Judging Our 2007 Vintage Port - We rather you do it
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At its most basic level, wine tastings are a fun experience. We check out the wine’s color, smell its bouquet, and most importantly, we taste the wine. Universally, this is accepted as the essential steps of tasting; but the irony is, we all have different sensations, feelings and experiences towards each and every wine. Some find blackberries where others are thinking about plums; some describe a wine as mineral and others say it’s earthy. And does the alcohol affect your month in the say way it affects mine? And acidity, are your taste buds more sensitive than mine?
We interpret the winemaker’s masterpiece in different ways, which logically, allows each and every one of us to discern what we enjoy and what we’d rather dump down our kitchen sink. Even the same wine, tasted by different people, can receive widely different reactions.
And so the story goes with our Quevedo Vintage Port 2007, recently tasted by Jay Miller of the Wine Advocate. Jay tasted a large cross-section of the 2007 Vintage currently in the US market, scoring our Port at 88 points. On the other hand, Wine Enthusiast, another American wine magazine, rated it at 92 points, while Roy Hersh, considered by some as the top Port wine expert in the US, gave it a 93/95+.
So I was wondering, what qualifies as an 88 point Port wine for Wine Advocate? Here are some examples:
- Graham Vintage Port 1966
- Taylor Vintage Port 1966
- Fonseca Vintage Port 1966
- Croft Vintage Port 1977
- Dow Vintage Port 1980
- Warre Vintage Port 1980
- Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port 1991
We’re pretty happy to be in the company of such fine wines. Critics and points are nice, but what matters more to us is what you our customer think of this wine. Therefore, we invite you to visit our winery to share a glass of our Vintage 2007 with our family; or if you stumble across our wine in another part of the world, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts here.
But better yet, tell us what you think a point tastes like? What do points mean to you? How do they shape your experience with the wines that you love! We want to know!
Oscar
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Bad weather conditions damage our winery
The bad weather of the last week-end left a trace of destruction almost everywhere in Portugal. After landslides reported in Azores, heavy rain in the north and center of Portugal with floods in the Tejo valley, in the Douro the troblemaker was the wind. At our winery, the most affected part was the roof of our stainless steel bins cellar. 30% of it flu away. And guess where the pieces of the roof flu to? Right, to the middle of the vineyards!
This is definitively not a big issue, only material damage reported. But we will need some weeks to repair our winery and restore the coverage of the different building affected.
And as this was not enough, yesterday we lost the phone connection…
If you are visiting us these days, you already know what is waiting for you!
Oscar
Music-pairing: Rosé with Ruby?
Last week, we were watching Porto-Arsenal at a friend’s and Óscar brought the new Rosé Port for a preview tasting. Forgetting football, food and friends, the Rosé was the best part of the evening. And somewhere in the second glass of it, a music came to my mind as a perfect pair for the wine: Ruby, by the Kaiser Chiefs. Here it is, to enjoy with the Rosé 2009 with some friends, after a day’s work:
Now the challenge: with which music would you pair the Vintage 2007?
Cheers,
Pedro
Tasting Port with friends and a hard revelation
A couple of weeks ago, when I visited London, I participated in a very special tasting at Crusting Pipe, co-organized by two Brit friends I met last year in the Douro, Derek and Alex. Wine has this attractive, easily puts a group of people together to discuss and to have fun. And I enjoyed a lot while tasting some old Ports, the majority were Colheitas, which are something the British are not familiar with. In my opinion almost all the Ports we tasted performed well, some great stuff was on the table. This is the list of Colheitas:
- 1934 Dalva
- Imperial Hedges & Butler maybe from the 1930s (on the photo)
- 1965 Krohn
- 1968 Niepoort
- 1975 Quevedo
- 1994 Niepoort
But at the end of the tasting, when I asked them to make this video and to share with us what did they learn that night, Thursday, 11th February, the answers were astonishing. They don’t like Colheitas? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…. We all know that the British market prefers Ports aged in the bottle rather than aged in oak. But does that mean they have to dislike Ports aged in the wood?
All in all this was a GREAT night (which finished with a beer (because of Scottish customs…). and I also met four new friends of Port: Muriel, Ben, Chris and Jacob. What did I learn that night? Get-togethers are great opportunities to meet your friends and share some glasses of Port. And if you invite me, I’ll try to go 
Oscar
Sarah Ahmed at the 50 Great Portuguese Wines organized by Viniportugal in the UK
Last week, while I was in London, I went to an event organized by Viniportugal to promote Portuguese wines. Its name is 50 Great Portuguese Wines and it goes on its 5th edition. Since 2005 Viniportugal has been inviting, every year, a wine expert to taste and select 50 wines that he or she considers best represents wines from Portugal. This year the selected master was Sarah Ahmed. During the tasting I asked Sarah to share with us what she forecasts for the Portuguese wines for the next years.
Oscar
P.S. I had also the pleasure to meet Judy Kendrick and her crew at the tasting! Judy rocks!
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Cheese made with Port - an English speciality
Last week I visited John Greenwold owner of Wine Fantastic, our distributor in England. Wednesday he hosted a dinner for his clients so we could all meet, discuss and taste some wines. When the cheeses came to the table something that received my attention and intrigued me: meat-color cheese with a kind of sauce on the top. What is this? John told me that this is cheese aged in Port Wine for some time, gaining a slightly sweet flavor. I tried a slice and I liked it. But then a question emerged, should we drink it with Port?!? I decided to pair it with… water, it was late and my liver was begging for a brake!
I do not know its name, does anyone can help?
Oscar
Preparing the soil for planting a white grapes vineyard in Quinta da Trovisca
Did you read the previous post? If so, you’ve noticed that we were challenging you to guess what we will do in the area in front of the winery. In the comments’ section, you can see that Andy Velebil bet on a white grapes vineyard. Well, the answer is not correct, but in other place, we are actually planting a white grapes vines. The photo show the bulldozer preparing the soil of Quinta da Trovisca, and making the traditional terraces from the Douro, “patamares” or “sucalcos” in Portuguese. We will plant Viosinho, Rabo-de-Ovelha Rabigato and Gouveio (also known as Verdelho) in March. But that will be shown in further posts. Stay tuned!
Works at the winery - what comes next?
This is a photo of the area around our winery. In the last weeks we have been working in this area. At the same time, in the edge, we have planted some olive trees. My question for you is: what will we do in this area? Tip: until some months ago there were red vines here.
The first to guess it will get a free bottle of Quevedo Rose Port next time he/she visit us!
Oscar
Douro river is rising - dams can’t sustain all the water
How many of you can recognize this road? And how many of you know where this dam is located? It has been raining a lot here and the soils can’t absorb more water. So all the water goes down the hill, quickly reaching the streams that take the water to the Douro river.
Is this damaging the vineyards? No, but I would say that we do not need more water for now, at least until March or April.
Oscar
The snow is again in the Douro - bring the skiis, we have some nice slopes
The snow is covering the Douro valley of white. Beautiful scenario in a very cold and rainy Winter so far. At the same time, these cold temperatures are helping in the clearing of the wines. But enough is enough and also our pet thinks we don’t need more cold. Spring, we are all waiting for you…
Oscar
Quevedo was founded in 1991 as a family owned business in the heart of the Douro valley, responding to the needs of the generations that preceded the associate founders. These ancestors were passionately dedicated to their vineyards and to the culture that surrounded the production of wine. Consequently, the company was created as a seamless marriage between the initial phase of production and the promotion and selling of their wines. Currently, the estate is comprised of 100 hectares located in the regions of Cima-Corgo and Douro Superior, producing both red and port wines from only the five traditional port grapes Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão and Tinta Barroca. 