International #PortDay

[Jeff G.]

http://tinychat.com/sdui9

[Andy Velebil]

Sorry for not getting back to the online chat/video. The guests have finally left. What a GREAT evening. Some 10 people, about 13 Ports (I lost count), plenty of food, and great company. Ports ranged from a 1963 Quinta do Noval VP, 1970 Warre's VP, and 1977 Fonseca, to a 1994 Kopke Colheita that took a few hours to get it's legs and then ran a marathon. Not to mention a stunning and very young 1997 Niepoort VP, and a still so very young 1992 Quinta do Crasto LBV. Not to mention several others that showed very well, including the best showing 1983 Fonseca VP I've ever had. A big THANK YOU to all those who made the long drive and showed up. Especially to Eric I. who made the very long drive from Las Vegas to join us. A fantastic evening for sure!!!!

[Peter W. Meek]

What a slug!

After all the build-up, I watched a movie with Eva and drank most of a bottle of Nimrod. Only 4 left. So much for promoting port to the world.

[Roy Hersh]

We only had a dozen people show up. I sat for the first hour+ alone at the hotel with my six bottles, so I just started taking TN's on those until people showed up. 14 bottles in all and a great wide swath which we all agreed was pretty perfect given there were some very new people to Port wine. We had one white, a handful of 10 and 20 year old Tawny Ports, a Colheita, a LBV and the rest were vintages ranging back to 1977 Fonseca. Nothing really old, but this was not that type of event. Several unique bottlings that were fun to explore too!

[Christian Gollnick]

#PortDay was very nice... and sometimes things really develop an unforeseen dynamic... In my case, I invited some friends that I know like wine, but don't know anything about Port... But then I looked around at my house, and I thought that I could make my place nicer... So I got some paint and painted three evenings the living room and the kitchen... I cleaned up the laundry room... Got a lot of stuff for the kitchen and bathroom... That kept me really busy the last week- and my house never looked as good as it does now... - thanks to #PortDay... :) In the end, the evening yesterday was just perfect! 7 friends showed up and we had a marvelous time. Starting with Taylor's Fine White Port, followed by Taylor's 20 year old Tawny (just to show how different port can be from the same producer), then a Quinta do Noval Colheita 1995 and finally a vintage 1998 from Quinta do Vesuvio. I had prepared a slide show about Quinta do Vesuvio and Quinta do Noval, and everybody sucked information in like a sponge. One friend especially had said before the tasting that for him all port smells the same and tastes the same... well, when he in the end thanked me for opening his eyes, I knew that the port community has now a few more followers...And I hope that yesterday worldwide many more people have found their way to appreciate port... This was a good idea from the guys at http://www.wineorigins.com, and I hope they somehow will follow up on this success next year. It's easy to convert people to port, when you put a few good bottles and some information on the table... It costs money, yes, but it's an investment - because now I know that my friends will no longer buy me the cheap port for my birthday, but some better bottles... :)

[Andy Velebil]

#PortDay was very nice... and sometimes things really develop an unforeseen dynamic... In my case, I invited some friends that I know like wine, but don't know anything about Port... But then I looked around at my house, and I thought that I could make my place nicer... So I got some paint and painted three evenings the living room and the kitchen... I cleaned up the laundry room... Got a lot of stuff for the kitchen and bathroom... That kept me really busy the last week- and my house never looked as good as it does now... - thanks to #PortDay... :) In the end, the evening yesterday was just perfect! 7 friends showed up and we had a marvelous time. Starting with Taylor's Fine White Port, followed by Taylor's 20 year old Tawny (just to show how different port can be from the same producer), then a Quinta do Noval Colheita 1995 and finally a vintage 1998 from Quinta do Vesuvio. I had prepared a slide show about Quinta do Vesuvio and Quinta do Noval, and everybody sucked information in like a sponge. One friend especially had said before the tasting that for him all port smells the same and tastes the same... well, when he in the end thanked me for opening his eyes, I knew that the port community has now a few more followers...And I hope that yesterday worldwide many more people have found their way to appreciate port... This was a good idea from the guys at http://www.wineorigins.com, and I hope they somehow will follow up on this success next year. It's easy to convert people to port, when you put a few good bottles and some information on the table... It costs money, yes, but it's an investment - because now I know that my friends will no longer buy me the cheap port for my birthday, but some better bottles... :)

The next offline at my house, you're invited too. But you have to come early and can you bring a paint brush Seriously though, glad to hear your event went well and opened peoples eyes to what good Port can offer. Thanks for also taking part in this, every little bit helps.

[Jeff G.]

Next time, I'm finding a bar

bringing my laptop and a bunch of ports!

story telling time was definitely cut short!

[Phyllis D]

Since we didn't know about it until Saturday morning, we missed this year. We have however already started getting the guest list together for next year.

[Roy Hersh]

Love the enthusiasm Phyllis!

[Tom Archer]

Since we didn't know about it until Saturday morning, we missed this year. We have however already started getting the guest list together for next year

Don't wait till next year - this event should be on April 23rd, or some other date that is significant to the port trade; and when there is likely to be fine weather in Porto and the Douro.

[Andy Velebil]

Don't wait till next year - this event should be on April 23rd, or some other date that is significant to the port trade; and when there is likely to be fine weather in Porto and the Douro.

Why April 23rd?

[Christian Gollnick]

April 23rd = St. George's Day = Date of Declaration of Vintage Port (by Taylor's, Croft and Fonseca).

[Jeff G.]

Don't wait till next year - this event should be on April 23rd, or some other date that is significant to the port trade; and when there is likely to be fine weather in Porto and the Douro.

Why April 23rd?

[Andy Velebil]

April 23rd = St. George's Day = Date of Declaration of Vintage Port (by Taylor's, Croft and Fonseca).

The question was a bit rhetorical as I know what April 23rd is. But why make it a day when only one Port company, out of many, care about this date.

[Tom Archer]

But why make it a day when only one Port company, out of many, care about this date.

I'm not sure how long the tradition goes back, but my impression is that it is an industry tradition of which Taylor Fladgate are currently the most observant, rather than an idiosyncrasy of that company.

It would do the industry no harm if the process of announcing declarations was a little more organised than it is at present, with a formal announcement from the IVDP and an exhaustive list of all the VPs approved published.

This is a good opportunity for collective industry-wide publicity that is currently being wasted.

[Jeff G.]

But why make it a day when only one Port company, out of many, care about this date.

It would do the industry no harm if the process of announcing declarations was a little more organised than it is at present, with a formal announcement from the IVDP and an exhaustive list of all the VPs approved published.

This is a good opportunity for collective industry-wide publicity that is currently being wasted.

you mean a post on the TPF site doesn't suffice?

[Roy Hersh]

Don't wait till next year - this event should be on April 23rd, or some other date that is significant to the port trade; and when there is likely to be fine weather in Porto and the Douro.

Tom,

I honestly am doing my best to find the logic in changing the date of #PortDay to coincide with the ONE company that chooses to declare their Vintage Ports, three years in a decade (or once in history, 4x)? I really tried, but can find no plausible correlation for a #PortDay celebration in April.

As little sense as that makes, The Center for Wine Origins is based in the USA and I don't think they would intentionally select a date when it is "likely to be fine weather in Porto and the Douro."

It would do the industry no harm if the process of announcing declarations was a little more organised than it is at present, with a formal announcement from the IVDP and an exhaustive list of all the VPs approved published.

Well given this thread is all about #PortDay, I am glad you had a moment to step up and rant. We hope you got it all out of your system and we can now return to any further discussion focused on #PortDay.

[Tom Archer]

Roy,

St George is the patron saint of Portugal, so April 23rd is a relevant and suitable date.

There are doubtless other dates that have historical relevance to the Port trade, but that one stands out.

This is supposed to be an International port day - not just an American thing, and it was billed as joint project between Wine Origins and the IVDP, altough the latter seem to have been led by the nose somewhat.

It was an idiotic and insensitive choice of date, which should be changed.

I'll ignore your gratuitous abuse.

[Roy Hersh]

Yes, it is and was an American group that had the IVDP contract, but that meant little when it came to doing something on a much broader scale, which was the point in the first place.

Please don't go into another tirade about the date conflict. Not here. Thanks.

Even if this was kept to the same Friday in January next year (albeit, I'd certainly like to see this moved to a weekend day/night for obvious reasons) it would wind up on a different day, without what "some" consider a conflict.

I am sure no slight was meant by the Center for Wine Origins. They chose a date they felt would work, and it did ... better than they ... or anyone had imagined in fact. Moving it to April, is not going to happen.

That said, they certainly do need to provide more than a month or six week's lead time. Three months would be far better in order to get this organized world wide and make it more cohesive and with a larger impact than what had been done this year. The IVDP was not "led" anywhere ... as although they gave approval for this to go ahead, it was certainly not their idea; nor even the Center's idea, originally. That matters not. This is a GREAT way to excite people globally about Port, have events organized and get people talking about Port. I can't think of any time in the past where that's ever really happened before on a specific day (at least not in the past 25+ years). I doubt this could be successful whatsoever, without the benefit of having social media in play.

[Phyllis D]

I whole heartedly agree that a longer lead time would be best. Once Port Day becomes a regular event we will all have plenty of time for planning. After all, these things do take a while to have most of the kinks flushed out. I personally would love to have at least 12 month lead time however, just knowing that it will possibly be coming in a year is an enormous help.


While I’m hopeful about a 2nd annual International Port Day next year, the planning for a Port Day celebration in California’s Capital has already begun.