For The Love Of Port

SFE is very proud to announce the re-launch of the Vintage Port Site at http://www.thevintageportsite.com We have completely re-built the site and hope you will enjoy the features:

• dearest to all your hearts: the Knowledge Base – the searchable database of technical information and tasting notes for all Vintage Ports from all our brands and single quintas since 1945. We have enhanced the Search functionality so you can search for a brand, quinta, year, or critic – see all the wines he or she has reviewed – or even tasting note year.
• the Knowledge Base also includes a summary of the viticultural conditions for every year, whether declared or not, since 1945. This content is drawn from the notes made by the Symington family and all our winemakers and viticulturalists who were working in the Douro throughout the year
• the entire site has a fresh new look and straightforward navigation
• for those of you new to Vintage Port, or just wanting a refresher course, we have a great array of reference articles – about the history and making of port, how to buy, store and decant it, and much more
• we still have all of Miles’s great articles about Douro Viticulture – now illustrated with photographs (now you can SEE a socalco and how it differs from a patamar, or Touriga Nacional versus Tinta Roriz)
• Resource Lists – a list of websites to further your knowledge of Port, and a list of books that we enjoy and refer to ourselves, as well as a list of distributors for all our Ports worldwide
• Ask the Expert – if you have a question about any aspect of making or enjoying Vintage Port, or one of our wines, ask! We are committed to responding on line in two business days.

Most importantly, we are committed to expanding and maintaining the site going forward. I will be continuing to research and build the Knowledge Base – both pushing back in time from the current starting point of 1945, and expanding the breadth of tasting notes for each wine. I also have in mind some additional Reference materials to be added to the site in coming months, and we will add to our reference lists as we learn of additional material.

In addition, we will have a stream of News articles, in which I hope to (start to!) satisfy your thirst for knowledge about our Quintas, brands, and historical and technical subjects. And of course, the first three articles are the announcements of our 2009 wines. Take a look!

In addition to the Ask the Expert function, there is also a more general contact form on the site – so do send us your suggestions and feedback, we would love to hear from you!

One more thing: yours truly is manning the front lines on the Ask the Expert, with recourse, naturally, to all our staff at SFE to source the information to answer your questions. But please… go gently on me the first few weeks, ok? I don’t mind your nipping at my heels, but please don’t go for the jugular just yet!

Enjoy!
Cynthia

Glad to see it back up and running. Jugular, nah you've already survived that after jumping feet first into the online Port frying pan.

Jugular, nah you've already survived that after jumping feet first into

LOL... I thought the end of that sentance was going to be "the lagar at Vesuvio with all of us" !

Cynthia J wrote:

Jugular, nah you've already survived that after jumping feet first into

LOL... I thought the end of that sentance was going to be "the lagar at Vesuvio with all of us" !

That was more like falling in

I've had a little more time to look around and I gotta say you've put a hell of a lot of work into it. All the tasting notes, harvest notes, etc. even on the "lesser referenced brands" like Quarles Harris and Martinez that have never had a dedicated web site before. Keep up the great work!

Great job Cynthia! Thanks.

I for one know the extraordinary amount of work and crazy amount of hours that Cynthia has been putting into the redux of The Vintage Port Site behind the scenes over many months. I also am aware of how happy she is that it is now in play and out of beta mode. Nice to see it launched and it is a great reference for anyone who appreciates Port. I will spend more time there next week once the upcoming newsletter is complete, but with that much content up front, it is guaranteed to be a huge success.

If you haven't taken the time to go visit ... you really should!

Cynthia,

Good job on the new website. It looks great and I'm looking forward to checking it out further.

Marc

Thank you every one for the kind words! Poor Roy, popping up on FB chat and me snapping at him, can't talk, gotta deadline... Thank you for the patience with me on that! Good luck and huge sympathy on newsletter! Do use the contact form on the site, or this thread, if you want to suggest topics for stories. I have a long list of ideas, but always welcome new ones. Thanks!

Hello All!

Just wanted to let you know The Vintage Port Site http://www.thevintageportsite.com/ has just gone live with some upgrades. More information, more searchable and navigable was the idea behind this. On the Site and on the Graham's Blog are news items with a full list but the features I think you will like best:

Timeline so you have a visual of how many vintages were declared in any given year and across years - scroll - click on any bottle to see the notes for that Vintage Port (and the photo of the vines was taken 3 May at Quinta do Tua)

We now have concise brand profiles - see drop down list on left side bar to get access, or, under Port Basics menu go to page listing all brands with quick compare of flavour profiles for headline, then click through to see full profile. From any Brand Profile you can see a clickable list of all Vintages declared for that Brand and its Quinta Vintage Ports.

In tandem with that, the Quinta profiles for our brand-defining quintas have been input, these focus on the viti details of each quinta.

And what's most exciting to me - I have been given the go ahead to write more regularly for this site, and on a slightly wider range of subject matter -- always focussed on Vintage Port,of course, but will also start to do some viti updates from non-Graham's quintas and other brand news, as well as covering more tastings of non-Graham's (Rupert just told me about some Cockburn's verticals he will be doing later this year, for example, I hope to cover).

Finally, we have an "In the Press" page where we link to some of the most interesting articles about Symington Ports written by top critics and experts.

And stay tuned, because by the end of June we will be launching a mobile version of the site which will optimise the content and functionality for use on hand helds.

As always, love to have your feedback and suggestions. I think I may go sleep for a day or two now, but will always be in touch when awake! Thanks!

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks for letting us know of these upgrades. Just took a very quick look right now before heading off to work and I like that there is now info on Quarles Harris and some of the "lesser" known houses. Great to hear you can now start reporting on more news than just Graham's. Look forward to giving it a full run through soon....and mobile app coming soon

Looks fantastic. I know you've poured yourself into this project, big time ... so congratulations to you and the others on the team that have brought this to fruition.