US/California ports

[Anthea W]

Hi All, I need help please with identifying the most visible brand names in US ports. I have cobbled together the following list from the internet and really welcome any feedback on its accuracy or omissions.

Beaulieu, Belo, Beringer, Bogle, Cedar Mountain, Deaver, Duck Walk, Ficklin, Geyser Peak, Guenoc, Horton, Jessup, Justin, Kunde, Lamborn, Lonz, Mount Pleasant, Pesenti, Pindar, Prager, Quady, Sonora Winery,
St Amant, St Barthelemy, Stone Hill, Trentadue, Twin Hills, Whidbey,Windsor.

Thanks! Anthea

[Tom Archer]

Anthea,

Port is made in Portugal, or, to be more precise, the demarcated region of the Douro valley.

With the greatest respect, a list of port producers from other parts of the world is about as interesting as a list of Rolex manufacturers in China..

..stick to the real McCoy!

Tom

[Eric Menchen]

Ouch. I do understand tom's feelings, but I also try sweet wines from other parts of the world, and have a few bottles of them. Checking my collection, I own a "Rancho Zabaco 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon Port." But checking their web site, I don't see it listed, and only one merchant came up with anything (the 1997 Cab) for "Rancho Zabaco Port" when I tried wine-searcher.com. So I wouldn't call it a most visible brand name.

[Tom Archer]

Eric,

I have no objection to other wineries producing sweet fortified wines, but I do object to them describing them as Port.

Some English wineries now make better sparkling wines than anything made in France; but they are not, correctly, allowed to call them Champagne. Port should be no different.

Whatever compromise trade agreements may have been unwisely agreed, (without, I think, the agreement of the Port producers) the bottom line is that any product called Port that is not made in the Douro is, by any reasonable standard, a counterfeit product.

Tom

[Roy Hersh]

Eric,

Rancho Zabaco is a huge brand and their Zinfandel is probably their best known variety. They can be found in almost every supermarket I have been to. Huge marketing budget and advertised in magazines far and wide.

Like you, I am very open to drinking dessert wines from around the globe. Nothing wrong with that and I also get Tom's traditional view (which I have also espoused) about other regions not calling their dessert wines Port. I have no issue with "port-style" or other nomenclature ... but not: Port or Porto as it is marketed here stateside.




Tom,

Some English wineries now make better sparkling wines than anything made in France

Although I don't doubt your claim that some English wineries are now making high quality bubbly ... to say that they are " ... now make better sparkling wines than anything made in France ... " is not only subjective, but you may just be the very first person in the entire wine drinking world, ever to have gone on the record making that claim.

Better than ANYTHING in France??? ... er, please enlighten us as to the tete a tete: Bollinger Cuvee Annee, Krug, Pol Roger Brut, DP, Cristal etc. wannabes from the UK that truly are better than the aforementioned Champagnes produced in France.

" ... the bottom line is that any product called Port that is not made in the Douro is, by any reasonable standard, a counterfeit product."

Counterfeit? Although I support your premise about specific place names not being used by others to promote their versions of the wines from specific regions ... I can't quite wrap my head around your use of the usage "counterfeit."

[Eric Menchen]

Rancho Zabaco is a huge brand and their Zinfandel is probably their best known variety. They can be found in almost every supermarket I have been to. Huge marketing budget and advertised in magazines far and wide.

Agreed. But their Cab port-style wine is pretty rare.

[Tom Archer]

Roy,

If you look up the blind tastings that have compared English and French bubbly in recent years, you will see that the French have been sorely embarrassed.

You will also find that the top French brands have been trumped by the humbler offerings from that country.

Their only salvation is the right to use the name Champagne - everything else is an illusion...

Tom

[Richard Henderson]

If the English are making sparkling wines to rival the French, maybe there is hope that the English will learn how to cook!

[Tom Archer]

If the Englsih are making sparkling wines to rival the French, maybe there is hope that the English will learn how to cook!

I must introduce you to Jamie Oliver - he only lives a couple of miles from here, and I've known his family since he was a baby..

Tom

[Richard Henderson]

I like his shows. But he is just one guy!!!!

As to your reply on the topic, I agree that port is from Portugal. The others are port style fortified wines. Too bad the folks from Oporto did not police the name like the French did for Champagne and the Scots did for whisky , also know as scotch.

[Anthea W]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for all your responses and I obviously didn't make my needs clear. I TRULY understand about the (crazy) naming rules, but what else I am going to call them generically???

Why I'm asking is because I'm writing a book about 'port' for utter beginners and to encourage the American non-believers, I want to include the list I posted at the top of this forum. However, because I live outside the sunny US, I need help... PLEASE! Any advice on the relevance or otherwise on any of these names, I would truly appreciate.

Thanks

Anthea

[Tom Archer]

Anthea,

I really think it is a bad idea to give the oxygen of publicity to these bogus products. They do nothing to convert the unenlightened, and can all too easily convince someone that Port is a drink they don't like.

By all means warn people that 'all that glisters is not gold', but don't go publishing lists of producers - it gives them a credibility they don't deserve.

Tom

[Derek T.]

Tom,

Another way to look at this is that if legions of our American cousins are converted to drinking port-style fortified wines made in their homeland rather than being converted to drinking Port then more of the juice we love will stay on this side of the pond for us to drink

Derek

[Tom Archer]

Anthea,

So that you know, we have a little saying in these parts; when someone sits down with a bottle of port, and consumes the whole lot in one sitting - all by themselves..

..it's called: 'doing a Derek'



Tom

[Derek T.]

[Richard Henderson]

Anthea,
Perhaps Roy would be better able to address this issue. I think that you are looking for a serious answer so I will give it a try since you have not really gotten one.
From my observations of some 25 years of drinking port and collecting it seriously, your country of Australia has done a much better job of making port style wines than than the U.S. The Yalumbas and Whiskers Blakes and the many fine stickies are far better than anything that can be regularly found in fortified , port style wines in the U.S. The stickies may not even be fortified but they are unique and have many charactorestics of Colheitas and other tawnies.
There is a guy in Bryan , Texas making a Papa's Paulo Port style wine at Messina Hof Winery. There are others in California and a few other states. The stuff is palatable as a dessert wine and I like it but it just does not compare to true Oporto port nor the Australian imitations.
it is probably worth a Google search to the Messina Hof Winery if your goal is to start people out on something domestic, but we can get plenty of NV ruby from Oporto at a better price than what we produce. The website is well done and you can see there he has a following.
A lot of folks in our part of the world really like the Papa Paulo Port and the guy is a very nice eccentric sort of person who is really trying hard and should not be insulted for his efforts.
His admirers really would not care one bit what anyone on this board thinks especially those from the UK who have refused to be of any real help to your inquiry!

[Roy Hersh]

This is from a recent newsletter:

This bunch of American producers make all kinds of sticky stuff to drink, most of it … fortified. They even get into some fun and controversial topics that are near and dear to our hearts. Check out what follows this quote from the Sweet and Fortified Wine Association website:
“What to call American port-style wine continues to be the biggest marketing and promotion challenging domestic fortified wine producers. This was the consensus of producers participating in the Marketing and Promoting Sweet and Fortified Wines seminar held prior to Savor the Flavor II at Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore on March 21.
Protection of place names used on American wines was a component of the 2006 trade agreement with the European Union. The result is the inability of domestic producers to use the term “port” on newly approved wine labels since March of 2007. While labels with “port” on them are still acceptable under a grandfather clause, new fortified wine labels are a confusing array of proprietary names.”
Making matters worse in many cases is the inability of producers to use the word “fortified” on fortified wine labels. “This is somewhat silly,” says … (To find out what comes next … you’ll have to look no further than the homepage).

Another fascinating factoid from June 2007 that I found on this site, states that: “In announcing the launch of the Sweet and Fortified Wine Association, port producer Peter Prager said, “We believe that Americans are on the brink of rediscovering sweet, dessert-style wines.” … Recent U. S. wine sales indicate that dessert wines now account for 7.5 percent of all U. S. wine shipments. Growth in dessert wine sales has increased 61 percent in the last five years.”
Although my comments above are mostly tongue in cheek, (as I have had some very good domestic fortified wines, even quite recently) there is plenty of useful information contained within. Have a look around and at least learn more about the labeling laws and the agreement that took place between the EU and the USA.

http://sweetandfortifiedwine.org/

[Anthea W]

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts on this subject. I will check out the website, Roy, and the Papa Paulo site. Even though I am still floundering with my list, what I have learnt is to include the idea that the real-deal is readily available in the US (or just California??), so beginners have CHOICE!! What a great place to start.

And yes, Aussies make fantastic fortifieds. Where else are you going to get 100 year old tawny??? Have a look at Seppeltsfield, currently undergoing a renaissance. www.seppeltsfield.com.au/shop/fortified-wines/ And David Morris at Morris Wines in Rutherglen (www.morriswines.com.au) takes clean sweeps with all the top awards year after year.

Thanks again guys. Great to be part of team.

[Derek T.]

And yes, Aussies make fantastic fortifieds. Where else are you going to get 100 year old tawny???

- in the world of real Port these are called Colheitas (tawny from a single harvest) and many producers hold stocks of ancient old barrels that are either used for blending into aged tawnies (average age of 10, 20, 30 or 40+) or released as a Colheita from a stated vintage.

It would be an interesting experiment to put some Aussie 100 year old tawnies beside some similarly aged Colheitas.

[Anthea W]

Indeed it would. But at $275(US) for 3.3fl oz, who is going to put their had up for that?? When I win the lottery...