For The Love Of Port

I have never tried a colheita port before but I am eager to try a few. Can anyone recommed some good examples for $100 or less that are reasonably easy to find?

Thanks!

Bob

Robert, here are a few,

The 1994 krohn's is a good one for around the $30 IIRC. Give it about 12+ hours of decanter time and it is singing.

The 1994 Niepoort is also very good and one of my favorite young ones.

1974 Noval, love it

The older (from the 1960's) Krohn's are a bit hit and miss for me. I think most of them are overpriced for the quality and would rather get the Noval's.

I agree with Andy the 74 noval is good, also the 71 and 64 noval are also very good as well. You can’t go wrong with any of those colheita and they are within your price range :blah:

Thanks for such quick responses. Has anyone tried the 1996 Niepoort?

The 1996 or the 1986? I don't think they have released a 1996 Colheita yet, but I could be wrong.

If its the 1986 you're refering to, I've had it once and thought it was off the mark for a Niepoort Colheita. Granted that was only one bottle, so not sure if it was just an off bottle or not.

The 1995 is also tasty, but I thought the 1994 was just a little better.

Sorry, I meant the 1986. Soubnds like it is a pass though

Another vote for the 74 Noval, had it the other night and it wowed non-port drinkers, also one Lady who,as she said, rarely drank came back for a second glass!

Paul.

For quality , I loved the Krohn 1958 , powerful and sweet , but over $100.00 CDN .
But for an excellent price/quality ratio , (- $50.00 ) I enjoyed Barros 1983 .

Robert O. wrote:Sorry, I meant the 1986. Soubnds like it is a pass though

I liked the Noval '86 - it isn't excellent, but I did think it a very decent drop nonetheless. The Niepoort '86 was better IMO however. Andy, how did you find the Noval '86 then? Niepoort's '79 is a very lovable drop also if you can get that.

-O-

Otto,

I cannot recall having the Noval 1986 colheita yet...will have to dig through my notes to see if I am wrong

Robert,
I haven't tried many of the older Colheitas, but I have tried both the Krohn '90 and '94 which were both very good with a few hours of decanting time (6 for the 90 and about 10-12 for the 94.)
I haven't posted my TNs on either yet. Expect to see them soon. Both bottles were under $45Cdn, so well within your price range.

I guess, that all being said, they were both almost like very good 10 yr Tawny. Not much difference. The '90 may have been closer in character to a 20 yr Tanwy, but I believe the '94 had better juice and therefore made the better Colheita.

Todd

Hi Robert

My experience with Colheitas is mostly limited to Krohn, but I could recommend their 1997, 1992, 1983 and if you're willing to go the extra mile money-wise I would say 1966 or 1965.

-Lars

Robert O. wrote:I have never tried a colheita port before but I am eager to try a few. Can anyone recommed some good examples for $100 or less that are reasonably easy to find?

If you are just getting your start with Colheitas, I would recommend that you try to do a side-by-side with a tawny of similar age. For example, I was able to do a side-by-side comparison of a 1994 Offley Baron of Forrester Colheita (bottled in 2005) and the "regular" Offley 10-year tawny. It was an excellent way to see what a "vintage" grape adds to the mix.

You should use the recommendations on this thread as guidance and select a Colheita that has a bottling age in the ~10, 20, 30, or 40 year ballpark (be sure to check the "bottled in" year that's stamped on the bottle ... almost as important as the harvest year printed on the label). Then you can purchase a tawny of similar age from the same port house ... this makes it more likely that you'll be sampling port made in the same style, by the same wine-making team, in the same type of barrels and conditions. Once you've got your two bottles, you can sit back and enjoy the experiment ... hopefully the Colheita will exhibit some characteristics that make it stand out from the regular tawny blend.

Enjoy! And be sure to report back with your findings. :)

(All that said, the Kopke 1941 Colheita is stellar if you can get your hands on some ... perhaps the best port I have ever had)

Hey Robert,

If you are looking for a colheita with all the bells and whistles I would recomend the Krohn Colheita 1965.

Very seldom does a colheita gather all the qualities of a well balanced tawny in a single year. 1965 for Krohn was just that. Although Roy is not a big fan of this year, from his tastings notes, I rate this a 100.

You can find is for about 140.00 USD although sometimes you may find it on sale from wine shops that do not know what they have.

Cheers

One of my favorites has always been the 1937 Niepoort (although I prefer the '35 ... I have had lots less experience with it).

For young ones, the '71 and '74 Noval are really fine, but the 1963 Burmester and the '57 Kopke ... do it for me!

I think it's amazing that folks have tried so many different Colheitas. For those of you in the US, are you able to find such selection at a local wine shop or are you ordering online? I'd really like to find a source with a decent selection of Colheitas and reasonable prices. Except for one local wine shop, most of the retailers that I deal with don't even know what a Colheita is (in fact, I had one this week tell me that a Colheita only gets 7 years in barrel)...

Thanks for all of the advice everyone. I live in Kansas City, so can't easily find colheitas, but am moving back to NYC soon, so I think I should be able to track down a few. I will try the suggestion of trying them side by side with a soimilar age tawny.

And of course, i will be sure post some tasting notes!

Michael C. wrote:I think it's amazing that folks have tried so many different Colheitas. For those of you in the US, are you able to find such selection at a local wine shop or are you ordering online? I'd really like to find a source with a decent selection of Colheitas and reasonable prices.

There is also very limited selection of Colheita available here in Edmonton. I think we have a selection of 7 Colheitas spread over 6-7 stores locally. If I was to do a round-trip to all 7, I would put nearly 80 km (50 miles) on my car. Not easy to do price-comparison!

Michael C. wrote:Except for one local wine shop, most of the retailers that I deal with don't even know what a Colheita is (in fact, I had one this week tell me that a Colheita only gets 7 years in barrel)...

This made me laugh out loud because I had one very confused shop clerk try to tell me the same thing. I suggested that he might be confusing the term Colheita with Tawny (of non Age-Designation). He still insisted that they only get 7 years and I must be mistaken.
Fortunately his was one shop where they have a 1977 Barros Colheita (bottled 2006) - I had bought from a different shop, but these guys had the same bottle (for $10 more!). I pointed out to him the label that very clearly stated on the back Bottled in 2006. So, for 7 years it sat in wood, then it was what? Transferred to stainless steel???

Todd

Todd Pettinger wrote:This made me laugh out loud because I had one very confused shop clerk try to tell me the same thing. I suggested that he might be confusing the term Colheita with Tawny (of non Age-Designation). He still insisted that they only get 7 years and I must be mistaken.
Fortunately his was one shop where they have a 1977 Barros Colheita (bottled 2006) - I had bought from a different shop, but these guys had the same bottle (for $10 more!). I pointed out to him the label that very clearly stated on the back Bottled in 2006. So, for 7 years it sat in wood, then it was what? Transferred to stainless steel???

It's comforting to know that I'm not the only one having these conversations. At least the guy I was talking to realized that (after pushing back a few times) there might be something to learn from the discussion. I even got the impression that he was going to order some Colheita for himself so he could try it out. There might be some light at the end of the tunnel after all. :)

Sounds like you have quite the collection of Colheitas there in Edmonton. I picked up a 1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita (BD 2006) last week ... and that's about the extent of Colheitas that I can find locally. Everything else has to be ordered or picked up when I travel.

Speaking of the 1977 Barros Colheita ... I've had my eye on a 750ml and just recently read your review. If you don't mind my asking, what did you pay for the '77? Is it worth $75-80 USD (that's the price I'm seeing on it)?

Michael C. wrote:Sounds like you have quite the collection of Colheitas there in Edmonton. I picked up a 1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita (BD 2006) last week ... and that's about the extent of Colheitas that I can find locally. Everything else has to be ordered or picked up when I travel.

Well, it may seem like a lot, but there are several producers conspicuously absent from the Colheita lineup (Niepoort being the most important - I have heard excellent things about their Colheitas, but cannot find one locally.) Barros and Kopke are the most-represented with 5 of 7 of those wines listed:
1967 Barros
1977 Barros
<<one is missing here... Can't recall off the top of my head the producer or year...:?)
1990 Kopke
1994 Calem
1994 Kopke
1997 Kopke

Michael C. wrote:Speaking of the 1977 Barros Colheita ... I've had my eye on a 750ml and just recently read your review. If you don't mind my asking, what did you pay for the '77? Is it worth $75-80 USD (that's the price I'm seeing on it)?

Not at all... I paid $34Cdn (~$31USd) for a 375, which when you compare to the 750 mL prices found on wine-searcher (Non-pro version!) seems pretty reasonable [range of C$76-86 or $72-83USD]
I enjoyed it... TN is to come, likely tomorrow when I finish the bottle.

Todd