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A port wine society?
Posted: 19:09 Wed 03 Sep 2008
by uncle tom
Looking at the site of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, I note that in just two decades they have amassed 20,000 members, and that neither membership nor the products they offer come cheap. They state that they bottle up to twenty casks per month.
Essentially, they hunt down good single casks and bottle them unfiltered - nothing terribly complicated.
Could this be done with port? I don't see why not..
For wood ports, single pipe bottlings of Colheitas could probably be negotiated without too much difficulty, and with a little prodding, special bottlings of VP could probably be arranged as well. Deals could also be struck to buy up odd remnants of old VP stocks in the lodges, or pack mixed cases of the new releases.
There could be a special society Reserve port (unfiltered) and maybe a Crusted as well.
Like the SMWS, the membership would primarily consist of people who like a good drink, and like something a bit special, but are not quite as geeky as most of us here. I can envisage Roy conducting special members' tours in Portugal..
Is this a runner? If the Whisky buffs number 20k, there should be enough Port buffs to make the producers take notice and co-operate, although getting the thing off the ground would seem the hard part.
Thoughts?
Tom
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 19:21 Wed 03 Sep 2008
by jdaw1
Am I the only member of both
and
SMWS? Most of my whisky comes from the SMWS.
The difference is that SMWS sell something that, until recently, was otherwise unavailable. Whisky, at cask strength, not chill filtered: just as it came out of the cask. Whisky is usually sold pre-diluted down to 40%, and chill-filtered to remove the haze introduced by the addition of water.
What would the Port society sell that is otherwise unavailable?
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 22:46 Wed 03 Sep 2008
by uncle tom
What would the Port society sell that is otherwise unavailable?
I envisage that the great majority of the offered products would not be otherwise available - wood ports from selected barrels in the lodges, lots of VP from individual quintas in declared years as well as undeclared years, and individual lotes that are showing particularly well.
In addition, LBV, Reserves & Crusted wines could be selected for bottling, the willingness to pay a small premium over the going rate ensuring that the very best wines are offered.
Tom
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 00:09 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by g-man
Can we have tasting glasses made with the Port Wine Society logo?
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 00:18 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by g-man
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 02:09 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by Frederick Blais
My only concern with Port is the blend. One barrel is just not as good as the final blend, especially for tawnies style. For VP, pipes are huge and still they blend them but would we be able to buy one pipe and sell 10 000 bottles made from it?
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 02:30 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by g-man
10,000??
I thought a pipe of port was about 60 cases ... 720 bottles...
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 08:58 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by uncle tom
it seems the port wine society is taken.
Only as a little used sub-directory of myspace - The name is available at Companies House
Can we have tasting glasses made with the Port Wine Society logo?
- Why not!
I take Fred's point about blending, but that argument applies equally to whisky. The whisky blenders would argue that the blended product is better, but the punters like the unique identity of single cask bottlings.
From one of the pipes stacked up in the lodges, you can bottle around 60 cases on average, although they are not all the same size. For a single lote bottling of VP, there is no reason why you should have to drain the whole tank - you might contract to have a pipe or two drawn off and bottled, possibly indulging a full range of formats from halves to imperials.
In addition to special bottlings, a society could also seek out and stock wines from small independant quintas that are not widely distributed in the UK.
Tom
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 11:54 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by JacobH
uncle tom wrote:Looking at the site of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, I note that in just two decades they have amassed 20,000 members, and that neither membership nor the products they offer come cheap. They state that they bottle up to twenty casks per month.
Is this a runner? If the Whisky buffs number 20k, there should be enough Port buffs to make the producers take notice and co-operate, although getting the thing off the ground would seem the hard part.
The question seems to be one of numbers. How many Port drinkers are there who would be serious enough to participate and would this be enough to get such an enterprise off the ground? Even before the recent up-surge of demand, the popularity of Scotch would have been of an order of magnitude greater greater than Port. Many (actually, I might go so far as to say most) bars in London will stock several several single malts or premium whiskies, whereas there are few have any equivalent Port. Berry Bros stocks 66 Ports and 255 Scotch whiskies.
The other question which immediately comes to mind concerns the IVDP. Unless I am mistaken, the rules on Scotch are much less restrictive than on Port and, of course, for something set up in the UK (as I think the Scotch Malt Whisky Society( is), access to Scotland has fewer language/transportation issues than the Douro.
That said, a society which built up a relationship with some of producers would be excellent. It could work at both ends of the Port industry; both by facilitating the availability of wines from some of the smaller producers and, with the larger shippers, perhaps allowing an increase in the production of currently unavailable Ports (e.g. unfiltered LBVs from the shippers who only do filtered ones).
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 12:01 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by DRT
Am I right in thinking that TMWS is owned by one of the large brands? Glenmorangie or Glenfiddich spring to mind.
That obviously gives then significant financial strength and allows them to invest the sums necessary to source their products. I'm not sure how a merry band of Port enthusiasts would be able to run a similar venture for our chosen liquid sunshine?
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 20:06 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by jdaw1
smws.co.uk/about/ wrote:The Scotch Malt Whisky Society began life some twenty years ago when a group of friends clubbed together to buy a cask of fine malt whisky. It took a few years before they opened their doors wider and today the Society has three superb venues and over 20,000 members worldwide.
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 20:15 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by benread
jdaw1 wrote:smws.co.uk/about/ wrote:The Scotch Malt Whisky Society began life some twenty years ago when a group of friends clubbed together to buy a cask of fine malt whisky. It took a few years before they opened their doors wider and today the Society has three superb venues and over 20,000 members worldwide.
Doesn't sound that difficult when put like that!
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 21:47 Thu 04 Sep 2008
by DRT
jdaw1 wrote:smws.co.uk/about/ wrote:The Scotch Malt Whisky Society began life some twenty years ago when a group of friends clubbed together to buy a cask of fine malt whisky. It took a few years before they opened their doors wider and today the Society has three superb venues and over 20,000 members worldwide.
I realised that it started off small but today it is owned by a member of the trade. I am not sure if this is the reason for or a consequence of it having 20,000 members. Does anyone know this history in terms of annual growth from inception and how they achieved it?
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 02:57 Fri 05 Sep 2008
by g-man
Between you guys and FTLOP, I would imagine we could easily find a "hand full" of people with enough pull to get something started.
Sides, aren't you guys making a trip down to port valley? Put some purple honey on the tongues and see if any of the houses would be interested =)
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 19:08 Fri 05 Sep 2008
by g-man
Re: A port wine society?
Posted: 05:47 Sat 06 Sep 2008
by RonnieRoots
Very interesting idea. I can imagine that especially small independent quintas will be interested to accommodate such a society. And there is plenty of exceptional quality to be found there.
