Taylors Scion

[Axel P]

Taylor got something interesting though pretty expensive for sale:

Taylors Scion

VERY OLD PORT FROM
THE PRE-PHYLLOXERA ERA

Background:

• In 2008 Taylor’s wine maker David Guimaraens became aware of the existence of a very old and rare cask-aged port dating from before the arrival of Phylloxera in the Douro Valley
• The wine belonged to a distinguished Douro family and was stored in a lodge in the village of Prezegueda in the Corgo Valley
• A treasured heirloom, passed down from one generation to the next, it was maintained as a private family reserve, with the exception of one pipe said to have been acquired by Winston Churchill
• In 2009 the sole surviving direct descendant of the family died, leaving no children. Her heirs, not all family members, decided to sell the wine
• Taylor’s acquired samples and, amazingly in view of its age (harvest of 1855), the wine was found to be in faultless condition
• Taylor’s successfully negotiated the purchase of the wine which was moved in two casks to the firm’s lodges in Oporto on 13th January, 2010.
• In view of its extraordinary quality, rarity and remarkable historical interest, it was decided by the firm’s Managing Director Adrian Bridge that the wine should not be blended but should be offered by Taylor’s as a unique collector’s item

What makes the wine unique?

• There are only two casks of this rare wine
• It is one of the last wines in perfect drinking condition to survive from the pre-Phylloxera era and is therefore of historical interest
• The Douro vineyards in the pre-Phylloxera era were different to those of today in that the vines were ungrafted and represented a different mix of varieties to those currently favoured. The wine is therefore one of the last representatives of a lost viticultural era and can never be reproduced
• Reserves of port of over a century and a half in age are now virtually unknown. This may well be the last significant quantity of wine of this age to be offered to collectors
• Remarkably for a wine aged in wood for over 15 decades, the wine is in perfect condition. This fact alone makes it an extreme rarity

Why has it been named SCION?

• The word ‘scion’ has two meanings: the descendant or heir of a noble family and the shoot of a plant, especially one used for grafting. Few wines can claim to be as representative of the long and distinguished tradition of Port production. The wine is also the product of an era when the ‘scion’, in this case the noble European wine bearing vine, was planted on its own roots and expressed itself in all its purity.



How will the wine be presented?

• The packaging has been designed to recall the era when the wine was made: The wine is displayed in a sturdy wooden box with brass fittings reminiscent of a 19th century instrument case. The SCION logo is set in an authentic Portuguese typeface first made available in 1874.
• In addition to the wine itself, several other items included in the box are collector’s items in their own right. The wine will be presented in a hand-blown limited edition crystal decanter specially produced for SCION. Set into the lid of the box is a booklet telling the story of the wine with original drawings by the illustrator and typographer Sarah Coleman. The Port and Douro Wines Institute (IVDP) has kindly made available some rare guarantee seals from a limited remaining stock.

Who is expected to buy the wine?

• Collectors of rare wines and spirits
• Entrepreneurs and other wealthy individuals seeking a very rare and expensive wine as a gift or a ‘trophy’ to show friends or business associates
• Corporations and other organizations looking for an expensive and impressive gift or incentive
• Very wealthy consumers wishing to impress when entertaining
• Prestige on trade accounts and clubs requiring very rare, exclusive and expensive products to display and serve to wealthy clients

What channels will be used?

• Fine wine retailers catering to a wealthy individual or corporate clientele
• Very exclusive on trade accounts
• Private auctions (particularly in Asia)
• Direct marketing by Taylor distributors to corporate accounts and wealthy individuals

What collateral benefits do we hope to achieve?

• Bringing the Port category to the attention of wealthy consumers and collectors of luxury products
• Positioning Taylor’s as a luxury brand
• Enhancing the perception of the Port as a high value, aspirational, luxury product, particularly in developing markets with affluent consumers with little wine knowledge
• Doing the above without affecting the core values of Vintage Port

What ways have been considered to market this product?

• Auctions of rare wines and spirits
• Appearance at luxury goods events, such as the ‘Millionaire’s fairs’, boat and luxury automobile shows, etc
• PR campaign targeting luxury lifestyle publications
• dedicated website
• Launch events targeting opinion leaders and wealthy individuals

SCION pack shot white background ROTATED small.jpg (73.2 KiB) Viewed 13044 times

Axel

[smisse]

Out of my budget but still reasonably priced. I expected +10000EUR. It is "only" 2500GBP

For the more fortunate:
http://www.finestandrarest.com/taylors-scion.html

[DRT]

WOW.

According to a post on these are being offered at 2,500 Euro per bottle. 2,500/14 = 178.57 Euro per glass

[smisse]

WOW.

According to a post on these are being offered at 2,500 Euro per bottle. 2,500/14 = 178.57 Euro per glass

Actually I just found one for 1700EUR:
http://www.frw.co.uk/searchWines.aspx?k ... d=4&FRS=ws

[g-man]

is that a t stopper?

I'd be interested in something like that if it had TFP blessing.

Looks black as night though, I wonder what reconditioning they did to it.

[Glenn E.]

Looks black as night though, I wonder what reconditioning they did to it.

Don't know why, but in those product shots the Port always looks a lot darker than it really is. I've now seen the 1963 Dalva Golden White Colheita up close and it's nowhere near the same color as you see in its product shots. So I would assume that the same thing is going on here and would expect the Port to be a fairly dark brown/tawny color in person.

[DRT]

With that long in wood it should certainly be dark brown. Old Colheita's are usually darker than those of middle age so presumably they take some colour from the wood and/or the intensity of the concentration through evaporation.

[jdaw1]

with the exception of one pipe said to have been acquired by Winston Churchill

I have seen every surviving wine invoice of Winston Churchill, and there wasn’t anything like this.

[Glenn E.]

with the exception of one pipe said to have been acquired by Winston Churchill

I have seen every surviving wine invoice of Winston Churchill, and there wasn’t anything like this.

"Said to have been acquired by..." says, to me, that there are no longer records to that effect. Proof in the form of a surviving invoice would have shortened that sentence to simply "acquired by..." My guess is that they only have anecdotal evidence, possibly verbal, of any such transaction at this point.

[g-man]

with the exception of one pipe said to have been acquired by Winston Churchill

I have seen every surviving wine invoice of Winston Churchill, and there wasn’t anything like this.

"Said to have been acquired by..." says, to me, that there are no longer records to that effect. Proof in the form of a surviving invoice would have shortened that sentence to simply "acquired by..." My guess is that they only have anecdotal evidence, possibly verbal, of any such transaction at this point.

would churchill even buy a whole pipe?

[jdaw1]

Post-war a ‘supporter’ gave him a pipe of something I vaguely recall Burmester, with no mention of it having notable antiquity and there are records of his dealing with exchange controls to pay for shipping etc. But of vintage port the great man, in his whole life, purchased 11 bottles; and he also bought several hundred Graham’s Vintage Character.

[DRT]

If one had a mischievous mind one might be contemplating the irony of Tayor Fladgate now selling an ancient ancestor to Graham's Six Grapes at £2,500 per bottle

[g-man]

If one had a mischievous mind one might be contemplating the irony of Tayor Fladgate now selling an ancient ancestor to Graham's Six Grapes at £2,500 per bottle

that got a good laugh out of me

[JacobH]

In many respects, I think it is surprising that this hasn’t been done before. An ancient colheita allows a Port shipper to compete directly with the super-premium drinks produced in other regions because it can easily be sold at great age, with a guarantee of quality, to be consumed immediately.

I do wonder, though, why the decanter is quite so plain? If this is going into the same market as Remy Martin’s Louise XIII Cognac or Hennessy’s Ellipse, I’m surprised it doesn’t have a Victorian style hand-blown decanter.

Thinking of Cognac, one area in which they excel is marketing at the top and bottom of the market. For example, by cultivating an image of itself as the producer of ultra-rare, ultra-expensive brandies, Hennessy can sell a whole load of very cheap VS Cognac at a premium even though they will inevitably get drunk with mixers and have little to do with the premium end of the spectrum. One interesting question therefore might be whether Taylor is planing on doing the same an effectively tying this wine into the rest of their brand? The lack of an existing Colheita line in any of their brands might be a problem (unless, perhaps, the Delaforce stocks which they retained might see the light of day as a Taylor Colheita?).

Moving away from the marketing, does anyone else find it interesting that this is a family reserve colheita and therefore almost certainly a SQC (if that’s the right term...)? I suppose it must not be from a very famous Quinta, though, otherwise they would be saying where it came from...

[Andy Velebil]

I do wonder, though, why the decanter is quite so plain? If this is going into the same market as Remy Martin’s Louise XIII Cognac or Hennessy’s Ellipse, I’m surprised it doesn’t have a Victorian style hand-blown decanter.

Moving away from the marketing, does anyone else find it interesting that this is a family reserve colheita and therefore almost certainly a SQC (if that’s the right term...)? I suppose it must not be from a very famous Quinta, though, otherwise they would be saying where it came from...

Jacob,
Two very good questions you raise. Personally, I agree about the decanter being so plain. IMO, it looks like the $12 one I bought this year at a discount store. But I'm sure there was a reason for this, maybe that was similar to decanters being used in Portugal at the time?????

As for the Colheita, the law allows a person to make a limited amount of Port to be consumed at home that doesn't have to be declared to the IVDP. So there are many small growers that have their own small stash of stuff that for one reason or another is still in barrel many decades later. That was probably why they called it SCION, as they can't legally put a year anywhere on the main label and sell it as a single year "colheita."

While overall I think it's a very good product design and there will no doubt be buyers for it, I'd would rather skip all the very expensive and fancy packaging and use that extra €1,000 to buy a second bottle.

[uncle tom]

While overall I think it's a very good product design and there will no doubt be buyers for it, I'd would rather skip all the very expensive and fancy packaging and use that extra €1,000 to buy a second bottle.

I agree. I'm afraid everything about this - the packaging, the name, the use of a decanter, the t-stopper, and the very dubious suggestion that Churchill had some at some point - all makes me think 'oh dear..'

This is the sort of bling we expect from LVMH - not a respected port shipper..

The price, incidentally, is ridiculous. Sooner or later one or two will doubtless find their way into the auction rooms, and I doubt they will realise much more than 10% of the offer price.

Tom

[Glenn E.]

The price, incidentally, is ridiculous. Sooner or later one or two will doubtless find their way into the auction rooms, and I doubt they will realise much more than 10% of the offer price.

Really? How many 155-year old (all in wood) Colheitas can you currently purchase for 250 Euros?

Andresen's 1910 Colheita retails for 2000 Euros and if I remember correctcly what they told us at the lodge all of the bottles are already spoken for. These are not normal Ports and, frankly, are not intended for normal Port buyers. I agree that the price does seem a little out of line, but honestly not that much. Relatively recent Nacionals sell for $1000/bottle, after all.

(I do find it amusing that 1 Euro = 1 GBP according to Taylor's Scion pricing.)

[uncle tom]

How many 155-year old (all in wood) Colheitas can you currently purchase for 250 Euros?

Last year I picked up a Loureiro 1871 for £160, and quite recently a merchant was trying to offload some Whitwham 1880's for not a lot more.

Andresen's 1910 Colheita retails for 2000 Euros

- It's currently being offered by a retailer in California for $623..

..there are always a few merchants trying to sell wines for way over the odds - hoping to catch the odd punter who has more money than sense.

And it seems to work - one such merchant whom I know well has just bought a Bentley..

Tom

[DRT]

First off I will say that this product is not something that I will be buying. It is out of my price range and, more importantly, being a colheita, is out of my main interest area when it comes to port.

But I think any attempt to value this by comparing it to obscure single bottles that pop up at auction every once in a while is missing the point by a country mile. To be fair to Taylor Fladgate, the press release copied above is entirely up front about what this is and who it is aimed at. Personally I think the packaging and presentation are superb as a luxury item. Which is what this is. It will be loved by those who receive them as corporate gifts or as Christmas stocking fillers of the super-rich. These are the declared target market.

If I were to be hyper-critical, the thing that is missing for me in all of this is a romantic link between the wine and the shipper. As a port geek it would have been great if their was some sort of family or property link back to the grapes or the people who made this but, unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. Then again, the C.E.O of a large Hong Kong corporate giant isn't going to care about that one way or another when he's handing it to his retireing Vice President

Derek

[Glenn E.]

How many 155-year old (all in wood) Colheitas can you currently purchase for 250 Euros?

Last year I picked up a Loureiro 1871 for £160, and quite recently a merchant was trying to offload some Whitwham 1880's for not a lot more.

So... none, then? Prices were lower last year and Scion wasn't available then.

I see a Loureiro for $600+ but no Whitwham 1880. I do see a Whitwham King Pedro, but they're half bottles.

Andresen's 1910 Colheita retails for 2000 Euros

- It's currently being offered by a retailer in California for $623..

Interesting... the impression I got when we were at Andresen was that while all the bottles were spoken for, it hadn't actually shipped yet. In which case, what are these bottles currently available over the internet?

I probably got the wrong impression while on the Tour. I'd had... "a few" glasses by the time he started talking about the 1910.

..there are always a few merchants trying to sell wines for way over the odds - hoping to catch the odd punter who has more money than sense.

And it seems to work - one such merchant whom I know well has just bought a Bentley..

Of course. Most people don't have the knowledge/ability to seek out the absolute best price. As Derek points out, these bottles aren't meant for those people anyway.

Though the irony that your merchant friend who preys on people who have more money than sense would then waste his gains on a Bentley is delicious.

[JacobH]

Two very good questions you raise. Personally, I agree about the decanter being so plain. IMO, it looks like the $12 one I bought this year at a discount store. But I'm sure there was a reason for this, maybe that was similar to decanters being used in Portugal at the time?????

Well, to continue the comparison, I don’t think the decanters Louis XIII used looked much like the Louis XIII decanter from Remy Martin...Perhaps this produce was slightly rushed out and they couldn’t get scratch made ones in time (or decided that it wasn’t worth the cost)? I’m surprised, though, that the decanter doesn’t even appear to be engraved. I would have thought for a trophy wine like this, having a fabulous decanter left over would be an important part of the packaging.

Incidentally, I like the fact that the typography gets such a large mention in the press release!

As for the Colheita, the law allows a person to make a limited amount of Port to be consumed at home that doesn't have to be declared to the IVDP. So there are many small growers that have their own small stash of stuff that for one reason or another is still in barrel many decades later. That was probably why they called it SCION, as they can't legally put a year anywhere on the main label and sell it as a single year "colheita."

I imagine that the legal situation with this is rather complex due to the age of the wine and the fact that it pre-dates most of the registering processes that go on for normal Ports. Presumably there are provisions for this within the IVDP’s procedures for dealing with things like this since there is quite a lot of old Port around (although perhaps not much as quite such an age). I’d still like to know which Quinta this is from, though!

PS. Does anyone know what the ‟rare guarantee seals from a limited remaining stock” are? The selo on the bottle looks pretty standard to me...

[DRT]

Personally, I agree about the decanter being so plain.

Perhaps this produce was slightly rushed out and they couldn’t get scratch made ones in time (or decided that it wasn’t worth the cost)? I’m surprised, though, that the decanter doesn’t even appear to be engraved. I would have thought for a trophy wine like this, having a fabulous decanter left over would be an important part of the packaging.

Sometimes less is more when it comes to stylish design. I hate cut glass/crystal - it's really, really ugly. The Scion decanter is exactly the same shape as the "perfect" port decanter I use at home

[RonnieRoots]

How many 155-year old (all in wood) Colheitas can you currently purchase for 250 Euros?

Last year I picked up a Loureiro 1871 for £160, and quite recently a merchant was trying to offload some Whitwham 1880's for not a lot more.

So... none, then? Prices were lower last year and Scion wasn't available then.

I see a Loureiro for $600+ but no Whitwham 1880. I do see a Whitwham King Pedro, but they're half bottles.

The Loureiro certainly

isn't worth $600

. If you find it as an oddity and moderately priced, it's fun to taste, but don't expect a great port.

On the Scion, I think it's a great idea of Taylor's to put it in the market like this. It looks beautiful and there will certainly be a market for it (not me though). I do agree with Derek's point of the missing romantic link. The story would be even better if they had found a lost barrel somewhere in the cellars of the Taylor's lodge.

[Glenn E.]

The story would be even better if they had found a lost barrel somewhere in the cellars of the Taylor's lodge.

I agree. But this got me thinking... if they had found a lost barrel somewhere in the cellar of the lodge, how much Port would actually be left in it after 155 years?

Even assuming a relatively small (and modern) Angel's share of just 1%, a 155-year old pipe would contain just under 116 liters. At an Angel's share of 3% it would contain just under 4.9 liters.

Food for thought when it comes to these old Ports!

[jdaw1]

Yes, 0.99^155 ≈ 0.21. But would the rate of loss slow down after some evaporation? As an increasing number of chemicals become fully saturated in what remains, would the energy required for evaporation increase? IAMFI.

[mosesbotbol]

More houses should bottle pipe specific colheitas. It gives some meaning to the contents when the consumer can knows it was from a specific barrel. Consumers love it when it comes to whiskey.

[uncle tom]

More houses should bottle pipe specific colheitas. It gives some meaning to the contents when the consumer can knows it was from a specific barrel. Consumers love it when it comes to whiskey

I've been saying that for years..

..but spare us the poncy boxes and mega bucks price tags..

Tom

[g-man]

The story would be even better if they had found a lost barrel somewhere in the cellars of the Taylor's lodge.

I agree. But this got me thinking... if they had found a lost barrel somewhere in the cellar of the lodge, how much Port would actually be left in it after 155 years?

Even assuming a relatively small (and modern) Angel's share of just 1%, a 155-year old pipe would contain just under 116 liters. At an Angel's share of 3% it would contain just under 4.9 liters.

Food for thought when it comes to these old Ports!

is that assuming that it was buried deep damn in a damp cellar where the pressure and humidity might have kept the angel from finding their share?

[jdaw1]

is that assuming that it was buried deep damn in a damp cellar where the pressure and humidity might have kept the angel from finding their share?

A cellar 500m deep would have an air pressure less than 10% higher. Pressure is unlikely to be relevant.

[g-man]

is that assuming that it was buried deep damn in a damp cellar where the pressure and humidity might have kept the angel from finding their share?

A cellar 500m deep would have an air pressure less than 10% higher. Pressure is unlikely to be relevant.

but <~10% over 150 years surely has some affect.

[jdaw1]

Most of the the cellars of small Quintas are less than ½km deep. Typically, much much less.

[JacobH]

More houses should bottle pipe specific colheitas. It gives some meaning to the contents when the consumer can knows it was from a specific barrel. Consumers love it when it comes to whiskey.

I imagine economics come into place, as they do with Scotch: a 550 litre pipe is only 685 or so bottles of port, which is tiny, even by the standards of the independents.

I imagine the only way to make economical would be to follow the Scotch model and have an independent organisation buy and sell single-pipe versions (à la The Scotch Malt Whisky Society) or to do what Taylor’s is and only sell it when it can be made in to be ultra-expensive.

Even assuming a relatively small (and modern) Angel's share of just 1%, a 155-year old pipe would contain just under 116 liters. At an Angel's share of 3% it would contain just under 4.9 liters.

This is also assuming that these were standard-sized pipes. If they were larger, evaporation could be less of a problem (and the wine might be more likely to be drinkable at such an age.

[DRT]

is that assuming that it was buried deep damn in a damp cellar where the pressure and humidity might have kept the angel from finding their share?

A cellar 500m deep would have an air pressure less than 10% higher. Pressure is unlikely to be relevant.

It should be remembered that this wine spent 155 years in a cask in the Corgo valley, not in VNG. I would think that the angels who live in the Douro are treated to a very much larger share than those on the west coast.

Reading the press release again it is stated that this wine was "maintained as a private reserve". I read somewhere else that it had been racked, presumably a number of times over its lifetime. I wonder if, how many times, and with what, the family refreshed the wine to compensate for those greedy Douro angels?

[jdaw1]

Reading the press release again it is stated that this wine was "maintained as a private reserve". I read somewhere else that it had been racked, presumably a number of times over its lifetime. I wonder if, how many times, and with what, the family refreshed the wine to compensate for those greedy Douro angels?

Imagine that, each year the angels and family drank 2½% of this reserve, and topped up that 2½% with 2YO wine. Then today this wine would have an average age of 40 years and 2 months, and 2% of the cask would have come from that starting harvest 155 years ago.

[Andy Velebil]

I wonder if, how many times, and with what, the family refreshed the wine to compensate for those greedy Douro angels?

That right there is the most important question I've read in this entire thread and an answer I'd seek out if I was looking to buy this wine.

[Glenn E.]

I read somewhere else that it had been racked, presumably a number of times over its lifetime. I wonder if, how many times, and with what, the family refreshed the wine to compensate for those greedy Douro angels?

Sarah Ahmed, the Wine Detective, mentioned that on her website along with a TN for Scion. She also mentions that it was stored in the basement of a house, not in a proper lodge, though it's possible that a basement could be as good as a lodge in a winemaker's house.

One would hope that the Port was only topped off with itself when racked. That's certainly what I infer from all of the Taylor press materials.

At a 1% rate of evaporation, that means they started with ~10 casks (referred to as pipes in some of the press) in order to end up with 2. They'd need to have started with 15 if Churchill did actually acquire a "third cask" (or possibly fewer since he'd have to have acquired it many decades ago). Still... that's a lot of Port to have been saved as a family reserve. The numbers simply aren't reasonable at a higher rate of evaporation. One could make a strong case that they're not reasonable at 1%.

[Roy Hersh]

2-4% evaporation is the average annual rate in the majority of Port lodges in Gaia. However, we know that this Scion juice came from casks found in a private cellar in the Douro. Evaporation there is typically higher than in Gaia, as the RH and temperatures are less stable, certainly back in the day. So forget even considering 1% evap rate ... even as an example, as it has no basis in reality.

[uncle tom]

One would hope that the Port was only topped off with itself when racked

This of course is the niggling bit - a lot can happen over 155 years, and I once came across a bottle of 19th century tawny that included the word 'refreshed' on the label..

- Dare they get a radio carbon date?

Tom

[jdaw1]

I once came across a bottle of 19th century tawny that included the word 'refreshed' on the label.

1896 Elviro Garcia ‘Refreshed’ tawny, which has pictures of this ‟Rare Lodge Port”.

[Roy Hersh]

Refreshing is a practice still in use today. There are numerous ways of topping off an old barrel, or not.

[Andy Velebil]

Refreshing is a practice still in use today. There are numerous ways of topping off an old barrel, or not.

Refreshing is a practice that almost all wineries that age wine for more than a year in barrel use, as they have to due to evaporation rates and keeping the pipes/barrels topped up. Most use the same vintage and type of wine from another barrel or in the case of many Cali wineries, large glass or plastic containers. So refreshing isn't normally a big deal at all.

However, as we learned in a past newsletter, there is no IVDP regulation of what can be used to top up a colheita pipe (obviously, I'm not talking about a non-authorized substance). It can be the same vintage, or it can be a younger port that is used to refresh the casks. If the later, after that many decades with evaporation rates, a pipe refreshed with a younger Port each year has basically become a defacto type of Solera. And while it can still be called a Colheita, with a vintage, does this really make it truth in labeling? I'm sure this could be an interesting topic on it's own.....

[Roy Hersh]

andy wrote:

Refreshing is a practice that almost all wineries that age wine for more than a year in barrel use, as they have to due to evaporation rates and keeping the pipes/barrels topped up. Most use the same vintage and type of wine from another barrel or in the case of many Cali wineries, large glass or plastic containers. So refreshing isn't normally a big deal at all.

You may consider this comment as a matter of semantics, but I see it differently.

To me, topping off means the process of using the same Port whenever possible, to replace what has evaporated in a Tawny or Colheita. There's a difference between those two as one is a blend and one is not, but that's not what I am getting at.

"Refreshing" is different than topping off, although it can be construed as a similar process. However, to me the difference is that refreshing does NOT use the same Port as in the cask it is being used to top off. "Refreshing" is used to top off a wooden cask (Port or Madeira actually) with a younger batch of Port -- intentionally, which enlivens the color at least slightly, adds a youthful vibrancy from fresh acidity in the younger Port being added and provides a more profound change to the flavor profile of an older, concentrated cask of Port.

[Andy Velebil]

You may consider this comment as a matter of semantics....

I do, as the terms often are co-mingled in the wine making world when doing the same activity. But regardless, that is why I explained it the way I did in my last post.

[uncle tom]

Semantics aside; considering how pale vintage ports become after a century and half, with the certain knowledge that no refreshment has occurred since they were bottled; is it really credible that a wine that had spent that long in cask, without the periodic addition of younger wine to refresh it, would have retained such a colour as this one?

Tom

[RAYC]

Richard Mayson has his TN on this up - pity I did not realise before as could have asked for further impressions at the Noval/Nacional tasting.

http://www.richardmayson.com/Port_Notes/

[angeleyes]

Returning to Derek's point (if I may), the point of this is the romantic story behind the wine, and the packaging. Those with that kind of cash will view it as a rather nice display item or gift, and drink it by tasting the imagination that goes with 150+ years of age, rather than by the wine alone.

[Andy Velebil]

Ray,

Thanks...here is some background from Maysons site.

...a one-off bottling of a pre-phylloxera Port dating back to the mid”“nineteenth century, probably 1855. It comes from a quinta belonging to the late Irene Viana Pinto in the village of Prezegueda in the Corgo valley near Régua.

part of his tasting note

leaving an aftertaste of Elvas plums.

Of the very old colheita's and tawny's I've had, I can't say I've ever run across a plum aftertaste in any of them.

[uncle tom]

Of the very old colheita's and tawny's I've had, I can't say I've ever run across a plum aftertaste in any of them.

Ditto.. Fruit flavours are usually the first casualty to age..

Tom

[Glenn E.]

Of the very old colheita's and tawny's I've had, I can't say I've ever run across a plum aftertaste in any of them.

I often get my fruits confused, but I have noted dates and figs in old Colheitas before. I can't be sure about plums, but it at least seems possible to me.

The killer for me is the number of casks that they'd have needed at the start in order to end up with 2 left at the end. (We'll assume that the Winston Churchill rumor is just that... a rumor.) Roy says 1% evaporation in the Douro has no basis in reality and I believe him, so figuring it for 2% they'd have needed ~46 casks of this wine back in 1855. That's not a family reserve, that's a production run.

So we're forced to conclude that this is a Solera. There's nothing wrong with Soleras, but I do have a problem with them referring to a Solera being a pre-phyloxera Port because that's just not true. The odds seem very high that less than 10% of this Port actually remains from 1855 if it is a Solera, which means that most of it is actually post-phyloxera Port added to "refresh" the casks over the years.

[DRT]

Does anyone know how many bottles are being released?

I think we need to be careful not to interpret the "2 casks" as necessarily being "2 pipes". I have seen lots of casks of different sizes used for private reserves in the Douro. This may have started off as a small or large Tonel containing many thousands of gallons and after multiple rackings, evaporation and drinking, ended up in two small casks containing only a few gallons each. The fact of the matter is we don't know.

An injection of facts would be a good thing at this point in the discussion.