For The Love Of Port

I keep kicking myself for not getting the 1952 Dalva Colheita White Port when I was in Porto two years ago. If anyone would like to sell a bottle or two, or pick one up for me when they go to Porto, it would be deeply appreciated.

Too bad this doesn't make its way to the US...

I tried contacting the store in Switzerland that comes up if you do a wine-searcher.com search to buy a bottle or two, but haven't heard back from them in over a week. Switzerland? Well, I'll be there next week and I too would very much like to get a bottle of this.

Marco,

I sent you an email.

Given how few are left to be sold, I am sure the price has escalated since you were there Marco.

At least you can say that you've been able to try it!


Roy

The other thing I noted, this past spring, the last bottling was packaged in a nice wooden box instead of the cardboard carton from before.

Marco; the bottle can be found at Garrafeira Nacional in Lissabon. Priced at EUR 120.
https://www.garrafeiranacional.com/en_e ... hite-port/

Best,

Niklas

Marco D. wrote:I keep kicking myself for not getting the 1952 Dalva Colheita White Port when I was in Porto two years ago. If anyone would like to sell a bottle or two, or pick one up for me when they go to Porto, it would be deeply appreciated.

Too bad this doesn't make its way to the US...

Connecticut is not too far from Montreal, come for a week end a buy a few :) One of the only great Port we have at decent price considering rarity and outside price list. I think its 230$can

SAQ has the Dalva?

What other white Colheitas are worth seeking out? The '52 is only one I have ever tried and lived up to the hype.

The 1964 Krohn Colheita Branco is very nice, and about half the price of the Dalva. I also have a bottle of the Casa de Santa Eufemia Special Reserve White Port, which is a 1973 but cannot be labeled as such, but I've never tried it.

I'd love to get ahold of a bottle of Dirk's new 10-yr old White Port, too, but I haven't seen it for sale in the US.

Glenn E. wrote:The 1964 Krohn Colheita Branco is very nice, and about half the price of the Dalva. I also have a bottle of the Casa de Santa Eufemia Special Reserve White Port, which is a 1973 but cannot be labeled as such, but I've never tried it.

I'd love to get ahold of a bottle of Dirk's new 10-yr old White Port, too, but I haven't seen it for sale in the US.

Why can the Casa de Santa Eufemia Special Reserve White Port not be vintage labeled, while the Dalva and Krohn Colheita Branco can? Any ideas?

I don't know the complete story, but it had something to do with not filing the proper paperwork in time or something like that. It's a 1973 Colheita, but they can't say that on the label due to some minor slip-up in the process. It does say "more than 30 years old" on the back label, but that's all they were allowed to do.

Glenn E. wrote:I don't know the complete story, but it had something to do with not filing the proper paperwork in time or something like that. It's a 1973 Colheita, but they can't say that on the label due to some minor slip-up in the process. It does say "more than 30 years old" on the back label, but that's all they were allowed to do.

Or maybe because its not a single vintage? Perhaps a blend of 1972 and 1973 as mentioned in Roy's tasting note? (subscribers can view Roy's tasting note database)

You may recall a thread on this a while ago. I don't think this was ever definitively resolved?
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... f=1&t=7074

Marco D. wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:I don't know the complete story, but it had something to do with not filing the proper paperwork in time or something like that. It's a 1973 Colheita, but they can't say that on the label due to some minor slip-up in the process. It does say "more than 30 years old" on the back label, but that's all they were allowed to do.

Or maybe because its not a single vintage? Perhaps a blend of 1972 and 1973 as mentioned in Roy's tasting note? (subscribers can view Roy's tasting note database)

You may recall a thread on this a while ago. I don't think this was ever definitively resolved?
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... f=1&t=7074

I don't think it has ever been resolved with 100% authority. I think Andy and Goncalo were basically told different stories by the same people, so it's really difficult to know for sure what's going on. I got my version of the story from AVEPOD in Porto, which is a store that specializes in small, independent producers, so you'd think they'd know too.

But whether it is a 1972 or a 1973 doesn't really matter that much to me, as either one would be pretty rare.

I have also seen a report of Vista Alegre White Port 1985. I think that some of the board members have had it and could report on it.

The story we were told when we meet with one of the owners of Casa de Santa Eufemia and did a tasting with her, was when the family split the company they also split some of the stocks of Port. When this happened Casa de Santa Eufemia and Quinta de Santa Eufemia both got some of the stocks of the 1973 White Port. Quinta de Santa Eufemia makes a 30 year old white tawny out of it and Case de Santa Eufemia makes the Casa de Santa Eufemia Special Reserve White Port. The later is not a blended tawny, but a colheita. However, they can't label it as a colheita, as the proper paperwork was not initially filed with the IVP (now the IVDP) after harvest. Hence why it is called the Special Reserve White Port

The Casa de Santa Eufemia Special Reserve White Port is from 1973. I know as that is my birth year and we all talked about it during the tasting and about ways to discretely put 1973 into the front or back label. Not to mention it is only one of two 1973 Port I have ever actually seen (although I've heard of a couple others).

That's the story I was told and I'm sticking to it

Andy Velebil wrote:The story we were told when we meet with one of the owners of Casa de Santa Eufemia ...

Thanks for the summary, Andy. I assume then that Roy's tasting note should be for the Quinta, not Casa (that's what originally confused me).

It's odd that the 1964 Krohn has a vintage date on it, as it supposedly was only recently discovered in their cellars... unless they filed the paperwork back in 1964 and forgot about it. Given that this was before the age of computers, it's a plausible scenario.

I don't know the exact time-line of when the paperwork has to be filed with the IVDP of what Port you intend to make, but I think it is within the first few years after harvest. Hopefully someone else knows or one of the producers can wade in and shed some light on the matter for us. But I have been told you can't go back retroactively. So I assume the Krohn was originally declared as a colheita.

Marco D. wrote:It's odd that the 1964 Krohn has a vintage date on it, as it supposedly was only recently discovered in their cellars... unless they filed the paperwork back in 1964 and forgot about it. Given that this was before the age of computers, it's a plausible scenario.

There are lots of stories of "lost" pipas showing up again many years later. I've heard a similar story about some of the 1977 Kopke/Rocha Colheita that was "discovered" and bottled after they thought that they'd already used all of it.

So my guess on the Krohn is that they filed the paperwork back in the 60s, then lost track of the Port in their records. Once they "found" it again and realized it had been properly registered, they bottled it. Lucky for us, because it's a very nice white Colheita!