Vintage 2004 - sample bottles

[Roy Hersh]

Thanks for chiming in Adrian. It is great to hear directly from the Managing Director of one of the most respected groups of Port companies, exactly how samples work for The Fladgate Partnership.

Your participation is very much appreciated.


I look forward to seeing you in 2006. Best wishes to you and your family!

[Derek T.]

Adrian,

I see this is your first post on the forum so - Welcome to FTLOP

There is lots of information in your posting that is new to me in terms of the process that you and your colleagues go through each year to determine the quality of the wine you produce. Great stuff and very welcome here.

In terms of the specific objective of this thread, I believe what some of us are looking for is an opportunity to taste the samples from a number of shippers each year at the same time as they are released to Roy, Bob Parker etc. I don't think anyone is trying to get hold of a 2004 sample just yet!

For me, and I believe some others on this site, being able to taste a wide range of samples at the same time as Roy & co release their views, tasting notes and scores would allow us to better understand why it is that they reach the conclusions that they do. Reading tasting notes and league tables is all very interesting but there is no substitute for smelling and tasting the wine. I very much see this as an opportunity to improve my education in the world of VP rather than just a good excuse to taste lots of cheap or free port. I would love to learn the trick of tasting a 2 year old sample and being able to predict with any degree of certainty that it could last 40-50 years or more.

I know Roy intends taking this discussion forward in person rather than in public so I will leave it in his capable hands to see how far you and your peers in Gaia are willing to go to help us out here.

Again, thanks for the information and for contributing to the debate.

Derek

[Al B.]

Adrian,

I would also like to thank you for laying out so clearly the way in which you review the blend components that you have and gradually bring them together into the final product. It was a fascinating insight into a part of the port making process that I know very little about.

I will also leave further discussion on the subject in Roy's capable hands, for a time and place more suitable than here.

My only parting shot is to try and put into words the mild frustration that I felt in May/June when I was reading lots of reviews of the 2003 ports, written by a variety of people who I repect and trust, but I was completely unable to taste them until November / December when I was able to open one or two bottles. To date I have still only tasted 4 different wines and have not been able to taste a number of 2003 ports side-by-side. Because of this, I have made my purchases on the basis of past reputations, my own past experience and the comments of people such as Roy.

Perhaps I need to nag my main supplier into putting on a comparative tasting of 2003 ports...

Alex

[Andy Velebil]

Adrian,

Let me also welcome you to FTLOP and thank you for sharing exactly your company sends out samples and how the blends are done. It is always best to hear this sort of thing right from the source, and you provided that, thanks again. Also, please be sure to come back and post again.

[Roy Hersh]

The sample bottles are very hard to come by and require lots of work to get ...

The producers/Shippers want to send as few of these as required ...

I spoke to a few of them about using the 2nd bottle for group tastings for folks in the area, since Seattle is a very large Port market in the USA, especially considering the population density. None looked favorably on that and some were dead set against the idea.

It seemed to me that they only wanted bottles in the hands of the decision makers in the on and off-premise (you might refer to premise as "market" in the UK) as well as a few journalists. It was my impression that they did not want to have much of a supply "floating" out there.

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From my earlier post (above) it was clear that this would be a very tough go. I think that Adrian was politely saying "no" to the idea of his company participating in making bottles available to consumers. That said, The Fladgate Partnership did hold "trade only" tastings in large cities around the USA and I am sure they did the same in Europe for trade members or had their agents do that.

I rec'd an email today from the head of another large Shipper that told me that they believe "allowing consumers to have access to cask samples or pre-release bottles of Vintage Port is folly, and unlikely to ever happen."

Ouch. But he did go on to elaborate and the rationale makes sense. I don't feel comfortable sharing the rest and asked him to stop in here to respond as did Adrian. We'll see.

[Frederick Blais]

Wow this thread is effectively getting very interesting. Thanks Adrian for jumping in the discussion. We need more of these post to clarify and get more precise information specific to each houses.

For tasting many ports on the same tables, the IDVP is holding tastings each year in many cities, it is a great place to sample new release and sometimes producers bring samples.

[Steven Kooij]

Great to see you posting here, Adrian - I hope you'll have the time to chime in every once in a while!