What have you opened this week?

[Moses Botbol]

had to serve it a glencairn glass

Had to Google to find out what that looked like - perfectly adequate for an old tawny.

I'm surprised you did not know what those are.

[Glenn E.]

1970 Graham Vintage Port for the Sammamish Port Club

A very nice bottle. Somewhat lacking in intensity, but exceptionally smooth and wonderfully balanced.

[Al B.]

For some Port over the weekend I decanted a bottle of Quinta de Val da Figueira 2000 VP. Really lovely, smooth and still so full of fruit. Despite having been in the bottle for 20 years, still quite primary and fruit-forward needing more time to develop the secondary spice character that good VP will show with enough patience.

[Thomas V]

The 40YO Noval is right up there among the best. I totally agree.

For the big names, I am a big fan of Noval tawny port. LBV's as well.

You don't see their Colheitas much, but they are top notch as well. A bit steep in price but brand name plays a factor as well.

[Thomas V]

The 40YO Noval is right up there among the best. I totally agree.

So for current bottling 40YO it actually might be the best, as the new Romaniera as Glenn mentions doesn't quite have the magic of the older one. Though still really good.

2 Producers that might have some consideration is Blackett and Lamelas as well.

Lovely with the 63's.

I wish we could get the Blackett or Lamelas in the U.S., but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm also interested in the 20 yo Blackett which I've read is quite good. One of these days I'll place an order with Portugal Vineyards to try some of these rarer (to the U.S.) Tawnies.

Both are really top quality. In my book in tier 1 for the blended tawnies along with Mourao and DR.

Blackett (Brunheda) has a full lineup of 10, 20, 30 and 40+ Tawnies as well as a 10 and 20 year old White (The 20 is very new to the market)

Blackett.png (359.12 KiB) Viewed 2929 times

[Tom Archer]

had to serve it a glencairn glass

Had to Google to find out what that looked like - perfectly adequate for an old tawny.

I'm surprised you did not know what those are.

I've never encountered one - the company seems better at export than domestic sales!

[A.S. Demka]

S. Leonardo 40 yo white, bought during PHT2 in 2021. So nice to know that we’ll visit Mourao again in two weeks time during PHT2!

Curious to hear how the sale of the company has gone and what changes may have started. Please report back after your visit.

Ok, I will. The good news is that Rita stays with the company !

[Martin H]

But if the year of bottling the 10 year old is 2017 its still old.

Meh - a youngster!

10yr and 20yr TWIOA age really well - I won't touch one with less than 10yrs in bottle.

TWOIA age/mature in the bottle? I was under the impression that they don't and it's recommended to consume rather early (few years after bottling).

[Thomas V]

But if the year of bottling the 10 year old is 2017 its still old.

Meh - a youngster!

10yr and 20yr TWIOA age really well - I won't touch one with less than 10yrs in bottle.

TWOIA age/mature in the bottle? I was under the impression that they don't and it's recommended to consume rather early (few years after bottling).

That is the consensus. You should get both colheita and TWOIA with the newest possible bottle date to get a clean, crisp and fresh experience. Which is the case for most producers.

However some producers are different. The likes of Wiese & Krohn (in the past), Niepoort and others use a driven cork (well sometimes a T-stopper) and their wines improve with bottle age. Also their TWOIA.

The thing is also that you cannot get a fresh bottling of Krohn 1968. Or Niepoort 1912. You will have to do with an older bottling. If a fresh was available I think most would prefer that. You would get a cleaner and more fresh result.

[Jonathan S]

1997 Dow VP (375 mL) (9/22/2023)

[LOUISSS J]

Tonight Andresen 10 year white Port an last week Offley Baron de Forrester 10 years.
Two good Ports!

[Frederick Blais]

Recently...

Quevedo Vale D'Agodinho 2013 Vintage, one of my favorite, a pure blackberry and blackcurrant profile, tannins are getting smooth, a dryer style that I really enjoy, the bottle got emptied very quickly!

Vargellas 2001 VP from half bottle : Drinking superbly at the moment, I'd look for more!

Taylor's 50 years old Tawny : What an amazing, elegant and complex Port!

Niepoort LBV 2012 : Tannins are very well integrated, full of pure young fruit, drink or hold.

[Al B.]

I discovered a forgotten cardboard box in a corner of the cellar yesterday which contained 6 bottles of Graham Crusted Bottled in 2000.

Now there are only 5. This is delicious, soft and smooth but just soooo full of raspberry fruit. Yum!

[Mike J. W.]

I discovered a forgotten cardboard box in a corner of the cellar yesterday which contained 6 bottles of Graham Crusted Bottled in 2000.

Now there are only 5. This is delicious, soft and smooth but just soooo full of raspberry fruit. Yum!

It's always nice to find an unexpected bottle(s) of Port in the cellar.

[Andy Velebil]

I discovered a forgotten cardboard box in a corner of the cellar yesterday which contained 6 bottles of Graham Crusted Bottled in 2000.

Now there are only 5. This is delicious, soft and smooth but just soooo full of raspberry fruit. Yum!

Everyone, lets go to his place and see what treasures we can find in the other corners

[Glenn E.]

S. Leonardo 30 Year Old Tawny Port

I brought this and an Andresen 40 year old to a barbecue competition figuring we'd drink one on Friday night and the other on Saturday night, both potentially with some cheese and charcuterie that I'd brought along for that purpose. Alas, it was not to be. We did drink most of the 30 on Friday night along with some leftover LBV that I'd also brought, but the weather turned cold and rainy on Saturday so by that night no one was in the mood to party and socialize. So the Andresen came home and awaits some future date.

(Out of 30 teams, my team got 2nd in Pork and 5th in Brisket... no walk in Chicken or Ribs. But we'll take it, that's a pretty good showing!)

[Mark L]

Nice showing at the competition, Glenn! 2nd in pork and 5th in brisket is awesome. I enjoy my ceramic smoker, but have not entered the realm of competition. May I ask where you source your brisket? I have found some good value from Costco's prime brisket, but have also splurged for SRF gold. I feel like the benefit I get from gold I can also get with SRF black which is much cheaper.

And how was the 30? I'm tempted to add some S. Leonardo 40 to my cellar....

[Glenn E.]

This particular brisket was SRF Gold. One of the other guys on the team is a meticulous meat trimmer, so we turned him loose on it and I think that really contributed to our good showing. He had that poor brisket trimmed down to probably half its starting size!

I have cooked everything from Choice all the way to Australian AA9 Wagyu. For competition purposes you will see an improvement every step of the way as you go up, but for backyard barbecue you really don't need anything more than Prime. Plus cooking Prime means you get a useable point and can turn that into burnt ends! AA9 Wagyu point is so fatty that it's just about not edible.

The 30 was great as always. The S. Leonardo and DR 30s are reliably top tier performers, as are both 40s. But since Quinta do Mourao was sold to a French conglomerate this year, I'd stock up on S. Leonardo ASAP and then wait and see what happens after the new owner takes over.

[Moses Botbol]

1985 Ferreira VP.

[A.S. Demka]

S. Leonardo 40 yo white, bought during PHT2 in 2021. So nice to know that we’ll visit Mourao again in two weeks time during PHT2!

Curious to hear how the sale of the company has gone and what changes may have started. Please report back after your visit.

Ok, I will. The good news is that Rita stays with the company !

We had a nice PHT2 visit to Mourao, with a great lunch, and as always tastings in Port Knox (a.o. white 50, mother wines for 40's and 50's and 90 yo). Miguel has already left the company to pursue another port related project. Rita will stay with the company, she was a great host. For the time being she expects no major changes under the ownership of Falua, a subsidiary of Vitas Portugal, in turn owned by the French Groupe Roullier (a conglomerate with sales of € 4.1 billion and 10.000 employees). I hope that she is right...

This morning I heard from another source the reason for the sale of Mourao. Apparently it was owned by Miguel, his brother (father of Rita) and his sister. The latter wanted to get out, and this forced the sale.