Henekeys Port Wine - seeking information

[axel31uk]

Hello. I am new to the forum, and I am interested to hear from any members who might have information on a bottle of Henekeys port wine.

Because of my general interest in wine (drinking it!), an elderly neighbour asked me if I could find any information about a old bottle of port that he has. The bottle is a Henekeys port wine, and my neighbour is interested in what it is worth. If it isn't worth much he would still be interested in any background information. I have contacted some vintage port companies, but thought this forum would also be useful too.

The label reads as follows:
"Most rare and choice Port Wine
As selected many years ago from the oldest stock of Wines in Oporto for presentation to HRH the PRINCE of WALES by his late Majesty DOM LUIZ 1st King of Portugal.
Shipped by HENEKEYS Ltd established in 1695 at 22 &23 HIGH HOLBORN LONDON WC1
OPORTO

There is no year listed on the label. Has anyone come across any of these before? Or advise me where I might find some further information? (I have a couple of pictures but when I tried to attach to this message and error message came up saying they were too big to attach).

Thanks, Kirk Davies

[jdaw1]

(I have a couple of pictures but when I tried to attach to this message and error message came up saying they were too big to attach).

Hello. Email me the pictures (contact info) and I’ll post them for you.

I know of a Henekeys and Backs of Norwich. Maybe it had a branch in High Holborn. If so, this is a Buyer’s Own Brand, much like a blend for the Wine Society or for Sainsbury’s. But the pictures might reveal more.

[JacobH]

The address is the Cittie of Yorke which seems to have been called "Henekey's Public House" at some stage. I did wonder if the reference to Luís I (died 1889) and "the" Prince of Wales would potentially make this quite an old bottle (say 1890 to 1901?) but wikipedia suggests the WC2 postcode was invented in 1917 so I guess that gives us an earliest possible date.

Even if it is quite old, it's probably not worth a great deal. I think its value would be more as a historical novelty than a fine wine.

[axel31uk]

Thank you for both responses. Having done some further research on the internet, I have come across a few auction lots (from 5 or 10 years ago) where well know port brand names (Dow, Warre, Croft, Taylors, etc) are listed as bottled and sold by Henekeys. All those bottles are 1950s and 1960s vintages. Its a shame there is no date on this particular bottle I am researching.

[axel31uk]

Julian, I did post the pictures to you. Please let me know if you haven't received them. Even if no more is known about the bottle, there may be some on the forum interested to see visually what I was interested in finding out more about. Thanks.

[jdaw1]

[JacobH]

That’s a rather lovely label (although I would prefer it if it wasn’t over-printed with “Produce of Portugal”)! I’m a bit sad that that style of hand-written labels has completely gone from the industry. I think the closest is probably El Vino’s house port which, in keeping with their long-standing tradition of ignoring rules and regulations is called a “Vintage Character”!

[jdaw1]

El Vino’s house port

“El Vino was purchased by the Davy family from the Mitchell family in 2015.”

[JacobH]

El Vino’s house port

“El Vino was purchased by the Davy family from the Mitchell family in 2015.”

And now they seem only to be selling the Davy’s Ruby Reserve which has a much less interesting label than the old El Vino’s one. A shame. (I presume they ran down the stocks of the old house blend after the takeover since I’m sure I’ve seen it there more recently than 2015.)

[Andy Velebil]

Value is hard to put on something like this. Wording such as that can be sorta true, depending on how much of the old Port they used to make the blend. And that they selected the wines "...many years ago..." indicates they had already blended this. Perhaps had some extra lying around and discovered a way to get rid of it. Who knows?

It's been in bottle a long time so a toss up as to how it's aged in bottle. I wouldn't pay a lot since it's a gamble, perhaps $50-75 (USD).