For The Love Of Port

Last week I met Anibal, Filipe & Luís d'Oliveira in Funchal. Had a good chat with Anibal who is now 81 years old. So nice to meet this true gentleman again.

The good news delivered by Luís regarded Artur Barros. Next year d'Oliveiras will start bottling some ABSL wines. Since the wines of the Olím brothers were so different in character from d'Oliveiras - which wasn't the case when d'Oliveiras bought Adega de Torreão - Luís told me they have decided to bottle the wines in a different way. Bottled with the Pereira d'Oliveira bottle but with an extra label stating the ABSL origin of the wine. This in order to separate the wines from what a consumer expects from a d'Oliveiras bottle.

The company has also bought yet a neighboring building, besides the ABSL and the previously purchased auction house. This means d'Oliveiras owns a substantial part of Rua dos Ferreiros but most of all, they can put the huge visiting cruising ship groups in a separate building. The ABSL canteiro is still being restored. When I was there they had some fixing of the roof going on. The slow progress is mainly due to the building being in bad shape and is also of historic value. Hence all the changes made needs approval by the town hall. But Luís d'Oliveira has high hopes it can open sometime during 2017.

Wishing you all a great weekend!

Niklas

Good news. Will the ABSL be available in the shop?

Hi Eric,

Yes, they will! And since there are a couple of thousands of liters still in canteiro I have high hopes the ABSL label will live on for several of years.

Niklas J wrote:Since the wines of the Olím brothers were so different in character from d'Oliveiras - which wasn't the case when d'Oliveiras bought Adega de Torreão - Luís told me they have decided to bottle the wines in a different way.

I don't recall ever having an ABSL wine. How does it differ? Less concentrated/rich I assume?

Yes, a much leaner and more acidic style. None of the current casks are really old, so they lack some richness due to concentration. I've had some older, early 20th C and late 19th C, wines and they do show concentration but are still in a more acidic style.

Marco, I believe one of the bottles at the NYC Malvasia tasting was an ABSL.

Eric Ifune wrote:Marco, I believe one of the bottles at the NYC Malvasia tasting was an ABSL.

So it was... I looked at my notes and I saw that it was atypically dry for a Malvasia, though I still enjoyed it quite a bit.