Toying with the idea of buying in a case or two of the 2001 "second strings", I went to look up the price of Bomfim, but found it not.
Further investigation revealed that the Symingtons are not planning to release most of their 2001 VP until 2012.
Anyone know the reasoning behind this strategy? It's a bit of a surprise given that have recently urged people to drink VP at a younger age than hitherto.
2001 Symington strategy
Moderators: Glenn E., Roy Hersh, Andy Velebil
-
Tom Archer
- Posts: 2790
- Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:09 pm
- Location: Near Saffron Walden, England
-
Frederick Blais
- Posts: 2743
- Joined: Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:07 am
- Location: Porto, Portugal
I once had the same question to the Taylor relationnist when I visited them. I guess the answer would also apply for the Symingtons. The quick answer is "the market drives the need for these bottles and the price they are selling it to"
The demand/offer system rules the VP release. The system is so strong that they don't control much the price the bottles are going to be sold on the market and usually with strong demand they try to sell as much as they can. We can see that now the demand for younger vintage is much stronger that it was in the past as we can see that a lot of houses still have plenty of old bottles to sell when you visit them in Portugal. It is not the case with younger vintages.
For the single Quinta, the demand is not as strong as the VP. So there is no need to rush to sell them, also why sell the 2001 while the 2000 are better and still on the shelves and 2003 hype approaching. So they are waiting for the proper moment to release them and they have a better control on the release price with this approach. So they release them when they think it is mature enough to please the consumer at a decent price and prove him mature VP worth the wait. Also since single quinta port or off vintage port are not on the speculation market, why buy them on release while they don't take any value in your cellar.
For Taylor, Vargellas is getting more attraction from the consumer market, this is why they now release it more often and do not wait as they used to do. Same thing with Vesuvio, the demand is strong enough to release them as every VP.
Hope this help you and gives you some points you wanted to put light on.
The demand/offer system rules the VP release. The system is so strong that they don't control much the price the bottles are going to be sold on the market and usually with strong demand they try to sell as much as they can. We can see that now the demand for younger vintage is much stronger that it was in the past as we can see that a lot of houses still have plenty of old bottles to sell when you visit them in Portugal. It is not the case with younger vintages.
For the single Quinta, the demand is not as strong as the VP. So there is no need to rush to sell them, also why sell the 2001 while the 2000 are better and still on the shelves and 2003 hype approaching. So they are waiting for the proper moment to release them and they have a better control on the release price with this approach. So they release them when they think it is mature enough to please the consumer at a decent price and prove him mature VP worth the wait. Also since single quinta port or off vintage port are not on the speculation market, why buy them on release while they don't take any value in your cellar.
For Taylor, Vargellas is getting more attraction from the consumer market, this is why they now release it more often and do not wait as they used to do. Same thing with Vesuvio, the demand is strong enough to release them as every VP.
Hope this help you and gives you some points you wanted to put light on.
Living the dream and now working for a Port company