For The Love Of Port

This was served to me and some others double blind. Some info first on this, now, one of a kind Port. One I've read about and seen old bottles of this type of Port but had never tasted one and didn't even know anyone still had any. It is still an approved category of Port by the IVDP. While tasting, and making wrong guesses as to what it was, we were given hints to help us identify it, as it was obviously a tawny of some sort but had a very weird flavor to it as well. When finally told what it was I was shocked and thrilled to try something I've only ever read about. This came from an old cask found in the company cellar and is only known to be over 60 years old. A very small amount of 375ml bottles were bottled recently as an experiment. They are samples only and not for sale.

Typical pale tawny of an older wood aged Port. While it has some familiar woody, toffee, mahogany, dried flowers, citrus, and honey it also has a very strange, almost bitter, component to it that I can't place. A nice moderately long dry and bitter finish. Perhaps a bad or off bottle? I had many guesses that were all wrong. Turns out this was an old tawny Port that had Quinine added to it as a way for people to combat malaria. I didn't rate is as I have no comparison to rate something that has Quinine added, nor do I think I should score it. I'll just say it was different, but still very drinkable and enjoyable once I knew what it was.

I've also seen bottles of Quinine Sherry in the past.

Eric Ifune wrote:I've also seen bottles of Quinine Sherry in the past.

I can tell you it did nothing to keep the mosquito's of the Douro from turning me into a pin cushion. Hopefully it keeps me from get Malaria.

These quinine beverages, whether sherry or port, were probably made for consumption in malarial areas of the world. Of course the quinine was supposed to impede contraction of malaria, not the mosquitoes.

I must say, what a civilized way to address the scourge of malaria - begin with a gin and tonic, then perhaps some dry quinine sherry with the soup or fish plate, and end the evening with porto quinado!

Cheers .......................... Mahmoud.

I wonder if there ever was malaria in the Duoro considering that there would be little if any stagnant water around what with the flowing river, steep terrain, vines, and drainage.

Mahmoud Ali wrote:I wonder if there ever was malaria in the Duoro considering that there would be little if any stagnant water around what with the flowing river, steep terrain, vines, and drainage.

Yes, it is why many of the older villages are very high up on the mountains.

And drinking some tasty drinks with quinine to prevent it isn't so bad...of course getting malaria back then, very bad.

I had to look to see if this category was represented anywhere at all. Here is what I found: http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/quinado

I also typed Quinado into Cellar Tracker, and an old madeira was the only entry: http://www.cellartracker.com/classic/wi ... ne=2300664

Brian C. wrote:I had to look to see if this category was represented anywhere at all. Here is what I found: http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/quinado

I also typed Quinado into Cellar Tracker, and an old madeira was the only entry: http://www.cellartracker.com/classic/wi ... ne=2300664

If I read it right, the Ramos Pinto says to enjoy it with Tonic water. It is still a legal category of Port by the IVDP. Never knew anyone actually still made it in modern times.

And perhaps this is analogous to Italy's Barolo Chinato. Pretty good stuff if you've ever had a chance. Sometimes you can get it by the glass at an Italian restaurant.

Ramos Pinto exports a lot of their production to Brazil. I wonder how popular this offering is over there.

Andy Velebil wrote:

Mahmoud Ali wrote:I wonder if there ever was malaria in the Duoro considering that there would be little if any stagnant water around what with the flowing river, steep terrain, vines, and drainage.

Yes, it is why many of the older villages are very high up on the mountains.

Ah yes, upstream and higher up, that sounds eminently logical ..................... Mahmoud.

Hi Andy... While I would have loved to taste this wine, I must confess that I am not convinced that this is a IVDP category of Port.... Your bottle was a cask sample and therefore not meant to be commercially sold... so they can print on the label what they want and they decided to call it "Porto Quinado"... When I look at Ramos Pinto's Vinho Quinado which is sold commercially, they avoid the word "Port" or "Porto". There is no IVDP seal on their bottles. I can be wrong - but I don't think that this wine needs any approval from the IVDP. I went to wine-searcher and looked at the Ramos Pinto bottles at a few online-retailers... The web-pages state that these are Port Wines - but the labels avoid that word clearly...

So, now that you had the Quinado, your next wine on the bucket list is Bogg’s Tawny Cocaine Port, or?

Christian, this is an approved category of Port still to this day.


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Andy Velebil wrote:Christian, this is an approved category of Port still to this day.

I could find no mention of it in the IVDP regulation on special categories:
http://www.ivdp.pt/pt/docs/legislacao/213.pdf
Nor could I find mention of it in the other IVDP documents I looked at, and google came back with:

Your search - quinado site:ivdp.pt - did not match any documents.

Eric
Trust me it's an approved category. Though it doesn't surprise me you can't find it. There seems to be a lot of reg's not online. Or at least not easily findable.


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A recent bottle of Quinado from Pocas, served to our group blind, was such an amazing experience. Scores ranged from 94-98 points. I was blown away when the bag came off this one. I've had several Quinado Ports over the years, but this was by far and away the most mind-blowing bottle by far. Most are just "pleasant" or "interesting" to consume, but this was quite spectacular, to say the least. Given the tough crowd in our group, the fact that the average score was around 96 was unbelievable to me.