British and non-British owned Ports sold in the UK

[Derek T.]

Mod note: Split from THIS TOPIC

once upon a time ... the British would NEVER dare use the term Colheita on any bottling. The Portuguese believed it was their reluctance to use a Portuguese term on the label.

I am sure I have commented on this before on this forum but I firmly believe that the British port-buying public (excluding people who are enlightened enough to be members of forums that discuss Port) are not ready to accept that Port isn't British. We unfortunately still live in a society that believes that "Johnny Foreigner" doesn't know how to do anything better than someone with a British name so we very rarely see the Portuguese or other European-named brands in our major outlets in the UK. It really is a pathetic reflection on the attitudes of this country that this mental blockage exists but the plain fact is that it does.

[Roy Hersh]

Even today?

[Derek T.]

Even today?

Yes. There are five "big" supermarkets in the UK (Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Morrison and Waitrose) and I think they probably account for 50% of the volume of port sales in the UK. Across the entire range of styles, the first three on that list are completely dominated by "British" port shipper brands of Cockburn, Croft, Dow, Graham, Taylor, & Warre. You will see a few Noval and Fonseca bottlings amongst the crowd of British names, but not many. Burmester or Kopke? No chance, they sound German. Ramos-Pinto, Ferreira or Quevedo? Those sound Portuguese! Why would Brits buy Portuguese Port when they can have the real stuff with a British name on the label? It's pathetic, but unfortunatley true.

Morrison and Waitrose have a smaller range and are more likely to include a few non-British shippers but they sell far less volume than the other three outlets. An example being that Morrison seem to have bought the entire stock of Cruz 1989 and have had it on sale at around £12 per bottle for the last 5 years.

Quality wine merchants stock non-British-named brands but they do not sell volume, they sell good stuff in small quantities to people like us.

This in no way is intended to attack the British brands. God knows I drink enough of them to be a supporter! But I do think that the Brits are denied a diversity of product as a result of their own bigotry. Which is a great shame.

[Derek T.]

Roy/Andy, perhaps the three preceeding posts belong in another thread?

[Andy Velebil]

Roy/Andy, perhaps the three preceeding posts belong in another thread?

Done....so go pop a cork on a Quevedo and buck the trend