Warre's is not official, but as I announced earlier in the thread, Cockburn's, Dow's, Graham's and Vesuvio are in the books for 2015.
Roy
It seems odd that they announced Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira. Have you ever seen them declare both the classic Dow's and Ribeira in the same year? I know Bomfim has been on some occasions but that was a very tiny amount for a very specific market some time ago. I guess in this era anything is possible.
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Tom Archer
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Tom Archer »

The Warre's is not official, but as I announced earlier in the thread, Cockburn's, Dow's, Graham's and Vesuvio are in the books for 2015.
I'm intrigued about this. Checking the last two declarations, I see that the Symingtons declared their major blends on April 14th, both for 2007 vintage and the 2011.

We've had the declaration of Cockburn and Vesuvio, the Graham Stone Terraces and the Dow Ribeira. If there was going to be a regular Dow and Graham blend made, surely we'd have had the announcement by now?
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Andy Velebil »

Tom Archer wrote:
The Warre's is not official, but as I announced earlier in the thread, Cockburn's, Dow's, Graham's and Vesuvio are in the books for 2015.
I'm intrigued about this. Checking the last two declarations, I see that the Symingtons declared their major blends on April 14th, both for 2007 vintage and the 2011.

We've had the declaration of Cockburn and Vesuvio, the Graham Stone Terraces and the Dow Ribeira. If there was going to be a regular Dow and Graham blend made, surely we'd have had the announcement by now?
Tom,
That's what I was thinking. They would have announced them first, being their major brands, and then their SQVP's right after. I guess time will tell, but I'm not holding my breath.
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Jasper A. »

Andy Velebil wrote:
Tom Archer wrote:
The Warre's is not official, but as I announced earlier in the thread, Cockburn's, Dow's, Graham's and Vesuvio are in the books for 2015.
I'm intrigued about this. Checking the last two declarations, I see that the Symingtons declared their major blends on April 14th, both for 2007 vintage and the 2011.

We've had the declaration of Cockburn and Vesuvio, the Graham Stone Terraces and the Dow Ribeira. If there was going to be a regular Dow and Graham blend made, surely we'd have had the announcement by now?
Tom,
That's what I was thinking. They would have announced them first, being their major brands, and then their SQVP's right after. I guess time will tell, but I'm not holding my breath.
It would highly surprise me that Dow's we be declaring a regular Vintage after declaring Quint da Sinhora Ribeira. But we will see.
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Eric Menchen »

I'm beginning to think that Roy being told about declarations was in reference to the SQVPs. Actually, I've been thinking that for a while.
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Re: 2015 Vintage Declarations

Post by Roy Hersh »

As Andy is now aware, she weeks ago I received an email invite from SFE which told me which ports had been declared. Obviously there has been a change of mind since then and so I stand corrected as it looks like they are now leaning towards 2016 for their main brands. Apologies for any confusion.
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