My afternoon with a dozen Ports

[Roy Hersh]

Today I had the fun task of presenting a dozen Ports from my cellar to an elite group of the best of WA State's winemakers. I had a few ounces of each left, so Stewart came by this evening to assassinate the rest.

This diverse lineup of Ports from a variety of producers, were decanted eight hours and poured blind for the winemaking crew:

FLIGHT #1:

2000 Quinta de la Rosa LBV
1994 Broadbent VP
1994 Quinta do Noval LBV
2001 Quinta do Vesuvio

FLIGHT #2:

1995 Ferreira VP
1996 Calem's Quinta da Foz VP
1997 Delaforce Corte VP
2000 Quinta do Noval VP

FLIGHT #3:

1985 Dow's VP
1983 Graham's VP
1977 Fonseca VP
1966 Moreira Colheita


Besides the 2000 Noval VP which had some flaw on the nose, the rest showed really well. I tried a few Ports that I had never opened from my cellar before (the Calem, Delaforce and Q de la Rosa) and took notes and scores both times, although I will condense them so folks won't be bored when reading my TNs in the newsletter.

Lots of fun to see how the folks responded to these Ports!

[Andy Velebil]

Looks like a fun time and what a diverse line up. So the '66 even showed well with less than 2 weeks decanting

[Mike McCune]

Who were the winemakers (or wineries) and how did this get set up? Just curious. Are any of them big port fans?

[Eric Ifune]

Lots of fun to see how the folks responded to these Ports!

How did they respond? I'm assuming the winemakers had much more experience with table wines. I'd also be curious to see how they respond to VA in Madeira.

[Mike McCune]

Were any writers there?

Did you have any differences in opinion on how long to any drink different syles after being opened?

(essentially a bump - and btw Roy, I have 2+ cases of 2001 Pere de Famille, 1 noted for your next visit @ my crib for a WA tasting)

[Roy Hersh]

Mike,

After Paul Gregutt did a half page write up on me and FTLOP in the Seattle Times, he invited me to do a Port tasting for this group, which is HIS tasting group.

Amongst the folks at this tasting were:

The owner and two oenologists from Delille Cellars. Paul and Alex Golitzen from Quilceda Creek (Alex is Paul's dad and the founder of QC is a very serious Port lover). Bob Betz was invited but wound up traveling that day. Ben Smith from Cadence was in attendance. Peter Dow, former owner of Cafe Juanita but current owner of Cavatappi winery was also there. One of the guys from Bookwalter, Mike Januik who needs no introduction and a few others I am forgetting. As far as writers go, Paul Gregutt was there too. He made mention of it two weeks ago in the Seattle Times in the Food & Wine section. He loved the tasting.

The best listing of current WA wines: http://www.winesnw.com/wamerch.html


Anyway, it was my pleasure to bring these Ports from my own collection for them to try! I knew all of them except for one winemaker there from my days as director of puchasing for a restaurant chain. I used to know the majority of major WA wineries, but that was when there was only 300 in the State. There are now over 500 and growing everyday as you know.