For The Love Of Port

I have come up with the last bunch of questions for the Port trade and for July's issue ... over the next few days would love for you folks to come up with the next one.

Any good ideas?

It is a small question, but what are their opinions on pink Port? Blasphemy? A necessary evil? A good way to introduce Port to a new customers? etc... And what are their plans?

There are probably better questions. Maybe this will force someone else to come up with one.

Hi Roy,

as a matter of fact I am really curious about the way producers determine their prices. Is there actually any relation to their costs of production, do they look at pricing of the other producers or is the pricing of the last year simply leading?

Greetings from Friesland,

Anton Woertman

Is there a rule of thumb for how many vintages will be declared per decade?

Keep them coming ... I am enjoying the great ideas!

In the Financial Times, Jancis Robinson recently wrote,
"The five big port groups, including the Symington family (who produce Dow’s, Graham’s, Warre’s most famously) and the Taylor Fladgate Partnership (Croft, Fonesca, Taylor’s etc) control about 80 per cent of the port market between them and have recently added a good 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of prime vineyards to their holdings, as well as upgrading their wineries and all-important storage facilities in the challenging Douro Valley, with its harsh winters and summers. This means that they no longer buy nearly as much from local growers who are now increasingly dependent on the local co-ops and their relatively paltry prices. Life is becoming tougher and tougher for the legion of smallholders in the Douro."

Do you think life is becoming tougher for the smallholders relative to the large houses, or have changing regulations and markets made for an even better opportunity for small growers and labels?

There is one point that I've always wondered about - How do shippers project forward in calculating the demand for 30 Y.O & 40 Y.O. old Tawnies? I realize that there must be a myriad of factors (population growth in the target markets, quantity of high quality grapes, historical trends, ect.) that goes into the calculation, but nevertheless it thought that this might make for a good question for the trade.