General Info about Vesuvio

[Axel P]

(Ladies and) Gents,

during the Vesuvio tasting on October 30th, Dominic Symington told me some quite interesting details about the Quinta which I thought would be of general interest (most of the questions were brought up by Mr. Vesuvio -Alex B- anyways):

Vesuvio stopped numbering the bottles because of general logistic problems. Dominic said that they started to use different labels for the different markets and it was too complicated keeping the numbers in line.

Vesuvio might be planning on issuing some aged wood wines in the future. Even Dominic wasn't exact on answering the question as it will be fairly limited due to the limited stock on the quinta, but I thought I have seen a promising glance on his face when I asked him this. Details on wether these will be aged Tawnies or Colheitas were not discussed.

Dominics personal favourite is the 97 Vesuvio though he insisted on this being an unfair question. I found it fairly hard to judge the potential of the 97 because to me it was a fairly late developed 97, which - of course - could be a very good sign as well, as it appeared to me very complex and sophisticated. I will post the details on the wines next week in the Tasting Note rubric.

Thats all for now

Axel

[jdaw1]

Thank you. Very helpful.

Still, I have never tasted the big V.

[Conky]

Neither have I. If the opportunity arises, I would of course avail myself, but if they are a good quality Port, and 90's onwards, whats the rush?

Alan

[Alex Bridgeman]

Axel - thanks, very interesting replies to the questions from Dominic

Julian, Conky - your lack of exposure to Vesuvio is noted and will, in due course, be cured. Julian may be willing to experience the cure sooner than Conky since Conky appears to have an allergy to a vintage port with less than 22 years of bottle age.

Alex (who rather likes the moniker of Mr Vesuvio...)

[Conky]

Axel - thanks, very interesting replies to the questions from Dominic

Julian, Conky - your lack of exposure to Vesuvio is noted and will, in due course, be cured. Julian may be willing to experience the cure sooner than Conky since Conky appears to have an allergy to a vintage port with less than 22 years of bottle age.

Alex (who rather likes the moniker of Mr Vesuvio...)

Only if I'm buying! I've drunk at least 2 Fonseca 2000 and somethings. Both supplied by Derek, and both...no, cant think of the right words.

Alan

[DRT]

Axel - thanks for this. Very good information. Tom will be feeling very smug now about the impending release of wood aged V's

Alex - you and I probably have some trading to do soon. Perhaps that should include a bottle of V96 that I can share with Alan to cure his "I've never tasted Vesuvio" disease

...and, yes, Mr Vesuvio just about sums it up

Derek

[Conky]

Derek,

What would you trade Mr Vesuvio for some of his Vesuvio? I suspect he's got his Vesuvio future mapped out. It would have to be something remarkable. New red Port Shirt, perhaps?

Alan

[DRT]

Alan,

There is more or less a constant flow of trade between AHB, Uncle Tom and myself that largely goes unnoticed by the general public. It's a bit like the Gulf Stream, it's always there but no one can see it happening

At some point ANB and I can bump into one another at the Crusting Pipe and each arrive home with some port that we did not have before we left that morning. One of these may be a V96 that you may happen to share in.

Derek

[PortDude]

(Ladies and) Gents,
Dominics personal favourite is the 97 Vesuvio though he insisted on this being an unfair question. I found it fairly hard to judge the potential of the 97 because to me it was a fairly late developed 97, which - of course - could be a very good sign as well, as it appeared to me very complex and sophisticated. I will post the details on the wines next week in the Tasting Note rubric.
Axel

My personal favourite is the 1994; an absolute stunner and - contrary to the widespread myth of having to hold back Vintage Port for at least 20 years - ready to be enjoyed now!

[Axel P]

Conky,
totally right: what's the rush, but it was so amazing to see how differently VPs develop which are so close together. And most of them are very good VPs anyway. 95 and 96 are much further ahead than the 94. The 92 is something in between. My suggestion is: let's kick Alex out of bed for organizing another Vertical event.

Port Dude,
you are taking the words out of my mouth: The 94 V is an amazing wine and my victor of the evening. On this event it was perfectly visible that this wine has a bright future ahead. Compact, full, multi-dimensional with all that it takes. It is drinkable with great pleasure now, but it will definitely benefit from more cellaring. Keeping in mind, that the 94 is the most expensive as well, lurging here and there for V-Options is always a good bet.

Axel

[Alex Bridgeman]

We did a complete Vesuvio vertical in 2006, I'd be happy to organise another one for 2009 but have other plans for 2008.

Alex

[Conky]

As I wait patiently for my first taste, a question spring to mind,

Firstly, was it a concerted effort for these VP's to be drunk younger than normal? There have been a few references to how the late 80's and early 90's are drinking well and wont survive too long. Anyone care to expand?
I presume we are not taliking in the same catergory as the Vau,etc?

Its all whetting my apetite, whatever the answers.

Alan

[Andy Velebil]

Alan

Since Vesuvio is by definition a SQVP that is released almost every year, the only exceptions since the Symingtons bought were 1993, 2002. As such, they release in not so good years also. So there are the greats, such as 1994 that will live on for years to come, and there are also the mid-term vintages that are peaking right now (1989, 1990, and 1996 come to mind).

[Jay P]

Alan

Vesuvio has only been marketed as such since '89. If you want to try them, you have to try them young. The '94 is a spectacular wine for drinking now (with 24+ hours decanting). Even better in the future maybe, but you could you always do what I did in the case of the '94...buy several cases, then enjoy now and later both!

Jay

[RonnieRoots]

It will be interesting to see if they declare 2006...

[Alex Bridgeman]

...was it a concerted effort for these VP's to be drunk younger than normal? There have been a few references to how the late 80's and early 90's are drinking well and wont survive too long. Anyone care to expand?

Vesuvio is very capable of producing wines that last a long time. I have no idea how the current crop of wines from 1989-2005 will last and develop over time, but I do know that some are drinking well now and some just need to be shut away for a while. For drinking right now I was dead impressed by the '89 that I opened a couple of days ago and would drink '94 Vesuvio every week if I had enough of it. The '91, '95 and '96, '03, '04 and probably '05 are also pretty good today but will be better in 2-5 years time (10-12 years for the last three). Although I have tried every one of the other vintages at least once, I've not drunk enough of them to really have an opinion on when they will be at their peak, but I do plan to revisit most vintages in 2009 - perhaps at an offline like Axel suggested.

But I can recommend the 1863 Vesuvio which I had last summer. It was rather splendid and proves that wines from this particular vineyard can last the distance reasonably well

Alex

[RAYC]

But I can recommend the 1863 Vesuvio which I had last summer. It was rather splendid and proves that wines from this particular vineyard can last the distance reasonably well

Alex

The remarkable Swedish chaps have reference on their site to a 1963 Ferreira Quinta do Vesuvio - drunk on two occasions by them - and seemingly distinct from the regular 1963 Ferreira (e.g. see their 1963 "Great Tasting" review, where these have listings as two separate ports).

Does anyone know more about this?

[g-man]

But I can recommend the 1863 Vesuvio which I had last summer. It was rather splendid and proves that wines from this particular vineyard can last the distance reasonably well

Alex

The remarkable Swedish chaps have reference on their site to a 1963 Ferreira Quinta do Vesuvio - drunk on two occasions by them - and seemingly distinct from the regular 1963 Ferreira (e.g. see their 1963 "Great Tasting" review, where these have listings as two separate ports).

Does anyone know more about this?

Would make sense, the Vesuvio vineyard was part of dona antonia's vast holdings at ferreira.

the symingtons only picked up the property in somewhere int eh 80s with the first vintage as we know today in 1989.