Delaforce sold

[JacobH]

I'm not sure, but I don't think so. Guedes was taken over somewhere in the late '60's, and I'm not sure about Hooper, but that was a long time ago as well. I don't have much experience with both, but had a lovely 30 year old white port from Hooper (bottled by the Dutch importer) and a 1967 LBV from Guedes that had turned into one of the best colheitas I ever drank.

Again, thanks for the information! It's quite difficult to find out much about these historic shippers, so it's interesting to hear about them. With any luck things might have changed sufficiently since then to avoid complete disappearance of Delaforce.

Delaforce is fairly strong in Germany - whatever that means as 99% of the Port buyable here is rubbish. I do not know any other country that Delaforce is strong in, so why keep it from a Taylor Fladgate point of view. I will definitely miss this brand as I just had an 82 VP which was surprisingly complex and I do own some 70s, 77s, 82, 85 and 2000s.

I've just been having a look at their website and as most of their Guestbook entries are in German, Germany must be an important market for them.

I haven't drunk very much from Delaforce, but I always thought of them as specialising in Tawnies and economical colheitas. It would be a shame for those to disappear, though the nature of tawny production would, I hope, mean that they have quite a few years' supply left.

[jdaw1]

Started a thread entitled Delaforce vertical: in the US, UK or both; in 2009 perhaps. Please do post there to reveal what you have.

[jdaw1]

Started a thread entitled Delaforce vertical: in the US, UK or both; in 2009 perhaps. Please do post there to reveal what you have.

[Axel P]

Id love that: 1970, 1977, 1982, 1985, 2000

Axel

[Roy Hersh]

There is more to this than meets the eye. I agree that the consolidation movement is not a good thing and the more control the "5 Families" obtain, the less they really have, but I'll explain in a moment. The 5 are actually 4 families and Caixa Nova the Spanish banking firm that owns Kopke/Barros/Calem/Burmester etc. better known as Sogevinus.

Anyway, the more consolidation happens and the big shippers feel like they have more control, the more the small producers pop up out of the woodwork and stop growing grapes and selling to the BIGs and instead, become Port producers. Quinta do Portal, many of the Douro Boys (not Dirk), Javali, Tedo, Alegre and many others all started up in the past 5-15 years as they see the "consolidation movement" as an opportunity to create their own niche, which of course includes production of DOC Douro wines ... which believe it or not is their "poison pill" that they hope prevents them from being "absorbed." This is a whole thread in itself and I wanted to clarify some points about Delaforce for you folks. So, this facet will have to drop for now.

Delaforce's original attractiveness to TFP was to bring large stocks of aged Tawny Ports into their blending rooms, which at the time (2001) were in significant need. That is why they were purchased at the same time as Croft, albeit Croft's Q d Roeda was the real reason that the entire deal got done in the first place. It used to belong to Mr. Fladgate who sold it off in the late 19th century and when Croft was weakend in the late 1980s and 1990s (financially) Taylor/Fonseca saw the crown jewel right before them.

[JacobH]

Anyway, the more consolidation happens and the big shippers feel like they have more control, the more the small producers pop up out of the woodwork and stop growing grapes and selling to the BIGs and instead, become Port producers. Quinta do Portal, many of the Douro Boys (not Dirk), Javali, Tedo, Alegre and many others all started up in the past 5-15 years as they see the "consolidation movement" as an opportunity to create their own niche, which of course includes production of DOC Douro wines ... which believe it or not is their "poison pill" that they hope prevents them from being "absorbed." This is a whole thread in itself and I wanted to clarify some points about Delaforce for you folks. So, this facet will have to drop for now.

I think I might have to agree with you, as this seems to be the most optimistic way of looking at the current situation! And anything that increases the number of single-quinta shippers has to be a good thing! But, as you say, it’s certainly something for another thread.

Delaforce's original attractiveness to TFP was to bring large stocks of aged Tawny Ports into their blending rooms, which at the time (2001) were in significant need. That is why they were purchased at the same time as Croft, albeit Croft's Q d Roeda was the real reason that the entire deal got done in the first place. It used to belong to Mr. Fladgate who sold it off in the late 19th century and when Croft was weakend in the late 1980s and 1990s (financially) Taylor/Fonseca saw the crown jewel right before them.

I’m curious about this as I don’t think Delaforce currently produces anything older than their “Old and Curious† (I think that’s the correct name…) 20-year-old. Does this mean that all of the older Delaforce stocks have been blended into the other TFP 30 and 40 year old tawnies? It makes it sound a bit like a pillaging exercise if that were the case!

[SushiNorth]

I will definitely miss this brand

Is the brand going away? Is it perhaps worthwhile to pick some up before it vanishes entirely? I've only got one bottle of their 2003.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Is the brand going away? Is it perhaps worthwhile to pick some up before it vanishes entirely? I've only got one bottle of their 2003.

From what I see and read, the brand is not going away, just going to be used by Royal Oporto.

The concern that we have is that Royal Oporto dies not have a good track record of looking after and using the names that it buys and these often disappear from use over time.