For The Love Of Port

Luc Gauthier wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:Luc,
Very nice of you!

BTW, my birthday is in April hint hint

Mine's in February , same day as some guy named Lincoln , ever hear of him

Who?

My first colheita experience was the 1983 Niepoort. It definitely left an impression.

This is not my first Colheita, but first Colheita this summer.

1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita, bottled in 2007. This Port has a nice balance of fruit upfront, yet has some of the dried fruit one would expect in a fine 20 year tawny. A bit on the dry side, it really tasted like a hybrid tawny and vintage that is perfectly filtered. Great balance and very little heat; quite impressive for a pop and pour serving as we had last night. Surprised this port is not more popular as it was a hit.

I am not sure which was the chicken and which was the egg, but two notes written about the same period are the:

a. 1957 Rocha Colheita

and the other was from an old bottle of

b. 1830 Ferreira Colheita


Spoiled early on!

Pretty cool to catch up on this thread and see what others have had the priviledge of trying for their first Colheita experience...

My first: 1977 Barros. Beautiful. Since then I have only had three Colheitas that have come close: 1966 Messias (good, but not better than the '77 Barros,) the 1968 Messias (better than the '77 Barros,) and the 976 Warre's Colheita which is a fav of mine simply because '76 is my birth year. I need to crack open the 2nd bottle of this that I own and compare with the last remaining bottle (half) of '77 Barros that I have and decide whether I like my birth-year Colheita better than my wife's birth-year Colheita.

[This sounds liek a birthday tasting project for this year!!!]

I have also had my share of disappointments. Several were newer Colheitas... 1982, 1992, 1997, etc.

Todd

Been digging Barros and Kopke for Colheitas. Several of them were available on the wine event last week I went to. Funny, older does not mean better when it comes to Colheita. There was 1958 Barros that I thought was very hot and lacked just about everything I want Colheita, while the 1986 was just the opposite. I tend to like older ports too, so I was a bit suprised.

Today I had a slew of Colheitas, from the likes of NIepoort ... oops that was yesterday ... I bought a 1980 with Andy. But today we had 1963 and 1952 Dalva, 1970 and 1990 Romaneira, 1958 Valriz and a few others that are slipping my late night memory. LG!

Tomorrow it is all VP, at least in the a.m. and in the afternoon we are back to the Colheitas.

Moses Botbol wrote: Funny, older does not mean better when it comes to Colheita. There was 1958 Barros that I thought was very hot and lacked just about everything I want Colheita, while the 1986 was just the opposite. I tend to like older ports too, so I was a bit suprised.

Yes, to hear this coming from you Moses, I am quite surprised if not downright shocked!!!

Several of the newer Barros Colheitas have provided an opposite experience for me: the 1997 was not very good (two halfs provided similar results) although the 1995 Barros was very good.

Todd Pettinger wrote: Several of the newer Barros Colheitas have provided an opposite experience for me: the 1997 was not very good (two halfs provided similar results) although the 1995 Barros was very good.

Perhaps the Barros' style is not your preference? They are little more acidic than some of the other brands. Did you get to try Kopke or Burmester Colheitas?

Don't forget Niepoort, Krohn and Quinta do Noval bottlings of Colheita as well.