Sugestions in 1969 & 1973

[Carlos Rodriguez]

Please any sugestions in 1969 & 1973 Port? :help:

[Erik Wiechers]

Hi Carlos,

what about:

1969 Kopke Colheita ?
1973 Nobal LBV ?
N.V. Casa de Sta. Eufemia White Port Special Reserve ?

regards

erik

[Glenn E.]

N.V. Casa de Sta. Eufemia White Port Special Reserve ?

Carlos,

The Casa de Santa Eufemia Special Reserve White Port is an amazing wine if you can find it. Erik recommends it because it is a well known "secret" that this wine is a 1973 White Colheita. Something wasn't filed correctly with the paperwork, though, so they cannot put the year on the label. The back label says only that it is more than 30 years old.

I believe that there is also a Quinta de Santa Eufemia version of the exact same wine, so look for both.

I purchased a bottle from AVEPOD in Porto last fall, and at the time Maria Teresa said that there's not much of it left. Good luck!

[Erik Wiechers]

Carlos,

this is the bottle im talking about.



Happy hunting.

[Moses Botbol]

Those are two tough years to find anything in port... Good luck. Can you compromise and go with 1970?

[Carlos Rodriguez]

I cann't. Those are birthday dates.

Erik, thank's for the foto.

[Glenn E.]

Carlos,

Garrafeira Nacional in Lisbon has a 1969 Warre's Reserva.

Clube Vinhos (the wine club for the Continente supermarket chain) has a 1969 Quinta Castelinho Colheita. My Portuguese is not very good, though, and I can't tell for sure if the listing is a Port or a Douro wine.

Messias and J.W. Hart both apparently bottled Vintage Ports in 1969. A few others bottled Colheitas, including Niepoort and Quinta S. Luiz.

1973 is much more difficult. I have seen reference to a 1973 Quinta do Noval SQVP and to 1973 Real Companhia Vehla and Real Vinicola Colheitas, but that's about it other than the Casa/Quinta de Santa Eufemia Special Reserve. By the way - the Santa Eufemia is sometimes listed as José viseu Carvalho & Filhos. There's one listed like that at Mesa Francesa in Lisbon.

[Carlos Rodriguez]

Thanks Glenn,

I just have seen Garrafeira Nacional web. Have you ever bought there?

[Al B.]

Since the last post on this thread I’ve also seen (and tasted) a Warre Bottle Matured LBV from 1969 and a 1973 Quinta da Devesa White Colheita. The colheita is still available, although it was released to be sold last year for obvious reasons.

[Andy Velebil]

Since the last post on this thread I’ve also seen (and tasted) a Warre Bottle Matured LBV from 1969 and a 1973 Quinta da Devesa White Colheita. The colheita is still available, although it was released to be sold last year for obvious reasons.

Had a bottle of the white last night. Best bottle of it so far. Really starting to meld together.

[Phil W]

As a '69er myself, I can add a few tasted in the last decade or so:

= Vintage/SQVP/Crusted
Taylor Vargellas 1969 sqvp - very good
Taylor 1969 crusted - tried once from magnum; fair
(n.b. Wine Society 1969 crusted known to exist though not seen, and believed to also be Taylor 1969 crusted)

= LBVs:
Warre 1969 lbv traditional (unfiltered) - good/vg
Taylor 1969 lbv - too old for unfiltered, well past it as expected.

= Colheitas
There are quite a range of these as you might expect. Many are young bottlings, some of which go for high price because of the unusual year but are not very good, but a few are decent and a couple are delicious; however all have been limited releases.
Cockburn 1969 colheita (bt 2021) - excellent; not generally available, a one-off special bottle at Bar 1857, St James' hotel London
Graham 1969 single harvest tawny (bt 2012/13) - very good
Taylor very old 1969 colheita (bt 2019) - good/vg
Feuerheed 1969 colheita (bt 2019) - ok
Palmer 1969 colheita (bt 2019) - not tried yet, though I have a bottle
Others seen but not tasted include:
Messias 1969 colheita (bt1983, eff. 14yr) - only seen with extreme pricing
W J Hart 1969 colheita (bt 1979, eff. 10yr) - known to be Warre

= White
Devesa 1969 white colheita - good/vg

= Others
(I am aware of, but have not tried any of the following)
Yalumba 1969 "vintage port" (Australia)
Christian Brothers 1969 "vintage port" (California)
Massandra 1969 white (Crimea)
Penfold Grandfather - also known as Bin S6, the grandfather was produced in 1945, then 1969, and then many years thereafter.

[Glenn E.]

Vista Alegre makes a fantastic 1969 Colheita that I don't see mentioned yet.

[Roy Hersh]

Yes, having brought a fair amount of this fine Port as Glenn mentions, the 1969 Vista Alegre Colheita was one which recently brought to a party two Saturday night's ago.

We had so much wine at the place where I was staying, the owner told me NOT to open my Vista Alegre 1969, "no need to show up here with that knife, so put it away for tonight, while you attend a gun fight instead." He then presents a 1920 Very Very Old Tawny that was a nectar "similar" to DR's L70 in many ways. That is a very high bar though and this 1920, while excellent was not as profound as that L70 ... but gorgeous nonetheless.

[Roy Hersh]

There are also some 1969 Madeira's but it might be sacrilege to include those in this thread.