It is March tomorrow and we know what that means? It is declaration time of year and I though it would be awesome if we did some grunt work this year to establish a list containing the houses that have declared a 2015 vintage port and also when the time comes where you can buy these lovely bottle en primeur so we can compare prices etc.
To kick things off I saw today on a large Danish Port Facebook group that a supermarket were offering cases with 6 bottles of 2015 vintage port from Quinta do Boeira at 22,5 USD per bottle. He also mentioned that they will only release 7000 bottles. So I take that as they have declared. A rather smart move for such a small and no VP know producer to enter the market first and let they thirsty horde spend their money early instead of waiting patiently for the larger houses to join in.
Also there is a large port faire on Saturday and the importer of Quinta do Javali has stated that we will be able to taste their 2015 vintage at the venue.
Please add in when news break of declarations from other houses.
Houses that have declared a 2015 Vintage Port
Adriano Ramos Pinto - 7.000 - 8.000 bottles
Alves de Sousa
Amarela, Quinta da Casa
Arnozelo, Burmester
Barão de Vilar
Boeira, Quinta do - 7000 bottles released
Bomfim, Dow's Quinta do - later release
Calém
Cruz
Cockburn, Bicentenary (1815 - 2015) - 42.000 bottles, 660 magnums, 99 double magnums, 50 imperials
Dalva
Duorum
Gaivosa, Quinda da
Grifo, Quinta do
Gricha, Churchill's Quinta da
Guimaraens, Fonseca
Infantado, Quinta do
Javali, Quinta do
Malvedos, Graham's Quinta dos - later release
Marrocas, Quinta da
Niepoort
Niepoort Bioma Vinha Velha
Nova, Quinta
Noval, Quinta do
Palmer
Passadouro, Quinta do
Pégo, Quinta do
Pintas
Poças Junior
Porto, Ferreira's Quinta do
Roêda, Croft Quinta da
Rosa, Quinta de la
Rozès
Romaneira, Quinta da
S. Leonardo
Santa Eufemia, Quinta
São Luiz, Kopke, Quinta - 3000 bottles
Savedra, Quinta de Tedo
Seara d'Ordens
Seixo, Sandeman Quinta do
Senhora da Ribeira, Dow's Quinta da
Stone Terrace, Graham's
Tedo, Quinta de
Vale Maria, Quinta de
Vale Meão, Quinta do
Vallado
Van Zellers
Vargellas, Taylor's Quinta de
Vasques de Carvalho
Ventozelo, Quinta do
Vesuvio, Quinta do
Vieira de Sousa
Last edited by Thomas V on Tue Sep 19, 2017 8:42 am, edited 26 times in total.
Also got information that these 2 houses have declared as well. The VDS will also be present with a cask sample at the Danish port faire I mentioned earlier.
Roy Hersh wrote:Dirk Niepoort will be declaring his regular bottling and Bioma is a definite too.
Very cool Roy. This is a good indicator that 2015 will be a general declaration. When was the last time Nipoort declared and all the other large VP houses did not?
From a québécois point of view , we won't see 2015 or2016 before 2020 Is it too early to tell how the price VP will be affected if only one major player declares 2015
Vintage avant jeunesse/or the other way around . . .
I was reading the Decanter.com article about the Cockburns declaration just before and the writer had noted 3,500 cases (6 x 750ml), which is at odds with the photo above. Perhaps they assumed six bottle cases rather than twelve bottle cases?
Mark Henderson wrote:I was reading the Decanter.com article about the Cockburns declaration just before and the writer had noted 3,500 cases (6 x 750ml), which is at odds with the photo above. Perhaps they assumed six bottle cases rather than twelve bottle cases?
Possible. A lot of Port companies have switched to 6-pack cases instead of the old 12 for VP's.
Mark Henderson wrote:I was reading the Decanter.com article about the Cockburns declaration just before and the writer had noted 3,500 cases (6 x 750ml), which is at odds with the photo above. Perhaps they assumed six bottle cases rather than twelve bottle cases?
If i calculate 3500*12 i come to 42.000 bottles. As shown in the picture.
As far as i know, when the port companies talk about cases (number wise), they mean 12 bottles even though they ship in 6.
A bicentenary VP for Cockburn but no word about any of the other SFE houses. It reminds me of 2009 when they did a special bicentenary Warre to recognise a notable military achievement in 1809, but did not declare any others (despite having some superb Graham juice that got bottled as Malvedos..) I'm guessing that April 23rd will see a bicentenary Fonseca declared - but will the other TFP brands declare? - the lack of build up and 'buzz' over a declaration has made a split or twin declaration look increasingly likely..
I'm expecting a Quevedo declaration for 2015 but will be unsurprised if Oscar elects to declare both 2015 & 2016. There will be a very small number of 900cL Salmanazars available - I'm having one..