1973 Bottles & where to find them

[nshaw]

Hello,
I got married this year and my wife very kindly bought a bottle of 1973 port for me as my reward/bribe. We opened it one evening with some friends and drank it. It was delicious and I would like to purchase some more. Unfortunately, the next day someone disposed of the bottle and I lost the name of the vineyard. Since then I have been looking online for bottles from 1973 and they are proving to be difficult to find.
I was wondering:

a. It is not listed as a vintage year, so does this mean that no one stocks it?
b. Where can I source some from that year?
c. Do people have any recommendations for a particular Producer? I would like to build up a cellar (will check out the newbie section for this)
Thanks,
Nicholas

[Andy Velebil]

Nicholas,

Let me welcome you to FTLOP and its great to have you here.

As for your question, 1973 is my birthyear also so I also have a vested interest in finding stuff from this horrible year. I've only seen or heard about two Ports from this year. One has not been bottled yet and the other is a White Colheita that I've had on two occassions now. However, due to regulations, the latter is not labeled as a 1973 Vintage Colheita but rather as Santa Eufemia Special Reserve White. Here is a link for a tasting note and more information about this wine.

The short story on why there is not more 1973 Ports around was because it was contaminated by what turned out to be industrial brandy. Brandy, or its technical name "Aguardente" is a neutral grape spirit made from left over grapes. That is what they add to the grapes to stop fermentation. Well in 1973 it turned out the brandy purchased was the wrong stuff and as a result virtually all of the port was destroyed and dumped out.

Hope this helps a bit.

[Eric Duprey]

Nicholas,

The only other possibility I can think of is Royal Oporto 1973 Colheita. I know I've seen it listed somewhere on the internet but I have not tasted or purchased any of it, but I will probably try to at some point.

I've had very little experience with Royal Oporto but I have tried two of their colheitas, 1997 and 1977, and I thought that both of them were quite good - the 1977 being the significantly better one. I think the 1973 might be definitely worth seeking out, even if only for curiosity's sake.

[Lars F]

Nicholas,
The short story on why there is not more 1973 Ports around was because it was contaminated by what turned out to be industrial brandy.

Andy, how well confirmed is this story, and how come it affected all producers? It must have been a huge scandal at the time.

-Lars (b. 1973) :x

[Shawn Denkler]

For most of the last century, all port producers were required by law to purchase the brandy needed from the government I.V.P. , which is supplied at 77% alcohol. The I.V.P. buys brandy distilled from surplus wine. But apparently at least once industrial alcohol was purchased by mistake. The alcohol came from oil, and is one of many products that can be separated out in the refining process from crude. Industrial alcohol is perfectly safe to drink and is used in many food products. The main problem is that the brandy used is legally supposed to come from grapes.

My source about industrial alcohol being used is George Robertson’s book “Port” 1978. He says that when German scientists were using archaeological dating (probably carbon dating) to check age claims for port, bottles from 1972, 1973, and 1974 were found to be hundreds of years old, which obviously was not true. Latter the truth was found out.

This use of industrial alcohol is well known if you speak with port producers. The government supplied the brandy, so it was not their fault or any fraud on their part. I have heard it spoken about occasionally years ago. The incident happened a long time ago now to forgotten vintages.

This was a somewhat of a scandal to the port trade, but not to consumers. Vintage Port was not declared from those vintages except for Dow and Offley in 1972, which were already sold before the problem was known. The years were just light poor years, so that is why they were not generally declared. I have not heard and I very seriously doubt that any port was destroyed. The only problem was the legal technicality of grape brandy being required.

Today some of the laws regarding port have been changed. Port producers do not have to buy from the government now. Now they probably would have more problems if they used industrial alcohol.

[Tom Archer]

It must have been a huge scandal at the time.

It was - and with a communist revolution to worry about at the same time, it was a thoroughly miserable period for the shippers.

The 1974 vintage was, climatically, very promising - and the vintage may well have been far superior to 1975, but with their world falling apart around them, the shippers thoughts were a million miles from the task of nurturing a vintage brew

Tom