2009 Port Declaration

[Dale B.]

Does anyone know if any of the 2009 bottlings will be a declared vintage? I have a "thirsty" grandson who was born in '09 and I think he needs to have a few bottles laid up for him when he turns 21! Possibly, are there some single quinta bottlings that are worthy of laying down? What do you guys think, as your knowledge is always appreciated.

[Glenn E.]

2009 declarations won't take place until next spring, so we won't know for sure until then. I suspect that someone will declare something, though, mostly because the state of the art has advanced so much in the last 20 years that it takes a truely horrible growing season to prevent everyone from declaring.

Someone is bound to have had a good enough year to bottle an SQVP, at least.

[Andy Velebil]

I've not heard any talk about 2009 being a generally declared year, and as such, it's probably a safe bet that none of the "big guys" will be declaring a VP from 2009. Most likely there will be some very good SQVP's from the big guys and the usual assortment of smaller quinta's declaring their VP's.

[Derek T.]

I've had a few "definitely not" responses to the question of 2009 being a declared vintage from a few prominent shippers so I agree with Andy that it isn't likely to happen. But there are sure to be some SQVPs so your grandson will definitely not go thirsty. Vesuvio is always a safe bet to produce a great quality wine in off (and on) years and there will more than likely be a string of others from the big and small producers, especially as many producers missed out 2008 for both VP and SQVP so will not want to miss two vintages in a row unless the wines are really not up to scratch.

[Al B.]

Another handful of producers to look out for would be Noval, Niepoort and Quevedo. I would not hesitate to recommend any of these - although my personal preference is for the Noval or the Quevedo.

[Roy Hersh]

Another missed opPORTunity. Will we ever see "the streak" broken and a vintage declared by the majority of the trade with any year ending in a "9" while we are alive?

[Derek T.]

Another missed opPORTunity. Will we ever see "the streak" broken and a vintage declared by the majority of the trade with any year ending in a "9" while we are alive?

My bet is that they won't be able to resist 9999, but we won't be here so we'll never know

[Eric Menchen]

My bet is that they won't be able to resist 9999, but we won't be here so we'll never know

I'll have my head cryogenically frozen and thawed out just to taste it.