NV Quinta de Santa Eufemia White 30YO

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
Forum rules
Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
Post Reply
User avatar
jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
Posts: 23568
Joined: 15:03 Thu 21 Jun 2007
Location: London
Contact:

NV Quinta de Santa Eufemia White 30YO

Post by jdaw1 »

The annual Christmas event, this instance on Thursday 15th December 2011, as always in The Bell, Wendens Ambo, Essex CB11 4JY, and as always with the theme The Unknown Shipper and His Peculiar Friends.

Links:
User avatar
Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
Posts: 14868
Joined: 13:41 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Berkshire, UK

Re: 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

From Quinta de Santa Eufemia. Pale straw colour, 10% opaque. Marzipan on the nose, with sour grapefruit. Sweet entry, lots of light brown sugar, dates and some fig. Sharp aftertaste, sweet sugar finish of long length. 83/100.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Glenn E.
Graham’s 1977
Posts: 4163
Joined: 22:27 Wed 09 Jul 2008
Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Re: 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White

Post by Glenn E. »

Does Ste. Eufemia actually have a "30 Year Old White Port" now or was this bottle the infamous 1973 Colheita that is simply labeled as "Special Reserve White Port" because they didn't get it declared properly?

If the latter, then you must have had a bad bottle. I've had it a couple of times and it's always been worth much more than 83 points - closer to 93, in fact. (Except for the bottle that clearly seemed to have been heat damaged, but that's a different issue.)

Note: the link says Casa but your note says Quinta. Both exist and are different entities spun off from the same ancestor. Precision is extra important in this particular case.
Glenn Elliott
User avatar
DRT
Fonseca 1966
Posts: 15779
Joined: 23:51 Wed 20 Jun 2007
Location: Chesterfield, UK
Contact:

Re: 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White

Post by DRT »

Fresh nose - thick inthe mouth with orange peel and dryness in the finish. Nice port.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
Andy Velebil
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
Posts: 3028
Joined: 22:16 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Los Angeles, Ca USA
Contact:

Re: 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White

Post by Andy Velebil »

Glenn E. wrote:Does Ste. Eufemia actually have a "30 Year Old White Port" now or was this bottle the infamous 1973 Colheita that is simply labeled as "Special Reserve White Port" because they didn't get it declared properly?

If the latter, then you must have had a bad bottle. I've had it a couple of times and it's always been worth much more than 83 points - closer to 93, in fact. (Except for the bottle that clearly seemed to have been heat damaged, but that's a different issue.)

Note: the link says Casa but your note says Quinta. Both exist and are different entities spun off from the same ancestor. Precision is extra important in this particular case.
I just saw this and Glenn is correct, this should be a QUINTA de Santa Eufemia 30 Year Old White Port. CASA Santa Eufemia does not make a 30 year old white Port. They were the same company, but the family split and split the company as well into these two independent ones.

30 Year Quinta de Santa Eufemia
Casa Santa Eufemia White Port

Can someone change the title?
Last edited by Andy Velebil on 19:09 Fri 27 Jan 2012, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
RAYC
Taylor Quinta de Vargellas 1987
Posts: 2060
Joined: 23:50 Tue 04 May 2010
Location: London

Re: 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White

Post by RAYC »

Andy Velebil wrote:CASA Santa Eufemia does not make a 30 year old white Port.
That's not strictly correct - Casa Ste Eufemia do (or at least did) make what they called a 30 yr, but which is reputedly (as Glenn states) actually a single harvest 1973.

The bottle drunk here was the Quinta ste Eufemia
Rob C.
Andy Velebil
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
Posts: 3028
Joined: 22:16 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Los Angeles, Ca USA
Contact:

Re: 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White

Post by Andy Velebil »

RAYC wrote:
Andy Velebil wrote:CASA Santa Eufemia does not make a 30 year old white Port.
That's not strictly correct - Casa Ste Eufemia do (or at least did) make what they called a 30 yr, but which is reputedly (as Glenn states) actually a single harvest 1973.

The bottle drunk here was the Quinta ste Eufemia
Not true, they call it a Reserva Especial Branco, they do indicate on their website that is was from 1973. But the last back label I saw didn't mention this. Matter of fact, I spoke to one of the owners in person when I tasted it several years ago and we tried to convince them to mention on the back label it was all from 1973, in an effort to help them get around IVDP regulations. I don't know if they now do this or not on the back label.

The picture on that site is of their red tawny not the white.

edit, I posted the wrong link earlier, now fixed.
Glenn E.
Graham’s 1977
Posts: 4163
Joined: 22:27 Wed 09 Jul 2008
Location: Seattle, WA, USA

Re: 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White

Post by Glenn E. »

Andy Velebil wrote:
RAYC wrote:
Andy Velebil wrote:CASA Santa Eufemia does not make a 30 year old white Port.
That's not strictly correct - Casa Ste Eufemia do (or at least did) make what they called a 30 yr, but which is reputedly (as Glenn states) actually a single harvest 1973.

The bottle drunk here was the Quinta ste Eufemia
Not true, they call it a Reserva Especial Branco, they do indicate on their website that is was from 1973. But the last back label I saw didn't mention this. Matter of fact, I spoke to one of the owners in person when I tasted it several years ago and we tried to convince them to mention on the back label it was all from 1973, in an effort to help them get around IVDP regulations. I don't know if they now do this or not on the back label.
My remaining bottle of the Special Reserve White simply says something to the effect of "it's at least 30 years old" on the back label (which is stenciled, btw), which is probably all they could get away with without provoking the wrath of the IVDP.

I do also have a bottle of the Quinta de Ste. Eufemia 30-yr old White Port but I don't recall having ever tried one.
Glenn Elliott
Andy Velebil
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
Posts: 3028
Joined: 22:16 Mon 25 Jun 2007
Location: Los Angeles, Ca USA
Contact:

Re: 30Y Casa Santa Eufemia White

Post by Andy Velebil »

Here's the funny part. When the company split they split the stocks. So the Quinta d. Sta E. 30 year old's base is the 1973. But also blended with other younger vintages. Casa Sta. E. decided not blend it and just bottle it all from 1973.

Though at the time, back in the '70s, it was not registered as a Colheita, which is why they can't put 1973 on the label or call it a Colheita now.
Post Reply