For The Love Of Port

Philglas & Swiggot are offering 2004 en primeurs:

Vesuvio @ £438/12
Dow's Senhora Da Ribeira @ £376/12
Roriz @ £376/12

This puts Vesuvio about 35% ahead of the 2003 en primeur price, and Roriz about 30% ahead.

Now, I've seen no tasting notes for these - maybe they put the 2003's to shame - maybe not...

...has anyone tried any of these yet?

It's more than possible that P & S are taking advantage of more or less having this market to themselves - I can't see anyone else advertising 2004's

But for a year that does not have the cachet of a general declaration, these prices look utterly ridiculous.

Tom

I have had about 15+ 2004s and did not consider them in the same league as 2003. The 2004s are good, solid Ports but none I have tasted would I rate over 94 and that is for the top wine of the vintage so far. Those who think that I score highly, will see a difference for sure, when it comes to my 2004 report.

I must admit that I did not make the great effort to obtain a large amount of the bottles as I did with the generally declared 2003s. Nor did I get to spend days with each bottle. This is more typical of how MOST other journos do a vintage assessment, which is not my style. But I thought it would be good to provide at least some insight into the vintage itself.

There were one or two surprises and a couple of disappointments as well. TNs to follow in on upcoming FTLOP newsletter.

A month on, and I just did a wine-searcher search to find if anyone else is offering the Vesuvio and Roriz '04's - but zilch, nada...

Bit surprising that only one merchant should be offering these..

..anyone seen any others?

Tom

I contacted Adnams and they said they would be offering vesuvio but no indication of price. At those levels I'd rather ehad to the auctions and pick up 2000/2003's to plug some gaps.

AjF

My interest was really to see if the daft prices were coming from VNG - or the merchants touting an outrageous mark-up.

- No immediate plans to buy in this camp!

Tom