Earlier this year, I noticed on FTLOP’s Forum, a thread started by a Madeira loving friend in Wadersloh, Germany. His name, Dr. Wolf Peter Reutter, who I first met in Seattle a dozen years ago, in January 2007. His brother Hans lived nearby at the time and worked for Microsoft, and we met as well. [...]
There are at least six, probably seven (and maybe still more!) known Terrantez wines from 1795. There is the 1795 Terrantez of Barbeito, the 1795 Terrantez of Companhia Vinicola da Madeira, the Terrantez of F. F. Ferraz (probably the same wine like the “Messias” wine in Alex Liddell’s book “Madeira”), a 1795 Terrantez possibly from [...]
The 1977 Port vintage was heralded from the outset. It had been seven years since the excellent 1970 vintage and 14 years since the outstanding 1963 vintage. The market, and Port enthusiasts, were ready. I’ve always been a big fan of the 1977 vintage and have had a good representation of the vintage in [...]
Is now the time to end the notion of "generally declared” Vintage Ports? For the past couple of centuries, it has been common practice for the Port trade to declare Vintage Port three times per decade based on the quality and quantity of excellent grapes harvested in a given year. There have been very few [...]
After five years of concentrating on one Madeira grape at a time: Terrantez, Verdelho, Bual, Malvasia and Sercial respectively, it was time for a change of pace. To put it in perspective, all of the nearly 100 bottles we’ve tasted under the same roof in NYC; have combined for a staggering total of circa 17,000 [...]
The title of this text is a bold statement, I am aware of that. And, as all bold statements, it will surely raise some eyebrows. Yet, I stand proudly by it. In my view, Barbeito is currently the best Madeira wine producer, and the reason behind the hype around this producer is almost entirely [...]
By Rune Gustavsen When my wife Emmy and I participated in the 2016 FTLOP Port Harvest Tour 2, we visited Quevedo. After having tasted many different Port wines, we all received a surprise during dinner at Quevedo’s quinta near São João da Pesqueira. Oscar Quevedo presented a new bottling of red wine: 2014 Quevedo Grande [...]
FTLOP is proud to introduce you to Ana Almeida. Here is Ana’s story: 1. Please share some information about your life and how you wound up working in the Port and Douro wine trade and at what age? I grew up in the smallest AOC in Portugal, Carcavelos, in Lisbon’s suburbs where fortified wine [...]
A quick aside, Colheita Madeira unlike Colheita Port (the latter of which requires 7 years in wood) but with Madeira, Colheita rules have required a minimum of six years in neutral cask, since the category was created in the early-mid-1990s. In the new regulations passed in 2015, that was changed to where Colheita Madeira now [...]
There is an old Portuguese saying that goes: “Para lá do Marão, mandam os que lá estão”, which can be translated into something like “Beyond the Marão, it is those who live there that are in charge”. This saying reflects a hard truth about the Trás-os-Montes region. Situated beyond the Marão and Alvão mountains, and [...]
