Churchill Crusted Port Tasting 28 July

[Axel P]

After having spent a night at marvelous Quinta da Gricha some three weeks ago with Churchill's winemaker Ricardo Nunes, I will defintely be there:

https://churchills-port.com/lifestyle/e ... l-tasting/

I believe Crusted Port is very much underrated and except Niepoort and Churchill no producer is bottling this category regularly.

Hope to see you all there.

Axel

[Alex Bridgeman]

I plan to be on the tasting, although I haven't bought the tasting pack.

Graham, Fonseca and Quevedo also regularly bottle Crusted Port. Graham Crusted is a regular bottle in UK supermarkets.

[flash_uk]

I couldn't find the tasting pack on the website.

[CPR 1]

I couldn't find the tasting pack on the website.

Glad it is not just me that couldn't find them!

[JacobH]

Does Dow still produce it? I think I’ve seen that around occasionally, but it might just be old bottles.

I think Crusted is badly disadvantaged by its name which is just too obscure to make any sense to any consumer who really doesn’t know what they are talking about already. Similar to the problems with colheita (which I notice has now been relegated to the bottom of the label in favour of Tom’s suggested “Single Harvest Tawny” by most of the English shippers).

I think something like “Aged Ruby” would better capture what it is.

There’s also a bit of disagreement about the importance of the bottling date. Some shippers, like Churchill, make a big deal about it (as we can see from this tasting), whilst Niepoort has relegated it to the small print. I think either approach can work: Tom used to point out that the Crusted Port is the only port you can buy with this year’s year on it which should make it attractive to the christening market; but also by treating it as a consistent blend you are putting it apart from unfiltered LBV. However, I don’t think it helps for an already tiny market to be split further.

I’m afraid I can’t make this tasting but would otherwise have been keen. Let’s hope Churchill do some more: the tawnies would be the obvious next ones!

[DaveRL]

Crusted is a terrible name and needs working on. Premium Blended Vintage Port, perhaps stating in the blurb on the back which years are blended, might be better?