For The Love Of Port

I arrived very late tonight at Quinta do Tedo with friends. Hugo and Tiago had food and three three bottles waiting. A spectacular 2007 Quinta do Tedo Grande Reserva Savedra Douro wine and a 1997 vp and 2001 LBV (unfiltered). All showed great! Many thanks for waiting here for us to arrive. A beautiful B&B and great hospitality.
More later.

I take it that there is WiFi at the Tedo B&B. Useful to know for future reference.

Pre lunch ports. 1970 Offley Boa Vista Vintage Port, NV Quinta do Tedo Tawny, 1999 Quinta do Tedo VP. the pool here is in my future I can tell :)

Yesterday was a leisure day. Very nice to relax by the pool sipping Port and enjoy the morning. A nice lunch at LBV-79 in Pinhao then we decided to make a quick stop at Sandeman's Quinta do Seixo. Ended up being not so quick as we bumped into George Sandeman and ended up in a very nice chat and a excellent last minute tasting. Was great seeing him again and a big thank you!

Had a fantastic dinner with Jorge and Hugo from Tedo ( and their own project Quanta Terra...some excellent Douro wines btw) plenty of old Ports to go around. Were off for more fun......

Bought a magnum of Tedo's 07 there last week.
Being optimistic it won't outlive me by too much.

Andy Velebil wrote:... A spectacular 2007 Quinta do Tedo Grande Reserva Savedra Douro ...

Love that wine!

Keep the updates rollin', brother!

Eric Ifune wrote:Bought a magnum of Tedo's 07 there last week.
Being optimistic it won't outlive me by too much.

So that was who bought it. It's a great VP and in the short list of top VP's from the vintage. Great buy

A busy couple of days so far. Some amazing wines, including some seriously old Graham's VP's and a 104 year old Cockburn VP, Old Fonseca's, a bunch of excellent Douro wines. Spent two days boating around the Douro to various Quinta's...Heading back to Gaia this morning...more later, got to run.

On Sunday afternoon we had a fantastic visit to Offley's Quinta d. Boa Vista. A spectacular natural amphitheater full of terraced vines was awe inspiring. The natural topography here was simply amazing and one of the best I've seen in the Douro...we didn't want to leave.

Later we had a fantastic dinner at DOC with some amazing Douro wines and Port. Rui Paula was there and when he saw what wines were brought he decided to make each dish specially for us to pair with them. It was fun to drink the 2004 Quinta do Crasto Vinha da Ponte side by side with a 2004 Niepoort Robutus. Both amazing wines in their own right, but quite different as well. And while a bit outclassed, the 2004 Pintas still held its own and was very tasty. All three have a good life ahead of them. Not to be left out a duo of 1963 VP's, a 1970, and a surprise 1896 Unknown producer Port capped off a fantastic dinner.

I left off some details in an earlier post, so I'll fill in a bit. We finished off our Douro adventures with visits to Quinta d. Cavadinha, Roriz, Bomfim, and a couple others. And literally had an unplanned, but remarkable, visit to Quinta d. Vesuvio. Sorry for being vague but there is saying, "What happens in the Douro stays in the Douro"

I do want to add, if you're looking for a place to stay in the Douro Quinta do Tedo is awesome! There are five rooms (three have the bed on a raised second story loft-like set up), a kitchen, pool table, pool, bicycles, kayaking, hiking, etc. And it's perfectly situated between Regua and Pinhao so it makes getting around very easy. Jorge, Hugo, and Tiago took very good care of us and I look forward to staying here again in the future.

Off to Gaia, more soon....

We arrived in Gaia just in time to drop our bags at the Yeatman hotel and grab a quick cab ride to the Ferreira Lodge. I love how this particular Lodge is set up, with all the old historic information laid out in an easy to read and understand format. Plus the ability to see up close many of the old tools used both in the vineyards and the lab/tasting/blending rooms. This is one place I would highly recommend to anyone who visits the Lodge area of Gaia. After a tour of the main lodge we got a special visit to the old bottle cellar. I've been in it once before and have been in awe each time at just how many old 1800's bottles they still have. It's a staggering amount. After a really fun and educational tasting in the blending room of both Douro wines and Port, we took a short walk down the street to another Sogrape House, Sandeman. Once there, we had a fantastic lunch in the board room with some lovely Ports and a fantastic early preview of the new 2004 Casa Ferreirinha Barca Velha. Boy was that wine good and I had plenty....just to make sure my TN was spot on of course

After the splended lunch I had a bit of time for some R&R back at the Yeatman. I've dined once before at the Yeatman and this dinner would be no different. We dined and enjoyed some Douro wines and Port until the wee hours. With the later part spent on the veranda over looking Oporto and the Douro River. The views were spectacular and so was the company (and Ports). A couple stand outs were the 1871 Quinta do Loureiro Colheita and a 1958 Fonseca Quinta Mileau Late Bottled Vintage Port among others. I must add...If you plan to visit Gaia and are looking for a great place to stay or to eat at, I highly recommend the Yeatman Hotel.

Luckily we didn't have to be up too early the next day and I took advantage by taking a dip in the indoor pool at the Yeatman. Nothing like swimming some laps to clear the head and get ready for another day of fun. After getting dressed up I headed off to the Factory House for lunch. It was a special occasion as the British Ambassador to Portugal was the guest of honor. I was honored to meet her and lunch was a real treat for sure. It was fun trying to guess what the Vintage Port was (1985 Dow's VP), and to which I was way off in my guess. we also enjoyed the 1952 Graham's Single Harvest Tawny Port...the second time I got to try it and it was every bit as good as the first.

After lunch I had a short amount of time to relax, change, and grab a beer along the river front before heading off to Niepoort's old cellar. There we were met my Nick Delaforce, Luis Seabra. After spending a lengthy amount of time exploring the cellar it was time for an amazing tasting to celebrate a number of old Ports centennial birthday. It's not often one gets to try what turned out to be two 1912 Taylor's VP's side by side (both were both were not labeled and one was "Believed to be 1912 Taylors" and the other was a complete unknown which also turned out to be a 1912 Taylor's.) A 1912 Niepoort Colheita was spot on and giving all it had. An amazing tasting for sure and I'm sure one that won't be repeated any time soon. Afterwards we headed off to dinner at a fantastic restaurant in Oporto, O Paparico. Dinner again stretched to the wee hours of the evening, or should I say morning. After some well needed rest it was time to head off for more fun.....

More soon

Andy Velebil wrote:... It was a special occasion as the British Ambassador to Portugal was the guest of honor. I was honored to meet her and lunch was a real treat for sure. It was fun trying to guess what the Vintage Port was (1985 Dow's VP), and to which I was way off in my guess....

so, what was your guess, and why?

I, too, had an opportunity to try that 1912 Niepoort Colheita recently --- still so much life in that wine -- amazing! The bottle I tasted from was bottled in 1972 --- that sucker spent 60 years in barrel! That's not normal for Colheitas of that age, is it? It was served to me blind; after smelling it (but before tasting it) I guessed Madeira; after tasting it, too, I guessed a Colheita of 40 - 45 years in age. I was amazed at how fresh that wine is.

The 1912 Niepoort is the very first Colheita I ever had the privilege to try. It was at a friend's home on Long Island, someone I used to drink a ton of Port with. It was great then and I never had it again until almost exactly five years ago, this week. Great wood-aged Ports and one of my all-time favorite Niepoort Colheitas. There are only a few better than this from the same producer, but otherwise, it is a world class Colheita. The acidity is Madeira-like and that is why it remains so amazingly fresh.

the bottle I tasted from, Roy, was at my local wine retailer; apparently the Niepoort rep had been in the store the previous day, and had left a little bit of it behind with the store owner (Andy), who was incredibly generous in sharing a little taste with me when I came in the following day. This is the same store owner who blinded me on a taste of the indescribable 1865 Gonzalez-Byass Jerez-Xérès-Sherry Coronation 1911 (and ruined me forever on sherry, in doing so; that was the first sherry I ever tasted). Today, it happened again: I was in the store to bring him a favorite beer of mine that I brought back with me to England from my recent visit to the States; while I was in the store, a winery representative from the Champagne producer, Lallier, was in the store to taste Andy through their range and Andy kindly invited me to join in: totally unplanned, and the wines were delicious! It's times like these that remind me what a wonderful community the wine world is.

Brian G r a f s t r o m wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:... It was a special occasion as the British Ambassador to Portugal was the guest of honor. I was honored to meet her and lunch was a real treat for sure. It was fun trying to guess what the Vintage Port was (1985 Dow's VP), and to which I was way off in my guess....

so, what was your guess, and why?

I, too, had an opportunity to try that 1912 Niepoort Colheita recently --- still so much life in that wine -- amazing! The bottle I tasted from was bottled in 1972 --- that sucker spent 60 years in barrel! That's not normal for Colheitas of that age, is it? It was served to me blind; after smelling it (but before tasting it) I guessed Madeira; after tasting it, too, I guessed a Colheita of 40 - 45 years in age. I was amazed at how fresh that wine is.

I originally thought a 1983 Dow's, then someone (what happens in Oporto stays in Oporto ) swore it couldn't be 1983 Dow's so I changed my final answer to 1977. I should have gone with my gut and stuck to my original answer

Yes, that 1912 was amazing. I'll get a tasting note up in the near future.

Fun! I love blind tasting --- it's always interesting to see how close (but more often, how far off) one can get!

Looking forward to that 1912 Niepoort Colheita TN; I'll keep my eyes peeled for it.

Sounds like a wonderful trip and this is certainly getting me excited about my trip to Duoro coming up. I'll be at Quinta Do Tedo for 2 nights on your rec - if I can only squeeze in one or two other wineries during the trip what would you recommend?