2011 Vintage Port is declared

[Roy Hersh]

In the very first news I've heard of on this topic (officially) Sogrape has just declared the 2011 Vintage Ports of Ferreira, Sandeman and Offley.

[Andy Velebil]

Very cool.

I've made this thread a sticky so everyone can see who's declared 2011. Start saving those pennies ladies and gentlemen.

[Andy Velebil]

I've been given permission to post Quevedo is declaring 2011.

[Eric Menchen]

I've been given permission to post Quevedo is declaring 2011.

Do I smell a FTLOP buying opportunity on the horizon (hint, hint) ?

[Roel B]

In the very first news I've heard of on this topic (officially)...

So, what's the unofficial news?

[Andy Velebil]

Decanter posted an article about the upcoming declaration. It was interesting to read this part of it...

Anticipation around the 2011 vintage has been building since almost the first days of harvest.

Symington Family Estates, owner of Cockburn's, Graham's, Warre's and Dow's among others, have yet to declare 2011, but were impressed enough to bring still-fermenting samples to a port tasting in October of the same year.

Considering the window for fermentation is just a few days I think the writer got this a little wrong. I would suspect they meant to say they brought fresh cask samples.


Read more at http://www.decanter.com/news/wine-news/ ... XqJGRE8.99

[Roy Hersh]

I have a feeling we will see more shipper/SQ declarations of 2011 than any previous vintage in the history of Port wine.

[John F. Newman]

I thought this was interesting: may be available to the public by late May. http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/201 ... wine/28093

[Christian Gollnick]

Thanks for sharing, John.
The last sentence of the article is the interesting one: "This latest vintage is expected to reach its peak round about 2020."
Really? I hope not.... That would be a really disappointing vintage, if that would be the case... If all the hype around this 2011-Vintage is correct, then I expect it to peak around 2040 or even later. I'm already jealous that my children and grandchildren will enjoy this vintage, and not me...

I'm very happy for the Port Wine producers that the 2011 seems to have it all... That's what they needed in this difficult time. This must be a big booster for the whole business.

[Andy Velebil]

It's always strange to hear reviewers put such short time frames for top VP's to mature. I would love for one or more of these professional reviewers to explain their reasonings behind such short time frames.

[Roy Hersh]

Ferreira, Offley and Sandeman Port wines and sommelier Luis Sottomayor said he could not remember a harvest with “such great structure and robustness”.

Sloppy journalism in that last article that came from Portugal. You think the wine writer would know or fact check that Luis is Sogrape's head of winemaking and not a sommelier.

[Roy Hersh]

Luisa Borges let me know that her family's quinta has also declared 2011 VP.

[Roy Hersh]

Niepoort and Niepoort Bioma have also declared and so has Kopke, Burmester, Calem and Barros.

[Roy Hersh]

Conversing with Jorge today and he informed me that Ramos Pinto will be releasing their 2011 declaration VERY soon.

[Roy Hersh]

Here is the official word from the Symington Family Estates, re: their declarations:

http://thevintageportsite.com/view.php?id=14658

[John M.]

Grahams The Stone Terraces and the Vesuvio Capella sound incredibly interesting.

[Eric Menchen]

No Martinez from SFE?

[Cynthia J]

Hi Eric. No Gould Campbell, Quarles Harris nor Martinez. These ports are typically made with the grapes bought in from Douro farmers, primarily in the Pinhão and Rio Torto valleys. For 2011 Symington was focussed on the opportunity to make creme de la creme ports from our own quintas - and when Charles reviewed the possible blends for these brands, the wines were simply not in the same league, so the decision was taken to let this year pass as far as declaring vintage ports for those brands.

[Rob C.]

No Gould Campbell, Quarles Harris nor Martinez. These ports are typically made with the grapes bought in from Douro farmers, primarily in the Pinhão and Rio Torto valleys.

Wow...breaks GC's run of every major vintage since 1955 (ok..a 91 but no 92...) and no Martinez VP since 2007...

I'm amazed at how small the production is - under 20,000 cases of Graham / Dow / Warre / Cockburn combined (versus 40,000+ cases of Fonseca 85 alone?)

[Roy Hersh]

I just got news from the source that Broadbent is declaring too!