For The Love Of Port

A friend has the following bottle in his cellar. This is the only thing on the label

Jose Duarte d' Oliveria
Quinta do Sibio
Costa do Castedo - Alto Douro
Vintage 1900

Is this a VP, Colheita, or ??? Any other info about this producer/wine is greatly appreciated.

I can say the contents are very clear, like I could see through the entire bottle when I looked at it, even though it is a very light brown bottle. I doubt the contents are drinkable, but he would still love to find out about the history of this bottle.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Andy,

i googled a little and this is what i came up with:

Quinta do Síbio is located in Cotas village and it has a plantation area of 26hectares. The grapes families here planted are Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional, Tinto Cão and the entire plantation is qualified with “A” letter.


1900 Sibio Vintage

This amber reddish ambrosia caresses the mouth with epiphanous flavors of hazelnuts and toffee butter and finishes with a silky resonance that seems to last for eternity. An utterly remarkable experience to say the least!

Other notes:

From the rare 1900 Quinta do Sibio, a Portuguese port, described as “subtle aromas with flavors of the finest cognac".


I also came across a danish vinery, they are selling a bottle of Quinta de Sibio 1900 for DK 18.500 which is 3436 US$

Not bad eh ?

Cheers Erik

Wow, if that is indeed what your friend has Andy… then what a score!!!

Todd

Eric,

Thanks a lot for the info

I think Qta. d. Sibio is (was?) a quinta belonging to Real Companhia Velha, but the information posted by Erik comes from the site of Qta. d. Silval - that's odd...I'll look into it later; perhaps I've got some more information at home.

Steven,

i also read that Q. d. Silval was/is using the grapes from Q. d. Sibio. Maybe there lies the confusion.

Cheers
Erik

Pretty sure that's it, Erik. Indeed Sibio is listed at both websites. Richard Mayson writes "sells its ports to a number of shippers" in the 2nd edition of "Port and the Douro". It is, apparently, quite a good vineyard, bordering Malvedos.
I could not find any references to the producer, but did find some other Ports with wine-searcher - Vintage only, the most recent labeled being a 1963. If I might hazard a guess, I would say that RCV bought the company after this date, and so gained rights to use the grapes from Sibio (they bought a lot of companies late 60ies, early 70ies).

So, what does your friend have Andy? It is obviously quite a rare one - SQ wines from before WWII are hard to find. The price Erik found is insane, however: one could buy a bottle of '63 Nacional for that amount of money!

Is it Vintage? Could be, but it might be a Colheita as well: I've seen plenty of older bottles stating "(Port of the) Vintage", and in small print "matured in wood" and / or a much later bottling date than usual for VP. In any case, I'd drink it sooner rather later - and have a back-up ready.

If you could persuede your friend to take some pictures of the bottle...I would love to see it. The type of bottle might also be of help in determining when it the Port was bottled. Does it have an IVP-neck label?

An email to RCP might also yield more information. Anyway, hope this helps a bit!

Steven

There is no IVDP seal and there is nothing else on the front label (no back label). Everything on the front label was listed, so no other information can be learned there. I will try and get a pic from him, so I can post it.

The contents have a TON of sediment, but the fluid looks to be clear (or almost clear) when I looked through the bottle with a light.

Thanks for the info so far.

Tons of sediment would be more of an indication of a VP then Colheita...I'm sure you thought that as well. :) I hope your friend invites you once he decides to pull the cork!

…and that you post pictures here: of bottle, of cork, and of wine in glass.

I imported a case of 1947 Quinta do Sibio over ten years ago. It was sold as a single quinta, and was unlabeled. The cork was clearly readable: 1947 Real Vinicola, a brand of Real Companhia Velha.

I sold it as a birthyear port, and people were pleased with it. I did try the one bottle I kept last year. The color was good for a 1947 with fairly good fruit. It had enough fruit to still be vintage in style, and certainly was not a colheita. It was not a very complex port, but was a very enjoyable bottle.

Adventures In Wine imported some 1900 Quinta do Sibio about five years ago. I never saw the bottles unfortunately, so can not verify who bottled it.

Thanks for the replies. i just heard back and some pics will be on the way. As soon as I get them I'll post em here.

Here are some pics




Trust me, there is a ton more sediment in the bottom of the bottle.

Shawn, you're spot on with the importer, as the label clearly shows.

hey andy,
is that your wine cellar in the bottom photo?

dave

Dave, I wish Im just a poor public servant that spends all his spare change on Port My cellar is a metal offsite storage locker about 20 miles from my house or the 50 bottle cellar in my kichen.

The label looks like it has some age to it. I do not think Adventures In Wine put the label on the port (as importers often do because of damaged or missing labels). It has the look of a label put on by an English merchant who probably bought pipes of port and bottled them.

The label says Vintage 1900, so it is vintage port. A colheita would say Coheita 1900, or just have the date on it - 1900 without saying vintage, or say port of the vintage. It would be unlikely for a colheita from a very small producer to be brought into England as well.

A vintage port from 1900 is old enough to have lost its color even if it was vintage port. Since the port had a lot of sediment, that certainly is another indication of it being vintage.

A 1900 vintage port would not have the IVDP seal, and certainly not if it was bottled in England.

Let's add some historical perspective.

Back in the 1860s or thereabouts, Sibio was owned by the Jordao family and the property back then was known as Quinta do Jordao. This is the same family that at the time was the early owner of Quinta da Romaneira.

Andy, if you remember our "truck" ride through the backside vineyards of the Rancao Valley (Sat. 10/7/06) we passed right by the gleeming white Quinta d. Sibio property and its very white building, which is situated practically next to Romaneira. We looked over at the property and were also able to see Q do Ventozelo, the roundhouse of Q das Carvalhas (across the river) and Q de Roriz too. You may have been concentrating on the snoring going on inside the truck.

Sibio actually appears on my Forrester map too and Quinta do Jordao IS actually Sibio. It was later sold in 1934 to the Real Companhia Velha (best known as Royal Oporto by most American Port fans) and the grapes were vinified at Quinta das Carvalhas as Sibio did not have a large enough production facility.

As to the vintage itself ... 1900 was considered a pretty good vintage with a few great VPs made that year. I have seen an identical bottle of the Sibio that you are talking about but I have not tasted that specific Port. Most Vintage Ports made in 1900 were more elegant and well balanced when young and lacked color extraction and sheer power. There are definitely exceptions (and I'll get to them) but I digress.

1900 came shortly after the Douro was back on its feet after Phylloxera. The world was in a strange place and So. Africa was in the midst of Civil War and China had lots of turmoil on their own soil too. Forget the politics though, the winter was cold and wet, with a mostly cool growing season which allowed for good acidity and natural ripening. However, in late September of 1900 (9/23-25) there was some hard driving rain. Those that chose to wait until the early parts of October were rewarded with some high quality grapes as well as abnormally high yields on a hl/ha basis.

In addition to the large harvest, 1900 was a widely declared vintage. But it was not without some problems, as Dow got hit hard by the rain and lots of triage had to be done to choose the best grapes. Sandeman had very late maturing grapes (late flowering to begin with too!) and the exceptional VP they produced showed how well the vintage turned out for some. I think what really helped was that in Nov. and especially December of 1900 (after the VP was resting in tanks) it was very cold and that had a very positive effect on the Ports!

In addition to Sandeman, Ferreira was another very fine example from this vintage. My personal favorite is the Taylor which less than two years ago was still almost purple in color and a gorgeously young drink of VP.

I hope this helps a little bit.

Thanks everyone for all the info, it is very helpfull