For The Love Of Port

This was etheral at first but calmed down after four hours.A cuvee bottled in 82 These and colheitas are not my favourite but maybe I have not had as many good ones.I prefer vintage ports that have turned tawny with age.although I have had some 100 years plus which were good and a safer bet for buying drinkability.But lets get back on track this I enjoyed syrupy sweet almost almondy mid poor finishing sweet and ever so slightly hot.

I'm going to expose my ignorance, and say that not only have I never tasted a Quarles Harris, I've also never heard of it before.
Suppose I'm going to have to go Googling and reading my book a bit more!

Alan

Andy again (not Roy) Sorry about using Roy's account, but his computer doesn't like my log in attempts this A.M. and I can't go this long without posting....yes, I'm a Port nerd

Alan,

Quarles Harris is owned by the Symington family, who also owns Dow, Graham's, Warre, Gould Campbell, Smith Woodhouse, Q.d. Vesuvio, Q.d. Roriz, and some Maderia and dry wines. For lack of a better term, the QH is a lesser line of Ports. The Symington family website only mentions it, but there is no link, unlike all their other holdings. IIRC, the fruit for QH comes from various properties the Symington's own and buy from.

I've had a QH from 1977 and it was surprisingly good for a "lesser" house. TN is here http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... les+harris

BTW, here is the Symington's web site if your interested.
http://www.symington.com

Andy,

Thanks for that. Thats more information than I got from 10 minutes Googling. It also explains why it had slipped under my limited Radar.

Alan

The wine page on the Symington website lists the VPs, in something that looks like order of reputation:

The Symingtons wrote:Graham's
Warre's
Dow's
Smith Woodhouse
Quinta do Vesuvio
Gould Campbell
Quarles Harris
Quinta de Roriz

1. Possessivetastic.
2. In disagreement with Roy’s list (but agreement with my thoughts), Warre's is above Dow's.

Julian,

That's a rather controversial line-up - or was it intentionally provocative

My own take is pretty close to the standing in the market place (Roriz excepted - which (as a newcomer) has yet to be fully appreciated.)

My list runs:

Graham
Vesuvio
Warre
Roriz
Dow
Smith Woodhouse
Gould Campbell
Quarles Harris

One can debate the relative placing of the middle runners, and argue the placing of Graham in pole position, but to my mind there is no debate about the placing of QH at the back of the pack - a wine that has no clear identity of it's own, and is best known (in small print) as Tesco's own brand VP...

Tom

PS Yes - I agree that Dow is over-rated in many listings.

Alan C wrote:I'm going to expose my ignorance, and say that not only have I never tasted a Quarles Harris, I've also never heard of it before.
Suppose I'm going to have to go Googling and reading my book a bit more!

Alan

Alan,

You will be tasting the Quarles Harris 1977 in June 8)

Derek

Derek,

I'll look forward to it. I must say this thread isn't giving it the best write up I ever heard, but as you know, I cant really be described as 'Fussy' and it'll be another learning curve.

Alan

I'm going to speak up for the QH'77. Its been a while since I had one but it was very enjoyable.

QH used for Tesco own label I would avoid. That's got little to do with QH's wine selection and all to do with Tesco's storage policies. In general, I find QH ports perfectly acceptable for the modest price they usually fetch.

Alex

bridgema wrote:I'm going to speak up for the QH'77. Its been a while since I had one but it was very enjoyable

Alex

Alex,

I agree, the one time I had it recently, it was much better than i thought it would be.