Houses Gaivosa & Pacheca

[Thomas V]

Hi guys.

I was wondering if any of you have some information about this 2 port houses. What their main focus are (vintage/lbv/tawny/colheita), the quality, their style, heritage etc. I might get the chance to visit one or two of these quintas during the autumn and any titbits would be appreciated.

Cheers

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Thomas,

I would prefer for others to first weigh in here, but if they don't, I will come back and give you my impressions. I've been to both and Pacheca a few times, most recently in October of this year. But I also saw Domingos Alves de Sousa this year and have visited in past years too. Hopefully others will kick this off and give you some answers.

[Moses Botbol]

I visited Gaivosa on the Roy's Harvest tour. Beautiful quinta, one of the best white ports on the market, solid port wines and their Reserve dry wines are great; some of the best IMO. Gaivosa is not distributed in MA or I'd buy their stuff all the time.

Had Pacheca at a couple of Portuguese wine events; they haven't gained much foot hold in MA liquor market just yet. Good price point is all I remember.

[Thomas V]

@Roy Sounds good. I will look forward to your thoughts.

@Moses I am not such a big White Port person myself especially not the dry variety, but look forward to tasting their different wines. I sense that you believe that the ports from this house are well above average.

I saw that Rune graded the 2011 Alves de Sousa Quinta da Gaivosa Vintage a whooping 97 points and it is a mere 50 USD a bottle, will be interesting to sample that year later on.

[Moses Botbol]

You'll dig all the wines they have for whatever style of wine you fancy. No worries on that one.

[Rune EG]

The 2011 Alves de Sousa vintage port is a huge step up from previous vintage ports and LBVs.
I have had a few differant LBVs and they are descent but far away from the 2011 level.

As for their Douro reds Abandonado is something to look for. Really nice Douro red.
The regular Gaivosa Douro red is also nice, but quite a challenge as a powerful Douro red.
Some of the other reds are a bit on dry side for me.

[Moses Botbol]

As for their Douro reds Abandonado is something to look for. Really nice Douro red.

I'd put that one the list of the greatest Douro reds