Waterloo Vintage

[Allan Engelsted Laurents]

Have in the past few years seen/heard about 3 different bottlings from 1815 vintages/colheitas.
In 3 weeks time, I will hopefully recieve 2 bottles Vinho do Portos from Companhia Velha, Novidade 1815.

I have no idea, if they still are drinkable, but the historic year of the initial producing of the Port, made my want to own the pair.
I have read the thread in this forum from 2007 about the Ferreira Vintage from 1815.

Has anyone tried theese Ports? For sure, they must be Colheitas? But there is no bottlngdate on the bottles.

Well, I must give one bottle a go....

All the Best from Wellington and Mr. Laurents

[Bradley Bogdan]

Do tell us how they are!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkz. U

[Al B.]

Allan,

The label on your bottle is different from the label on either of the 1815 ports we drank in 2007 so I don't think that they are the same. The two we had were Royal Oporto and the Ferreira you mention. It is possible that the Royal Oporto and the Companhia General da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro are the same wine but labelled differently, but that's probably something that we will never know.

Both the ports were drinkable in 2007, I slightly preferred the Royal Oporto. Both were old and faded with the fruit long gone and replaced with rosemary oil that I find to be typical of aged ports, but both were held together with high levels of sweetness and acidity. I think I scored both in the low or mid 80s - an enjoyable experience because of their age but other (younger) ports we had that weekend were much better from the point of view of pleasureable drinking.

A few years later I was chatting to some of the people at Ferreira and was asking about the 1815 vintage port. If you read any material produced by Ferreira about their old vintages you will see they are very careful in their wording. They don't talk about "Ferreira 1830 Vintage Port" but "Ferreira Port from the 1830 vintage". Ferreira has no records with regards to bottling dates of the old vintages and in the days before IVDP regulation stock was often stored in barrel and bottled to order. Ferreira still has a few bottles of the 1815 vintage for library stock purposes. Their records show that the grapes used to make this port were harvested in 1815 but the bottling date has had to be estimated from the style of the bottle. Portuguese glass experts engaged by Ferreira to help them to estimate the year the bottles were manufactured have indicated that it is likely that the bottles were made in the middle of the second quarter century of the 19th century. Under modern rules, this would indicate that the Ferriera 1815 is a colheita, bottled around 1835-1840.

Sadly I have no information with regards to the Royal Oporto or the CGAVAD port from 1815, but it is very likely that it will have folowed a similar story. When you get the bottles, if you can post some detailed pictures of the bottles - rim, neck, shoulders, cylinder and base / punt - I can compare these to the 1815 Royal Oporto bottle that I still have on my empty bottle trophy shelf and Roy may be able to compare it to the Ferreira 1815 that he (probably) still has.

But most of all, please open one of them and celebrate the 200th anniversary of a remarkable vintage!

[Andy Velebil]

Allan,



A few years later I was chatting to some of the people at Ferreira and was asking about the 1815 vintage port. If you read any material produced by Ferreira about their old vintages you will see they are very careful in their wording. They don't talk about "Ferreira 1830 Vintage Port" but "Ferreira Port from the 1830 vintage". Ferreira has no records with regards to bottling dates of the old vintages and in the days before IVDP regulation stock was often stored in barrel and bottled to order. Ferreira still has a few bottles of the 1815 vintage for library stock purposes. Their records show that the grapes used to make this port were harvested in 1815 but the bottling date has had to be estimated from the style of the bottle. Portuguese glass experts engaged by Ferreira to help them to estimate the year the bottles were manufactured have indicated that it is likely that the bottles were made in the middle of the second quarter century of the 19th century. Under modern rules, this would indicate that the Ferriera 1815 is a colheita, bottled around 1835-1840.

Sadly I have no information with regards to the Royal Oporto or the CGAVAD port from 1815, but it is very likely that it will have folowed a similar story. When you get the bottles, if you can post some detailed pictures of the bottles - rim, neck, shoulders, cylinder and base / punt - I can compare these to the 1815 Royal Oporto bottle that I still have on my empty bottle trophy shelf and Roy may be able to compare it to the Ferreira 1815 that he (probably) still has.

But most of all, please open one of them and celebrate the 200th anniversary of a remarkable vintage!

Alex is spot on and I think it's something that people forget. Most Port back then wasn't bottled after 2 or 3 years, but later, sometimes much later. The modern regulations didn't come about until after WW2. Here is a link where Paul Symington talks about the changes.
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... 545#p47545

[Allan Engelsted Laurents]

Thank You Al+A, for the most interesting feedback. I did not think the bottles were "true vintage-ports" bottled in 1817-8. Just a little dissapointing, that the porthouses back then, didnt show the bottlingdate on the label.

I will post some pictures for sure! Thanks again for Your insight!
And Yes, Colheita or VP. The port is 200 years old!

[Roy Hersh]

A few things to add about the 1815s.

1. Both of these bottles that we had at my 50th birthday weekend in 2007 were brought by Alex. I have the Ferreira bottling in my hands at this moment. The front label reads:
Companhia Agricola e Commercial dos Vinos do Porto. Successora de D. Antonia A Ferreira (her name was in large letters centered on the label) and then: Garrafeira, 1815 Vinho Tinto.
There is an IVP label on it, which is surprising. It came from Garafeira Nacional, but I don't know if that is where it was purchased by Alex. A fun fact, Dona Antonia Adelaide Ferreira was only 4 years old at the time of the harvest.

2. 1815 Ferreira - we were at Ferreira's Lodge in Gaia when they took 24 remaining bottles of 1815 Port and were recorking them that day. I will have to try to find the photos of the corks and bottles. They are TOTALLY different than the one I have before me, which Alex brought to Washington State.

3. In London, earlier this year, Sotheby's auctioned one bottle put up by the Guedes family (owners of Sogrape) of 1815 Ferreira that sold for €6,800. A huge some and it went to a charity for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Michael Broadbent mentioned the following note about the 1815 Ferreira in his great book, Vintage Wine: Fifty Years of Tasting Three Centuries of Wines:
"Aged in cask for about 50 years, bottled and then recorked every 50 years. (An old port takes two years to recover its bouquet after recorking). A pale but healthy amber with lemon tinge; woody and acidic at first but settled down after decanting, rich, waxy, still with fruit, slightly estery, like old lace; medium-sweet, medium light, a wonderful spicy yet soft long flavour, and madeira-like acidity, dry finish. Four consistent notes, tasted between 1981 and July 1991. **** "


My own tasting notes from 2007 of both 1815 bottlings are included below, but I do not know why I wrote "1815 Ferreira Colheita Port" although I know that was what most tasters believed it to be, except for Bartholomew Broadbent. At that time there were only 6 bottles of this Port on the rack at Ferreira's lodge, (but in reality other vintages only showed 6 as well, so likely the rest were kept elsewhere. That was why some of us were surprised to see 24 of them being recorked at the source circa 2010. Sorry for the ambiguity but until I get to my old computer, recharge it and find the photo with the lodge re-corking session, I'll have to leave it up to the notes below:

1815 Royal Oporto Colheita Port – Bottle date is unknown. Alex brought this and the 1815 Ferreira over for this tasting, an extraordinarily generous gesture. Bartholomew felt that this could possibly be a Vintage Port (a better picture of the bottle, “The pair of 1815’s” is at the end of this article). Medium amber with a tawny edge. Some had cloudy sediment in their glass, but mine was clear in appearance. Tea, Asian spice and a marmalade bouquet arise after initial whiffs akin to a musty, damp and cobweb infested dungeon. Vested with a surprising dollop of acidity, medium-bodied and later on, more syrupy. Laden with quince, maple and marmalade together showing ancient intricate nuances. Although interesting, I am not so sure I like it, but what a rare experience. 90 points 7/1/07

1815 Ferreira Colheita Port – On the label it says, “Dona Antonia A. Ferreira. Garrafeira 1815, Vinho Tinto.” A very cool old molded bottle. Bartholomew again believed this to be Vintage Port and mentioned that he had checked with Ferreira and although they do still have a handful of 1815 Vintage Ports, they have no record of producing a Colheita from this vintage. Dark amber in color with a greenish hue on the outer edge and a slight golden inner ring. Everyone kept mentioning rosemary on the nose, but I never did discern that herb. Instead I nosed spearmint and pine needles and an herbal, more earthy essence which was intriguing. Rich and very dry flavors akin to Sherry with a mix of raisins and dried apricot. The acidity was much lighter than the first wine. The smooth texture led to a long finish early on but this fell apart fairly quickly. Thank you again Alex for this historical treasure! I liked it more than most others, but I find a fascination with how these types of ancient Ports hold up for the first half hour. I typically gain all of my pleasure during this earlier stage. 91 points 7/1/07

[Allan Engelsted Laurents]

My first Waterloo turned out to be a fake one....So no RCV 1815 for me. But I am an old boyscout, and our motto; never give up, helped me in my persuit of a genuine Waterloo-port. And I finalIy succeded.

Has a stamp getting 'a medal in Milan (Italy)' in 1920. So my guess 100 years in Barrel and 100 years in the bottle!

Has anyone seeing the Port before?

[Roy Hersh]

Sorry to hear of your fake bottle, Allan!