For The Love Of Port

--- Please note, the wine below was just rated in the Wine Spectator 3 days ago. The wine earned a score you don't see often. 97 Points. On top of that, we have an incredible price on the very limited amount we have available right now. This offer is valid first come first served only as we have very few cases in stock.

How many 97-100 Point wines do you own?
- After you answer that question, ask yourself ... how many of them cost just $69.99

Today's offer is a very special opportunity you just will not see often.

2011 Quinta do Vale Meao
97 Points Wine Spectator Insider (Score date January 22, 2014)
Wine Library Sale Price - $69.99
---- Please note, this offer is available while supply lasts only.

To order, click here or call 888-980-9463.

When we saw this score hit, all of our wine buyers seemed to hit the phone at the same time. The good news ... we were able to get some. The bad news ... there wasn't much available. This is a blockbuster red wine that while so many wine collectors already covet ... many, may not be familiar at all. Now is the time to find out.

Read this incredible review from the Wine Spectator and you will quickly see why the 97 Point score was issued:

"A lush, seductive red, filled to the brim with an array of dark fruit and kirsch flavors, accented by plenty of cream and spice notes. Silky tannins and molten chocolate hints add richness. The long finish echoes with mineral and white pepper details. Best from 2015 through 2022."

This really is a rare opportunity to not only add something very highly rated to your collection. Plus for many of you, it's an opportunity to try something new!

Quinta do Vale Meao is one of the truly legendary wineries from the Douro Superior, a classic producer at the vanguard of the region's meteoric rise to fame. Hailing from the same 2011 vintage that was declared as "one for the ages", Wine Spectator's 97 point score is the highest score ever on this wine since the stunning 2004 vintage, the same year that earned a top spot in Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of the Year!

Take advantage while supply lasts today!

Please note, once we sell out, we will not be able to take any backorders as our supplier is sold out. Enjoy!

To order, call 888-980-9463 or click the link below
2011 - QUINTA DO VALE MEAO
https://winelibrary.com/products/79362- ... -vale-meao
Price: $69.98 on sale ( was $75.99 )
Size: 750ML Country: Portugal Region: Portugal ABV: 14.0% Varietals: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca, and Tempranillo / Tinto Fino / Tinta Roriz
97 Points Wine Spectator
"A lush, seductive red, filled to the brim with an array of dark fruit and kirsch flavors, accented by plenty of cream and spice notes. Silky tannins and molten chocolate hints add richness. The long finish echoes with mineral and white pepper details. Best from 2015 through 2022."

97??? Wow.

Impressive.

Roy Hersh wrote:97??? Wow.

Impressive.

Roy, when do you expect your 2011 VP tasting notes to make it into the FTLOP database?

Miguel, subscribers can see them there already. They were already uploaded, yesterday in fact. Thanks for asking!

Roy Hersh wrote:97??? Wow.

Impressive.

Indeed.

But I must say... the number of 97+ ratings coming out these days is disturbing. When I do ratings I use words to describe the Port first, then convert those words to numbers based on a fairly typical 100-point scale. To get a 97+ rating, I have to be thinking "this is absolutely magnificent" while I'm tasting. And frankly, that really doesn't happen all that often for me.

I think "excellent" quite a bit, which is why I end up with so many Ports rated 90-93. I think "this is really outstanding" less frequently, but it does still happen. Those get 94-96. A Port can get a 96 from me by just excelling in every way. Which I realize sounds weird, but...

Magnificent requires something more. It is near perfection. For me it almost has to be a transcendental experience - the Port is just better than the sum of its attributes. It goes beyond just excelling in every way. It has to have that "je ne sais quoi" that makes it difficult to even write the TN because you just can't put it into words.

Looking through the TNdb, I have given out a grand total of one 100, zero 99s, two 98s, and ten 97s. Apparently I'm even stingy within the 97-99 "magnificent" range. But those numbers are deceiving, because four of the 97s are for the same Port - the Romaneira 40-yr Old Tawny Port, which has also received three 96s. So in actuality, I have only given 10 different Ports a score of 97 or higher in the entire time that I've been rating Port.

I feel like the "mainstream" critics have all sold out. I feel like they're giving higher and higher ratings just so that their numbers will be used on grocery store hang tags.

Roy Hersh wrote:Miguel, subscribers can see them there already. They were already uploaded, yesterday in fact. Thanks for asking!

Seeing them there now... Perhaps they were uploaded sometime after I posted my question.

Great to finally be able to sift through them, try to go out there and hunt for the underdogs :)

Miguel, did you not look at my article where things were put in their proper context? The tasting notes and scores are important, but also the greater context.

The Wine Spectator came out on Tuesday this week and they rated:
a. 1 VP at 99 points.
b. 4 VPs at 98 points,
c. 7 VPs at 97 points,
d. 8 VPs at 96 points and
e. 5 VPs at 95 points.
That is a total of 25 Ports from 2011 at 95 or above.

Additionally the Wine Enthusiast (see that thread on our Port Forum above) scored an large number over 95 points too.

That being said, I had less than a dozen or in that same range and none above 98 points. So if anything, I am the pretty conservative guy. In looking at a very detailed matrix of the world's top 10 Port reviewers that was sent to me for the Top 40 best Ports of the vintage (in the eyes of the person who sent this to me) ... again, my scores were for the vast majority on the low end of the scale with only a few exceptions, like that one surprise producer that I gave 97 points. Either way, my tasting regimen is very different than the other reviewers. I'd like to think more objective, and certainly with zero label bias, no pop and pour scenarios, and no 10 minute or less snap judgments made ... but that is just my subjective view.

That was me, not Miguel. :)

So in just the 2011 vintage, Wine Spectator had 2 more Ports rated at 97 or higher than I've rated that high in my entire Port-rating history.

And for the record, when I refer to "mainstream" Port critics that doesn't include Roy. As anyone who has read the most recent newsletter knows (or has been hanging out here long enough), Roy's tasting protocol is quite rigorous. I like to think of Roy as "our" critic.

I look at scores as "relative" within a person. Further, "agreement" would not be a good thing among critics....I like that they differ--makes me want to read their descriptions and think they are being unbiased (I hope).

Agree about Roy, he is "our" critic....thanks.

Roy Hersh wrote:Miguel, did you not look at my article where things were put in their proper context? The tasting notes and scores are important, but also the greater context.

Printed it out and have it next to my Port. Both for consumption over the weekend :) Work has been crazy and havent been able to read it since it came out Monday night. V much looking fwd to it.

I do feel like I have a decent sense of the context, as you let us know your process and struggles with it while you were in Porto.

But of course the wine offered here is *not* a port, but is the Vale Meão Douro red. Squires also loved this wine giving it one of his highest scores ever for a Douro wine - 95 points. He said that it's on the short list of "Best Yet" from Vale Meão and the score may be too low and deserve an uptick. So... In this case I don't think that the 97 points is a complete outlier. I look forward to trying this!

David Spriggs wrote:But of course the wine offered here is *not* a port, but is the Vale Meão Douro red.

So it is. I guess that the 14% ABV buried at the end of the information should have been a clue.

Glenn E. wrote:

David Spriggs wrote:But of course the wine offered here is *not* a port, but is the Vale Meão Douro red.

So it is. I guess that the 14% ABV buried at the end of the information should have been a clue.

That and the "lush, seductive red" in the TN...