2007 Vintage Port Declarations

[DRT]

Although unconfirmed I was told that I would get a strong support from Noval for my german VP tasting next year. I guess that should mean something, but nothing official yet.

My understanding is that they will declare Noval and Silval but Nacional is not yet decided.

[jdaw1]

There’s a trade function in NY on Monday at which Noval and Romaneira will be presented.

[Axel P]

Delaforce and RCV are declaring, too. That solves the mistery about the brand's future, I guess.

Axel

[Axel P]

Portal is declaring, too.

Axel

[uncle tom]

Delaforce and RCV are declaring, too. That solves the mistery about the brand's future, I guess

Do you know who made the Delaforce? Is it still a wine based mainly on grapes from Q. Corte, or an RCV wine from Q. Carvalhas etc..?

Tom

[Axel P]

I asked exactly this question to my contact at RCV and as well asked for some more info concerning a possible strategy for the future of Delaforce since I do not really believe that the brand fits into the PORTfolio of RCV. Let you know asap.

Other impressions, please?

Axel

[DRT]

List updated to this point.

[DRT]

In addition to their classic Vintage Port, Niepoort will declare an SQVP produced from grapes from their Pisca vineyard.

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHPxKUd6vio - link cross-posted from

[SushiNorth]

OK, so about that video...
1) Go Dirk. That they went and put this on youtube is a great move. It also lets me "meet Dirk" and he's got a very pleasant demeanor.
2) I don't necessarily agree with his analysis of N07, but I think he fairly describes what we were hearing about conditions that year. Also gave some interesting backstory about Pisca.
Perhaps some of the others will take a cue from this and talk about their wines.

[jdaw1]

Readers might also be interested in the thread The 2007 Vintage Port Declaration: Preview Tasting New York, which includes comment on prices. (Low-bandwidth users might be less interested: the first page of that thread contains 5.4 megabytes of pictures.)

[JacobH]

Based on Julian's post, should Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha be added to the list?

I hadn't noticed this before, but there seems to be the beginnings of a trend of shippers declaring both a SQVP and a VP in the same year.

[DRT]

Based on Julian's post, should Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha be added to the list?

Will do so now.

I hadn't noticed this before, but there seems to be the beginnings of a trend of shippers declaring both a SQVP and a VP in the same year.

Perhaps this is in part a reaction to the demand for wines that can be drunk young whilst allowing the shippers to also make long term keepers?

[RonnieRoots]

The first official prices came in:

- Fonseca 2007: € 73,50
- Taylor's 2007: € 59,95

As listed on the site of Ton Overmars in Amsterdam, who is usually quite competitive in pricing. These prices are lower than the 2003's on release. Good news.

[Glenn E.]

The first official prices came in:

- Fonseca 2007: € 73,50
- Taylor's 2007: € 59,95

As listed on the site of Ton Overmars in Amsterdam, who is usually quite competitive in pricing. These prices are lower than the 2003's on release. Good news.

Whether that's per bottle or per case it gets the same reaction from me:

[jdaw1]

‟per fles” = per bottle.

[g-man]

i wonder what the state side prices are then. ..

the 03 fonseca was 49$ when i picked it up

[DRT]

The first official prices came in:

- Fonseca 2007: € 73,50
- Taylor's 2007: € 59,95

As listed on the site of Ton Overmars in Amsterdam, who is usually quite competitive in pricing. These prices are lower than the 2003's on release. Good news.

With the £:€ exchange rate at as good as 1:1 those are prices that will prevent me from buying any 2007s for a very long time to come. £70 for a bottle of 2 year old VP that I won't drink for 20 years just doesn't make sense to me

[DRT]

Should we put prices in a new thread?

[uncle tom]

Should we put prices in a new thread?

We should certainly distinguish between prices for different markets & merchants, and possibly sales qty

Why not add lines beneath each declared VP such as:

Fonseca
- Ton Overmars (NL) €73,50/75cL

Tom

[Alex Bridgeman]

- Fonseca 2007: € 73,50
- Taylor's 2007: € 59,95

Holy Cow!! That Fonseca price is astonishing. I paid £31 a bottle, on release and in bond, for my Fonseca 2003 and I've seen them at auction in the £27-35 per bottle range.

No way will I pay £66 per bottle for the 2007 (or even £54 for the Taylor). Sorry TFP, but if those are the prices then the UK will buy absolutely nothing.

Ouch!

[uncle tom]

Holy Cow!! That Fonseca price is astonishing. I paid £31 a bottle, on release and in bond, for my Fonseca 2003 and I've seen them at auction in the £27-35 per bottle range.

Indeed, but Dutch prices have been very high (in recent years, at least) - hopefully they are not planning to ask such a ludicrous sum in the UK.

The UK auction price for the 2003 has been about £260 - £280/case, barely a third of the Dutch release price for the '07...

Tom

[RonnieRoots]

The '03 release prices of Fonseca and Taylor were about €90 and €75 in the Netherlands. Very expensive, and that's mostly due to the Dutch importers and their ridiculous mark-ups. So this is a step in the right direction. But I agree it's hardly attractive with the current €/£ exchange rate.

Back in 2005 I was tempted to buy Fonseca 03 from BBR, which had a much better price. Including VAT, duty and shipping to the Netherlands it would come down to about €55 a bottle. I managed to find them for the same price closer to home back then, so didn't do it eventually, but just to give you an idea of price differences between NL and UK.

If the prices are right in the UK this time, it would be very attractive for me to buy there, given that I'm on the right side of the low £.

[DRT]

AHB sent me an email earlier today and asked me to post this on his behalf as he has other things to attend to this evening:

At a presentation of 2000, 2003 and 2007 vintage ports by the Taylor Fladgate Partnership, the Symington Family and Noval / Christian Seely, the following interesting items of information were gleaned:

- Retail prices for the 2007 TFP wines are likely to be around 10% higher than the 2003 prices. This reflects a combination of significantly weaker sterling offset by reduced prices reflecting the economic climate. In the order of £45 per bottle in bond for Taylor and Fonseca and £30-35 for Croft.

- TFP and Adrian Bridge in particular are determined to make Croft one of the top tier port producers.

- The growing season was compared by Adrian Bridge to that of 1966 and the bouquet of the wines to those of the 1992 vintage.

- Taylors will be making mixed cases available through their agents, containing 2 bottles Croft, 2 Fonseca and 2 Taylor. This was being pitched at the gift market but I pointed out that this was also perfect for the poor modern consumer forced to use offsite storage where the storage company would only hold unbroken and unmixed cases. Perfect for having balanced drinking by the case in 20 years time.

- Taylors offer to retailers was issued last week and the Symingtons offer went out this morning. Prices to us, the consumers, should be available soon.

- Adrian did not use apostrophes at all during his conversations.

- The Symingtons have entered the ultra-fine port market with Vesuvio Capela. This is a Susao containing blend of super selected grapes with only 250 cases being released.

- Other wines being shipped by the Symingtons include the regular Vesuvio, Graham, Dow, Warre, Smith Woodhouse, Gould Campbell and Quarles Harris.

- Taylors will also be releasing a Skeffington 2007 blend.

- There is a further presentation of 2007 ports on 19th May at Vintners Hall.

[jdaw1]

- The Symingtons have entered the ultra-fine port market with Vesuvio Capela. This is a Susao containing blend of super selected grapes with only 250 cases being released.

Not mentioned on the rather sparse www.quintadovesuvio.com/pt/news.asp, nor on the differently sparse www.quintadovesuvio.com/news.asp.

[g-man]

repost from spectator, Suckling's reviews.

"I was spellbound by the top Vintage Ports of my tasting. They include: Taylor Fladgate Quinta de Vargellas Vinha Velha (97-100 points on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale), Graham (96-99) and Warre (95-98), followed by Dow, Quinta do Noval and Taylor Fladgate (all 94-97). These were the Ports that showed the best grip, the highest density and quality of ripe tannins, and opulent, sweet fruit."