For The Love Of Port

The 2014 declaration season is coming up. Since the season and harvest were... mixed?... I thought it would be fun to speculate about who might declare.

Personally, I'm still holding out for a Graham's The Stone Terraces declaration. When we visited on the 2014 Port Harvest Tour Dominic told us that they'd completed harvesting both vineyards before the rains came, so the fine growing season wasn't ruined for this particular offering. We also got to taste the Port (if it can even really be called Port that early in the process!) and I thought it was pretty fabulous. Hopefully it will have developed nicely over the last 18 months and be fit for a declaration!

Beyond that... in very broad and general terms... I suspect we'll see declarations from the Douro Superior. The growing season out east was very good and harvest for most growers was done before the rain came, or was missed by the rain entirely. The Cima Corgo will probably be mixed depending on exactly when people harvested, but the ones who declare will likely have very fine offerings. I fear for the Baixo Corgo and suspect there won't be much declared. My impression was that the season was late there and more-or-less ruined by untimely rains.

So I'm predicting a partial declaration.

Glenn E. wrote:The 2014 declaration season is coming up. Since the season and harvest were... mixed?... I thought it would be fun to speculate about who might declare.

Personally, I'm still holding out for a Graham's The Stone Terraces declaration. When we visited on the 2014 Port Harvest Tour Dominic told us that they'd completed harvesting both vineyards before the rains came, so the fine growing season wasn't ruined for this particular offering. We also got to taste the Port (if it can even really be called Port that early in the process!) and I thought it was pretty fabulous. Hopefully it will have developed nicely over the last 18 months and be fit for a declaration!

Beyond that... in very broad and general terms... I suspect we'll see declarations from the Douro Superior. The growing season out east was very good and harvest for most growers was done before the rain came, or was missed by the rain entirely. The Cima Corgo will probably be mixed depending on exactly when people harvested, but the ones who declare will likely have very fine offerings. I fear for the Baixo Corgo and suspect there won't be much declared. My impression was that the season was late there and more-or-less ruined by untimely rains.

So I'm predicting a partial declaration.

Are you sure you're not just rooting for a declaration of Stone Terraces so you can get to work cornering the market in another vintage?


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Bradley Bogdan wrote:Are you sure you're not just rooting for a declaration of Stone Terraces so you can get to work cornering the market in another vintage?

Shh! You're spoiling my plan!

Given the high likelihood 2015 will be declared I wouldn't hold out hope 2014 is going to be. Even the Douro Superior got hit pretty hard in spots by the rain. My guess would be some good SQVP's will be released in 2014.

The jungle drums are signalling a 2015 general declaration with 2014 as an SQ year. Things could change if the 2015 wines don't show as well as expected, but it seems unlikely at this point.

Stone Terraces might be good, but it was almost certainly picked a few days earlier than planned to avoid the rain, so we'll have to see. One of our friends in the trade became a daddy in 2014 and I know he went all out to make some exceptional wine in celebration - I must ask him how it's showing - and whether he wants to sell any...

It may have been spin, but what we were told was that the Stone Terraces were picked when they were ready and that weather had nothing to do with it. He did acknowledge that they were ready much sooner than expected.

Kopke is not bringing a 2014 SQ Vintage port

Quinta do Crasto will be bringing a 2014 vintage port (already approved)