For The Love Of Port

Does anyone have background information on this shipper/producer? And tasting notes/impressions on their 1970 VP? Thanks!

Rui,

I don't have my books with me to be able to give you background information on this shipper, but I do have a note from Suckling on this particular wine.

The note was written in 1989 and essentially said that the wine was decent, clean, balanced and had a long finish. However, he also only gave it 80/100.

Alex

This is what Mason says in his book.

Hutcheson and Feuerheerd, two long time port shippers, merged in 1996.

"Feuerheerd is the older of the two companies {Hutcheson} having been founded in 1815 by a German, Diedrich M Feuerheerd. The firm used to own Quinta de la Rosa, but the property remained with the Feuerheerd family when the shipping company was taken over by Barros Almeida in the 1930's. The Berqvists, who now own and run La Rosa, are descendants of the Feuerheerds."

It doesn't say much about their ports and dry reds other than this.

"The merger...brought together a number of diverse brands including Vieira de Souza, A Pinto Santos Junior, the Douro Wine Shippers and Rocha. The majority of these wines are basic rubies and tawnies but there are also some lightweight vintages, rather rustic colheitas and aged tawnies."

Alex and Andy,

Thank you so much for the feedback. It sounds like the bottle is not worth the 32 GBP they are asking...

Rui,

I think that you are right, I think you can get better value for money than £32 for the Feuerheerd 1970 - or at least a wine that you can be sure of.

Although it might be worth buying one bottle for the experience. I have just tasted a VP that Suckling did not like and thought it was a lovely wine.

I know this doesn't help you decide what to do, but I just don't know what this wine will be like!

Alex

All I will politely add is that I would avoid ANY VIntage Port with the name Feuerheerd on it, unless it is an exceptional bargain. Rarely have they made VPs that were drinkable from my experience, which is only a handful of vintages.

i've seen hardly any mention of Feuerheerd on here and Google doesn't turn up a website in the first page of results. their Ruby, Reserve Ruby, and 10 Year Tawny go on sale in PA several times a year for $15-$20.
i've had their reserve and didn't like it, though i don't recall why.

a friend just picked up their 10 Year Tawny for $20, i think we're going to try it tomorrow. i've only had a couple Tawnies at all and don't really know what i should look for in them, i think this will be his first. does anyone have anything to say about it? there aren't tasting notes about it.

Never had their Tawny Ports.

Please do let us know what you think about the 20 year old.

I've had 1970 Feuerheerd and it was middle of road for the vintage. Great served by itself, but paired against a '70 Fonseca, Dow, etc... it's not the same league.

Yeah, the few examples I've had (most recently an '82 VP IIRC) haven't been anything to brag about, but have all been VP. They definitely have seemed to be in the lighter, easier and earlier drinking camp at their best. Don't know if that has any bearing on their Tawnies, but definitely let us know!


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turns out we won't have it until sometime next month.
i'm not great at picking out individual flavors but i can say overall impressions like whether it's sweet or not, how long the finish lasts, light, medium, or heavy bodied. i'm not sure i recognise tannin.
and i don't know what to look for in Tawnies at all, so i won't be able to rate it, just say whether it appealed to me or not.
any advice is welcome!

Scheiny S wrote:turns out we won't have it until sometime next month.
i'm not great at picking out individual flavors but i can say overall impressions like whether it's sweet or not, how long the finish lasts, light, medium, or heavy bodied. i'm not sure i recognise tannin.
and i don't know what to look for in Tawnies at all, so i won't be able to rate it, just say whether it appealed to me or not.
any advice is welcome!

Just write what you taste. What comes to your mind first is always right. Everyone is a little different so don't worry about trying to "match" someone else. And don't worry about "not being able to write a note" on it, even some brief impressions are more than enough to post a TN for the rest of us.

Since this thread was last active I've drunk some pretty decent Feuerheerd vintage ports - 1963 and 1985 - and also seen the shipper name move from one owner (was it Royal Oporto?) to Barao de Vilar. Since being purchased by BdV some good things have been happening to the brand. If the tawny that you're drinking soon is from BdV then you could be in for a treat!

A friend brought their 20 Year Tawny to NYE. We didn't decant at all and didn't like it. It had a very artificial sweetness to it. I've seen a few favorable comments about it on here, but I wasn't a fan. Should it be any better after a few days?