Considering Colheitas

[Roy Hersh]

We know of many great years of Colheita production, but if you could only pick one each ... which would you choose?

a. From 2010 back to 1980, which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?

b. From 1979 back to 1950, which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?

c. From 1949 back as far as you want to go ... which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?


If you don't feel comfortable or have not consumed Colheitas or Ports from some of those eras, just reply utilizing whichever you do feel that you have some experience with. Nobody is judging, but it will be interesting to come up with a solid list, of what some of the greatest years are for Colheitas. It would be great if partipants can limit their answers to ONE entry for each of A,B & C.

[Jasper A.]

a. Did not have to many from this periode, i would say 1997 Quint do Crasto Colheita or 2003 Kopke Colheita Branco

b. Hard choise but i think the Taylors Single Harvest 1965, the Kopke colheita 1966 a good second. I also a big fan of the Dalva Golden White ports 63 & 71

c. The Taylor's Single Harvest 1863

[Moses Botbol]

I don't get to sample as many colheitas, so my exposure is pretty light compared to most of you:

A. '85 Kopke

B. '52 Delaforce

C. Not sure which ones I had that old, I know I have...

[Al B.]

An interesting question. My first instinct was (A) no idea (B) 1968 and (C) 1937. And then I read Jasper's answer and realised that I was excluding those rare, really old colheitas that occasionally come onto the market.

So I got out my tasting notes and decided to put some thought into the answer - after all, Roy's asking which year and not which single wine. so here's what I found:

2010-1980: Maybe 2003, but that's based purely on the Quinta do Noval 2003 colheita and is still so early in the evolution of a barrel aged wines. Later bottlings and bottlings from other producers might really emphasise the quality of this vintage for colheitas as well as for vintage port.

1950-1979: This was a surprise to me. I don't drink a lot of colheita port so many of my assessments of a vintage are based purely on one or two producers and 1970 is an example of this where I have only colheitas from Crasto and Manoella. However, those have both been superb and if these two are representative of the vintage as a whole then this is the colheita vintage which I consistently give higher scores to than any other. But this is a good vintage bracket with many of the vintages receiving an average over 90 points across all shippers and bottles I've tasted.

1949 and before: If the Scion really is a single harvest port from 1855 and has never been refreshed then this must have been an astonishing quality of colheita harvest. I've not tried a colheita wine from 1855 other than the Scion, but this is so good I'd have to choose that as my vintage for (c).

[Roy Hersh]

Spot on and very well thought out, Alex. I hope others will be willing to do the same. And YES it is about specific vintages of Colheitas and has nothing to do with specific Ports from those years. Thanks for the detailed response!

[Andy Velebil]

Boy this is a tough question since it varies so much with producers and there are so many good ones from various vintages. But Roy's question is what VINTAGE and not what producer. That in mind here are my answers below....

a. From 2010 back to 1980, which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?

Tough as there is 1980 and some from the early 90's which are good. The post 2000's are still a bit too young IMO to be considered at this point. As far as a number of producers, I think 1997 has produced some superb Colheita's; Noval, Niepoort, Crasto, and even Warre's.

b. From 1979 back to 1950, which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?

Again another tough pick. I'd have to go with 1964. From Krohn's and their white as well, Noval, Kopke, Niepoort, and Dow's.

c. From 1949 back as far as you want to go ... which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?

As much as I'd love to say 1937, as it's easy since there was so much of it due to the war that isn't my choice. I will say 1900. Niepoort, Ferreira, and Krohn's these are a step above.

[Mika H]

a. This is a very close call between the Dow's 1982 Colheita and the Royal Oporto Colheita 1980. I think both are top notch but i'll go with the Royal Oporto just because of it's long black pepperish finish which i can almost taste in my mouth right now.

b. Krohn 1966 Colheita. Excellent, rich Port and a special year for me.

[Glenn E.]

We know of many great years of Colheita production, but if you could only pick one each ... which would you choose?

a. From 2010 back to 1980, which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?

b. From 1979 back to 1950, which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?

c. From 1949 back as far as you want to go ... which ONE year is your favorite for Colheitas?

It seems I missed this thread!

a. This is a genre that I don't touch very often, because for me a Colheita needs to be ~30 years old to be "ready" to drink. Younger Colheitas can be very nice, but they're still evolving rapidly and so I don't feel I can rate the vintage based on a rapidly moving target. I'd rather wait and see how they all turn out. That said, I have had nice Colheitas from 1982, 1992, and 1994. I'll make my pick 1992 in honor of the 2010 Harvest Tour where we experienced both Quevedo's and Vesuvio's Colheitas from that year.

b. This is prime time and so difficult. There are a lot of good years involved in this choice. Krohn '76. Andresen '70. Kopke '66. Kopke '57. Kopke '52. (Hmm... there's a theme here...) I would love to agree with Andy and go with my birth year (1964), but I've had them all many times and while there is a nice variety from that year they just don't hold up quality-wise. (By which I mean only that they're for the most part all excellent, but rarely if ever push any higher than that.) So ultimately I think I'm going to go with 1952 for two legends - the Kopke Colheita and the Dalva Golden White Colheita.

c. Easy. 1937. Sure, it's a cliche. But cliches exist because they're so true as to be obvious. While there may be better single Ports in various other years, 1937's broad selection of outstanding and magnificent Colheitas has to make it the best Colheita vintage of all time. I've had... 6 or 7?... different Colheitas from 1937 and the lowest rated was still 92 points. (That'd be the Moreira with a 5-7 day decant.) When the "worst" Port is excellent and all the rest are at least outstanding, that's saying something. Honorable mention goes to 1900 for the Niepoort, Constantino, and what I've heard about the Krohn that I've never been lucky enough to taste.