For The Love Of Port

Pick one, two or three Colheitas that have made the biggest impression on you when tasting them. What were they and why were they so much to your liking?

Prefer if we don't come up with lists of 5 or 10 per person ... keeping it to a short selection will be appreciated.

I've not had two many and most were under 20 years.But I have had the 1984 Kopke (b.2013) and the 1975 Kopke (b.2015) and both were superb with the 1975 the superior wine. I still have another bottle of it as well. I really love the Kopke style in their old ports.

Hmm... ever? That's a tough one that's going to require some research. One pops to mind immediately (and Roy knows which one that is, because he served it to me and it was my first 100-pt Port), but after that I'll have to look through my TN books!

[arnoldvoice]Ah'll be bahk.[/arnoldvoice]

Since Roy asked for memorable, not greatest, that makes me think of two immediately.

The first was during a 2011 dinner at Napoles with Dirk and his then winemaker Luis Seabra. As dinner was progressing Luis appeared with a Super Bock beer bottle in his hand and asked me if I wanted some. The thought of a cold crisp beer after so many wines really sounded good so I said sure. He then poured what was not beer into my Port glass and asked me what I thought of it. I tasted it and immediately my mouth exploded in one of the best Ports I've had. As that was all going on he asked a girl if she wanted some and she stated something to the effect of "Beer? Uh, no". So Luis poured it for a couple more people and I flagged Luis back over and asked him what the heck it was, it was fantastic. He told me it was the 1900 Niepoort Colheita It gets better, as the girl who said no to the beer now all of a sudden wanted some and Luis smiled and said, Sorry you said you didn't want any. We all had a good laugh over that and pretty sure she will never ever say no to any liquid being served at Napoles again.

The second was and is a very good Colheita, but far younger. In 2006 during the PHT's visit at Vesuvio we were left alone in the dinning room area and told we could grab some water or a beer from the fridge round the corner. So off we go and crack open the fridge looking for a cold beer. It was then we all saw the rumored but never seen before 1991 Vesuvio Colheita. Yes we did taste it (a lot of it) at some point while there, but my lips are sealed.

For regular stuff:

1952 Delaforce
1952 Dalva White (as the years went on the colheita tasted less special each time though)
1970 Niepoort
1853 Whitwhams

Would add that Vesuvio Colheita Andy mentioned, but that is not something one can just buy... Same for the Andresen 1970 Colheita.

Andy Velebil wrote:Since Roy asked for memorable, not greatest, that makes me think of two immediately.

An excellent point, which makes my list much easier.

The first - and most memorable - still has to be the same. It was early 2008, which was less than a year after I got serious about Port. (I first tried Port in 2004 and only drank it occasionally until late 2007.) I came home from work to discover several emails from Roy, so I gave him a call and he asked if I could stop by around 8:30 pm. I of course said yes, so there I was at 8:30 being handed a glass of 1906 Brunheda Colheita. I'd never heard of Brunheda of course, but back then not many people had. The oldest Port I'd had at that time may very well have been the 1977 Porto Rocha Colheita that (along with the Porto Rocha 20-yr old) had really hooked me on Port. The Brunheda was a life-altering experience. I just couldn't even. There were no words. There's a lengthy TN in the TNDB, but even that doesn't completely capture just how amazing that Port was for a newbie like me. I doubt I'll ever forget it.

The second was on the 2010 Port Harvest Tour at Quinta do Vesuvio. We had an amazing lunch on the terrace, and at the end they brought out an unlabeled bottle and passed it around. It was a 1992 Quinta do Vesuvio Colheita (shh, it doesn't exist). At the time it was a very young Colheita for me as I preferred them 30+ years old, but it was sublime and that (along with the setting) is what made it memorable. For a long time my Facebook profile picture was this picture of me contemplating this Port at the table with Dominic Symington in the background.
The third was at Daniel's Broiler in Bellevue at a tasting of Niepoort tawnies and Garrafeiras. With Dirk Niepoort. No pressure, right? WRONG. When we got to the 1935 Niepoort Colheita it just wasn't singing for me. Everyone else was giving it 97 or 98 points, but I wasn't there. Granted I was "only" at 96, but that made me the outlier in the group. I eventually succumbed to the peer pressure and gave it 97, but I think Dirk was with me in that it didn't have that "magical" component that I usually require to enter the 97-99 range. To this day it is clear in my mind that there was absolutely nothing wrong with it, but there just wasn't anything marvelous about it either. That's pretty much the definition of 96 on my rating scale - 0 flaws, 0 to nit-pick, but also nothing to lift it into the "magic in the glass" range.

Now that Andy has triggered my memories I could go on and on, but since Roy wanted 2 or 3 I'll stop here.

I'm going to list 4 because three were tasted at the same time.
Wiese & Krohn 1863 along with the 1896 and 1896 Branco.
Fourth is the 1912 Niepoort.

For me, it must be the White and Red Quevedo Colheita 1970 tasted from the barrels next to each other. For me (us, as my wife tasted them too) it was a super experience (summer 2016, at the Quevedo Lodge, being toured around by Claudia, as Oscar was on vacation ).
Also the 1937 Colheita (unknown producer to me: Tait's, unknown bottling date) I opened a couple of weeks ago at a dinner party at our house was quite magnificent. Especially as it was an old bottling and it had a t-stopper

Glenn E. wrote:Hmm... ever? That's a tough one that's going to require some research. ... I'll have to look through my TN books!

If you have to look through books, that doesn't seem like something that is memorable.

Eric Menchen wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:Hmm... ever? That's a tough one that's going to require some research. ... I'll have to look through my TN books!

If you have to look through books, that doesn't seem like something that is memorable.

Yeah I misread it as "best" until Andy pointed out it says memorable.

Glenn E. wrote:Yeah I misread it as "best" until Andy pointed out it says memorable.

It kind of suggests both.

Roy wrote:What are the 2 or 3 most memorable Colheitas you've tasted? ... What were they and why were they so much to your liking?

What if the most memorable was terrible, and not to your liking?

Memorable makes an interesting twist to the question. While I've had better colheita ports, these would be my top three memorable colheitas:

Quinta do Noval 1968, bottled 2010
This was drunk early one morning with friends while sitting on the terrace under the cypress tree at Quinta do Noval. It was a beautiful warm night with the darkness full of the sound of cicadas; we were watching the stars and putting the world to rights while finishing a bottle of the 1937 colheita. Still thirsty, our host asked if we would like one more bottle to round off the night. Our host disappeared for a few moments and returned with an unlabelled bottle fresh from the fridge. It was amazing — sweet, intense fruit on the nose and the palate, searing acidity which somehow seemed to be perfectly balanced and a concentration of flavours on the finish that seemed to go on for hours. So concentrated that I could till taste it the next day. The 1937 colheita paled in comparison. I was amazed when told that this was a bottle of the 1968 colheita, bottled the previous week and I still have a soft spot for this wine as a result of that evening.

Taylor Scion
Scion had been released for around a year, I'd read all the controversy on FTLOP and the speculation that it could not be what it was said to be. I'd been swept up in the marketing hyperbole and the launch excitement but I couldn't justify paying £1,800 for a bottle of port. And then in 2011 I was in Oporto on a warm October evening, at Dick's Bar in the Yeatman and there was a bottle of Scion on the bar with a small card next to it saying "Scion by the glass, €99". It's amazing how long a small pour can be made to last. The smell was intense, the flavour incredibly concentrated and of infinite length — and the view was just breathtaking as the sun slowly set and the lights of Oporto started to brighten the scene. That one glass lasted me about 4 hours — I never wanted it to end. I was sniffing the empty glass hours later and would have licked the glass out if I could have figured out how to do it.

Whitwams 1853 - The Dom Pedro Vintage
This was opened at Roy's 50th birthday party in Seattle and, for me, was the star of the colheitas drunk that day - better than the Niepoort 1912 and the Constantino 1927. I had read about the Whitwam's bottles, the 1853 and the 1880. It was a great wine and by the standards of today's colheita releases a real bargain! This was deep and dense in colour and in texture but surprisingly light footed and elegant in flavour. This was served blind and I guessed it to be a 1927 vintage port — only out by three-quarters of a century! For me this was the standout colheita and the wine of the tasting that day. My first and so far only visit to Seattle was such a treat.

Al B. wrote: Whitwams 1853 - The Dom Pedro Vintage
This was opened at Roy's 50th birthday party in Seattle and, for me, was the star of the colheitas drunk that day - better than the Niepoort 1912 and the Constantino 1927. I had read about the Whitwam's bottles, the 1853 and the 1880. It was a great wine and by the standards of today's colheita releases a real bargain! This was deep and dense in colour and in texture but surprisingly light footed and elegant in flavour. This was served blind and I guessed it to be a 1927 vintage port — only out by three-quarters of a century! For me this was the standout colheita and the wine of the tasting that day. My first and so far only visit to Seattle was such a treat.

I didn't think someone else would mention this Colheita... Although we had it from separate occasions.

I have 3 that spring to mind...

The first two were on the 2011 Harvest tour.....
- the 1882 that later became the Graham's Ne Oublie. It was at Quinta dos Malvedos, where Paul Symington arrived by boat carrying this.
- the 1900 Brunheda Colheita. This was my first exposure to some of the really old stuff that some of the multi generational grower families have as part of the family stash.

And the 1974 Kopke Colheita which I opened for my 40th. Given it wasn't the greatest vintage and there is so little around, I never thought I'd get to see a decent 1974 port.