For The Love Of Port

Dear all.

In the last months I have tried to shed some light on the H&H Reservas and have spent some time investigating not only through internet but also in my cellar as well as asking H&H and other knowledeable persone (Peter - thanks).

Currently I have the following "believes" which to my knowing are quite probably, altough I have some evidence that is 100% whereas other points are only of high probablity.

So here goes - all of these wines are designated "RESERVA" and partly became famous as "THE Heavenly Quartet of H&H Reservas", which indeed is more than a Quartet (read below):

1) H&H Grand Old Boal: Vintage 1860; all bottled 1927

2) H&H WS Boal: Vintage 1848; all bottled 1927

3) H&H Malvazia: Vintage 1875; bottled 1957 respectively 1964

4) H&H Sercial: Vintage 1864; bottled 1931 respectively 1965

5) H&H Verdelho: Vintage 1863; bottled 1931

6) H&H Terrantez: Vintage unknown to me - believed to be from 1825 or 1827 according to John Cossart; bottled 1947

7) H&H Ribeira Real: Vintage & bottling year unknown to me; my suspicion is Verdelho, maybe 1858.

OK - now some might ask where my infos come from; so here goes: the old bottlings of these bottles had additional informations on the bottles & labls; so some of these infos come from there; some additional searcher & inquiries have led me to the other conclusions.

I would be more than happy if some of you could shed some more light in the H&H Reservas and if anyone has infos, be it positive or negative please let me know so we could make the Reservas list even broader or more extentive.

And if anyone remembers having a H&H Reserva bottle for sale let me know.

Looking forward to many contributions to that the H&H Reserva topic

Andy

I thought Grand Old was from the 1820s...

I didn't know the vintages were known. I thought even John Cossart didn't know.
Does anyone have pictures of all of the Reservas? I have a few where the labels are illegible.

Strange , when I talked with John Cossart in 2006, he only mentioned what always has been reported around 1800 Plus minus..????

Andy, Rare Wine Co. has one bottle of the Grand Old Boal available for $1195.

Here we go - batch 1

batch 2

Reidar Andersen wrote:Strange , when I talked with John Cossart in 2006, he only mentioned what always has been reported around 1800 Plus minus..????

Hi Reidar,

I know the saying is +/- 1800 but the old labels speak a different language; but this doesn't mean that the wines are of lesser quality.

Eric Ifune wrote:I didn't know the vintages were known. I thought even John Cossart didn't know.
Does anyone have pictures of all of the Reservas? I have a few where the labels are illegible.

Eric,

maybe you could post (here) or send the label pictures (email)?

Barry Sunderland wrote:I thought Grand Old was from the 1820s...

Well,....

Steve Pollack wrote:Andy, Rare Wine Co. has one bottle of the Grand Old Boal available for $1195.

Steve,

thanks.

I am sorry but this is my mistake; what i meant was if anyone here has bottles to sell I would be happy to receive his/her interest via private mail.

As for the new bottles at retail I have those already but still look out for the old labelled ones.

Very interesting photos and information. Thanks, Andy.

Steve Pollack wrote:Very interesting photos and information. Thanks, Andy.

Hi Steve,

the pictures are mainly from my own bottles, some addtitional infos from the web and books.

On my request I found out that H&H does also not have a deeper knowledge than what is commonly communicated; they simply do not have any "old" correspondences or files for these wines (and my guess for "old":=pre 1980).

Andreas,

This is great info... I've never seen these old labels. Thanks for posting!

--Marco

Andreas, this is very interesting..

Had a look on my Heavenly Quartet bought direct at H&H lodge about 11 years ago. All stained, and only with bottling dates on the back ... No front label. Looks like these other firms have more info than H&H to put out front ....... Recher, Hammer etc..

Looked into my collection and found one bottle H&H Reserva Sercial 1864 bottled 1964 on the front label ( 100 year "celebration" ?? ), identical same backlabel as the WS Boal 1848.

My bottle is number 1485 out of 1506... Bougnt at RWC some years back ( have the year in my files ).

Reidar,

from what I found out until now the golden bis labels have been printed at H&H FOR the named importers. Their names then have been added accordingly when the printing was done; so it was not that "these other firms have more info than H&H", it was simply known back then.

I am curious how this knowledge can have gotten lost but things happen...

If you can take a pic and post or email it this would be great; especially since I do not exactly understand what you mean with "identical same backlabel as the WS Boal 1848" since on each label is mentioned which RESERVA was meant - so either it says WS Boal or SERCIAL

I have not the possibility to send anything now, but will do later...On the way out of the country..

But front says:

Henriques & Henriques

Reservas
Sercial
H.H.
Re-engarrafado 1965 ( not 1964 as I said above )
Re-engarrafado "..............

And some in Portoguesa

Back:

SERCIAL VINTAGE 1964

This will serve to certify that this bottle contains
a very old Sercial Madeira, which when
Inherited by Mr. Joao Joaquim Henriques
Managing-Director of this firm, from his father
who died in 1805, was known to be a wine of
the 1864 Vintage. This wine was kept and aged
in oak casks until bottled in 1965.
Only 1506 bottles remain in existence.

This bottle is no: 1485 ( stamped )

Then an unreadable signature/stamp

Director
Henriques & Henriques
Madeira-

Reidar,

matches perfectly to my description above, doesn't it?

If you post the pictures sometime I would appreciate it highly.

Have a save trip,

Andreas

Yes, perfectly..... Will Get you pictures later....

My labels appear different. I'll try to post some photos.