J.W.Hart ports

Alex Marshall · Post by **Alex Marshall** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:09 am

Dear all,

On a recent trip to Paris I acquired a bottle of 1994 J.W.Hart from a small shop in the 7th district for 30euros. My french is rather poor so I did/could not ask more about the vineyards etc. Does anybody know anything about the shipper? I have not opened the port yet so I cannot provide any tasting notes. A link to the bottle is here: http://www.finestwine.com/buy-wine-J.W. ... 750-1.html

My port collection is slowly expanding. Recent purchases include a Dows 2002 Crusted and a Fonseca 1988.

Regards,

Alex

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:17 am

Alex,
Welcome back to

I do hope all has been well and that you've had the opportunity to drink some port this winter. Congrats on the expanding cellar of Port, hopefully it continues to get even bigger, which I'm sure it will this groups help

From the picture, despite the blurred out vintage, it appears to be a Colheita (single year tawny Port) that you bought, as it has a t-cork. As for the company I can't help you there as I have no knowledge of it. Hopefully someone here does.

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:35 am

The shop you found in France is the ONLY one in the world that I believe carries J.W. Hart Ports and their Tawny, White and Colheita versions. You should call or email them for more information on the producer, but I am pretty sure this is just a case of BOB or ... "buyer's own brand" from the past. They'd know for sure.

Also, let's see if Glenn weighs in here in this thread as he mentioned that J.W. Hart makes a 1986 Colheita at one time, but he is a Google maestro and probably found that information there, rather than through empirical evidence. : )

There is also a J.W. Hart Funeral Home in Ontario, Canada and you can see if they have a potent mix of Port and embalming fluid for you?

Post by **Glenn E.** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:10 pm

I don't have much on J.W.Hart other than what I've found in my browsings on Wine-Searcher.com.

They do appear to be French, because virtually all of the listings that I find for them are in France. I first noticed them while searching for 1964 Ports - they bottled a year-dated Port in that year. There appear to be at least 3 stores that regularly carry J.W. Hart Port - PriceMinister and Vintage & Co. in Paris, and FinestWines in Bordeaux.

At the very least, they bottle a Tawny, a Ruby, a White, and various year-dated Ports (more on that in a moment). You can find 375s, bottles, and magnums sometimes too. I don't actually recall seeing a Colheita from them - at least not one that used that term specifically - so that was probably a typo before. This is France we're talking about, though, so a year-dated "Porto Rouge" could theoretically be a Vintage Port or a Colheita because technically both are "red" Ports - meaning made from red grapes. Their year-dated Ports go back to 1937, and there are 31 different J.W. Hart vintages listed in wine-searcher.

I wouldn't swear to it, but the picture in that link does appear to say "Vinho do Porto Colheita" underneath the blurred-out date, followed by something I can't make out, followed by what looks like "Produit de Portugal". It reads "Registered Trade-Mark" in English underneath the brand name. I was looking for a bottling date, but can't see it on the front label.

Roy's guess that this is a French example of a "Buyer's Own Brand" is probably correct given what little I know about them. France does consume more Port than any other country in the world, but most of what they consume is basic tawnies and rubies used in cooking. J.W. Hart may be a French brand that tries to draw consumers up to higher-tier Ports for drinking.

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 1:02 am

Hart is not much of a French name though. It was probably a negociant deal at the time. From what I noticed, MANY of the vintages that i saw at the store mentioned initially, were Colheita years, such as 1937 for example, but many others fit the typical non-VP years ... although I would not be surprised at all if amongst the many years they also made VPs.

Either way, this would be a long shot for buying, although fun in a scientific sort of way. Who knows, JW Hart could have bought casks from JW Burmester

and then had an easy time just changing the last name.

Seriously though, he could have bought pipes from anyone and then just bottled under his own name. It happened FREQUENTLY all over Europe. I have had "Besse Collection" VP bottles that came from Paris. They are/were great.

Luc Gauthier · Post by **Luc Gauthier** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:40 pm

A few months ago , I opened a 1985 J.W. Hart colheita . bottled in 2007 .
Nothing to right home about .
Simple , short finish .
Colour was red in the middle and a touch orange at the edges .
More alcool than fruit . 15.5/ 20

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 4:25 pm

Luc Gauthier wrote:A few months ago , I opened a 1985 J.W. Hart colheita . bottled in 2007 .
Nothing to right home about .
Simple , short finish .
Colour was red in the middle and a touch orange at the edges .
More alcool than fruit . 15.5/ 20

I do love the knowledge and experience here on the board

Luc Gauthier · Post by **Luc Gauthier** » Sun Mar 08, 2009 3:11 pm

Just bringing my

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:11 am

Impressive and I think you deserve

for that response!

Luc Gauthier · Post by **Luc Gauthier** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 5:34 pm

Merci Roy :hello:

Paul_B · Post by **Paul_B** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:59 pm

Taking a closer look at this picture...

http://www.finestwine.com/images/pagesp ... _grand.jpg

Reveals all...

wine produced and bottled by CD Vintners (old Croft and Delaforce owners) in Gaia for the French group Ryst-Dupeyron which then imported them and sells them in France. Since the sale of CD V to Taylor this arrangemet proably stopped.

If you go their website http://www.vintageandco.com

you will find a large collection of JW Hart Colheitas..
1937
1941
1944
1952
1963
1964
1965
1969
1972
1974
1976
1978
1981
1982
1986
1988
1991
1992
1994
1995
1996
1997
1999

1 White
1 Tawny
and 1 Vintage 1975

I would say some of these may be fun to drink...

Thanks
Paul

Eric Menchen · Post by **Eric Menchen** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:33 pm

Maybe there are duplicates, but I see 39 things listed:
http://www.vintageandco.com/Liste.porto-j-w-hart.html
Good find Paul!

Post by **Glenn E.** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 2:58 pm

Yes, nicely done Paul!

Paul_B · Post by **Paul_B** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 6:20 pm

I'm pretty good with Google if I take the time I usually find what I need.

yes Eric, you will see that some years come in different size bottles but I may have missed something when I was typing.
I took the time to type it so that if someone does a search on a specific year or on this brand they will find this post.

I'm pretty sure these are the last JW Hart bottles ... at least from the old Croft and Delaforce stocks.

cheers
Paul

For The Love Of Port

J.W.Hart ports

J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports

Re: J.W.Hart ports