James Suckling has released his 2011 Vintage Port Scores

[Roy Hersh]

Very interesting to see these scores as I knew James was making his way through the Douro over the past week.

Quinta do Noval Vintage Port Nacional 100

Cockburn Vintage Port 98

Graham Vintage Port The Stone Terraces 97

Niepoort Vintage Port 97

Dow Vintage Port 96

Graham Vintage Port 96

Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port Vargellas Vinha Velha 96

Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port 96

Warre Vintage Port 96

Croft Vintage Port 95

Fonseca Vintage Port 95

Niepoort Vintage Port Bioma Vinha Velha 95

Quinta do Vesuvio 95

Delaforce Vintage Port 94

Barros Vintage Port 93

Cálem Vintage Port 93

Churchill Vintage Port 93

Quinta do Infantado Vintage Port 93

Quinta do Noval Vintage Port 93

Quinta do Vesuvio Capela 93

Kopke Vintage Port 92

Quinta do Passadouro Vintage Port 92

Quinta do Vale Dona Maria Vintage Port 92

Royal Oporto Vintage Port 92

Skeffington Vintage Port 92

Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port 92

Offley Vintage Port 91

Quinta da Romaneira Vintage Port 91

Quinta de la Rosa Vintage Port 91

Quinta do Pego Vintage Port 91

Quinta do Vale Meão Vintage Port 91

Sandeman Vintage Port 91

C. da Silva Vintage Port= Presidential 90

Ferreira Vintage Port 90

Quinta de Roriz 90

Quinta do Grifo Vintage Port 90

Quinta Dona Matilde Vintage Port 90

Rozès 90

Bãrao de Vilar 89

Gran Cruz 89

Quinta do Vallado - Adelaide 89

Ramos-­‐Pinto 89

Burmester 88

Quinta do Tedo 88

Wiese & Krohn 88

Wiese & Krohn Quinta do Retiro Novo 88

Pintas 87

Poças Junior 87

Quinta do Portal 87

[Roy Hersh]

Any surprises in this list?

[Miguel Simoes]

Cockburn sure sounds like a surprise to me!

[Bradley Bogdan]

Seems that Cockburn is high up in most of the tasting scores that have come out, good to see.

[Glenn E.]

Vesuvio Capela and Quinta do Vale Meao are both surprisingly low to me. Cockburn is surprisingly high. Though in all 3 cases, not shockingly out of line.

[Al B.]

Most other reviews have rated the Sogrape ports up among the best from this vintage. JS doesn't have the same opinion, which is interesting.

It's also sad to see Portal's port being consistently rated at the bottom of the vintage. I wonder what happened?

[David Spriggs]

I agree. I'm disappointed that Portal and Pintas have been rated low by several reviewers.

In Suckling's review the reversal of Niepoort and Niepoort Bioma was a surprise. Several reviewers have Bioma as one of the top wines of the vintage. One the other hand, I believe that Dirk said that Bioma is going to be bottled next year and so will be quite different than the barrel samples that were tasted recently.

[Roy Hersh]

Yes, Dirk has bottled the 2007 and 2008 way later than the regular Niepoort VP.

[Bruno P.]

Any surprises in this list?

Yes Cockburn 2011 was surprise for me.
The brand cockburn, in Portugal not is too much famous.
I hope with this notice, the brand will go up.

[Roy Hersh]

Cockburn had really poor management in the 1970's until a couple of years ago when they were acquired from Beam Global which is a multi-national adult beverage conglomerate that had been far more concerned with their return on investment than in improving their stake in a Port company. Pretty much every time the Symington Family Estates has come in and invested in a Port company, they have done so, in such a way that not only the "brand" improves in terms of recognition but more so, quality. I have little doubt that will be the case with Cockburn's too as they have already done a fine job in improving the Lodge in Gaia.

[Rob C.]

Pretty much every time the Symington Family Estates has come in and invested in a Port company, they have done so, in such a way that not only the "brand" improves in terms of recognition but more so, quality. I have little doubt that will be the case with Cockburn's too as they have already done a fine job in improving the Lodge in Gaia.

Albeit let's hope that the 2011 declaration isn't a sign that Martinez, Gould Campbell and Quarles are about to slide into obscurity...

[Roy Hersh]

BTW, Quarles Harris was declared and will be bottled.

[Gerwin de Graaf]

BTW, Quarles Harris was declared and will be bottled.

hi Roy,
I thought that no Quarles Harris was declared for 2011.
Would be nice if I heard wrong though

[Al B.]

BTW, Quarles Harris was declared and will be bottled.

Can you share your source? This is news to me - I'm quite keen to try the QH for the same reasons I like buying and drinking Skeffington.

[Andy Velebil]

BTW, Quarles Harris was declared and will be bottled.

Can you share your source? This is news to me - I'm quite keen to try the QH for the same reasons I like buying and drinking Skeffington.

My source had a capital "S" in his last name and he's had it a bunch of times already

[Derek T.]

I find the gap in JS's scores for Noval Nacional (100) and the regular Noval (93) quite surprising. Knowing Christian Seely's desire to achieve greatness and consistency in the regular Noval (it being his primary brand) I can't imagine that he has sacrificed quality in that wine in order to produce a Nacional.

That said, I haven't tasted either of them yet so this is just intuitive surprise rather than disagreement with the scores.

As a side issue, I do find it slightly odd that the two "surprise" wines from the vintage (Nacional and Graham's Stone Terraces) achieve such high scores with some other big brand wines that I would have expected to see one or two points higher finding themselves in the wake of these two plus the surprise score for Cockburn . Do we know whether or not these were tasted blind? If not, I suspect some label bias is at work here.

[Rob C.]

BTW, Quarles Harris was declared and will be bottled.

Can you share your source? This is news to me - I'm quite keen to try the QH for the same reasons I like buying and drinking Skeffington.

My source had a capital "S" in his last name and he's had it a bunch of times already

Sounds interesting - would it be fair then to say that it has been "approved" rather than already "declared" at this stage? Can't see anything on the various Symington websites / blogs that shows they have actually declared it yet...(unless i have got the wrong end of the stick in terms of what it means to "declare" [i.e. publicly announce?] a VP)

I wonder what drove the decision to have a lower profile port that was not included in any of the retail offers (and why use the Quarles brand rather than any of the other non-Quinta specific brands such as Martinez / Gould). Presumably they have one or more other blends up their sleeves for the BOBs (in the UK, BBR / M&S / Tesco / Sainsbury's have all used a Symington VP in the recent past). Does Quarles fit the bill for this i wonder...?

[Andy Velebil]

I'm trying to get verification on this as there seems to be some conflicting info. Will let you know what I find out.

[Roy Hersh]

Andy and I were told that QH was going to be produced when we had our tasting with the Symingtons a month ago. As he is now checking, I guess we'll find out soon if that was a mistake or not. But I am sure that's what we were told at that time.

[Rob C.]

The more i think about it, the more i'd be surprised if the Symingtons did not have at least some quantity of other VP approved by IVDP (but left undeclared) for use in BoBs etc. But then again, maybe not.