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I envy your experience, but also cringe at the thought of your chat up lines with the young tour guide....

Have a good un.

:piginpoo:

I'm back at la Rosa after spending a fantastic afternoon in heaven.

Passadouro was great. I was given a personal tour by a very nice Dutchman named Ronald. He explained the history of the Quinta and the recent redevelopments that have now turned it into one of the nicest small Quintas I have seen.

We tasteda number of dry reds and young ports from casks. Yummy

We then moved inside the guesthouse where I was served the Passadouro infiltered ruby, which was excellent followed by 2 glasses served blind. I guessed one as an aged tawny and the other as a 90s VP, possibly Grahams. The first turned out to be Malvedos 92 - quite evolved for its age but beautifully smooth. The other was Vargellas 91. This was stunning. Thick, chewy and tannic. Perhaps they should have declared this instead of holding out for the big birthday in 92!

An excellent visit.

Next was Romaniera. I was met at the top of a hill by a guard. He walked me into a waiting room ith an umbrella over my head and then called the quinta. A few minutes later a 4x4 drove up with my tour guide and her driver. I then toured the new winery, which rivals Napoles for those who have seen it, and was then driven 6km along a cobbled road to the Quinta complex. I was then given a tour of the most fabulous hotel I have ever seen. Pictures will be posted when I get home. I was then given a tasting which included aged tawnies, Colheita, LBV and VP. All extremely enjoyable but note taking had gone from my mind at this point.

This is a truely stunning hotel. I'm going to sell the kids for medical experiments so that I can live there

Out for a big fillet steak and some port tonight.

Hope you are all having fun.

Derek

PS: went to Panascal. Great to see it but ADV was right.

PPS: weather very mixed. Very cold morning, wet afternoon, sunny and warm evening. It's a bit like being in Oban.

Derek is as happy as a pig in poo.
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My blackberry can't cope with that but I'm sure it accurately reflects my current mood.

Derek

Good to hear you are having fun. Uh oh, no sun. There goes the 2008 theory!

Did you actually miss Pacheca AND Quinta do Noval too?

I did not see them in your report yet. Looking forward to see if you met Rute and your opinion.

Anyway, have a great rest of the trip!

From the number of wines reported on, it sounds like you have moderated your pace, what is going on? Tell those buggers to break out the good stuff for you!

There goes the 2008 theory!

Rain in April is not a death sentence. The winter rain was close to average, and probably a little short of the ideal, so a soaking now should be beneficial, setting the ground water levels up for the season. However, having rained most days this month (so far) there is probably no need of more.

Warm dry weather is forecast to return toward the end of the coming week, hopefully, that will become the norm thereafter.

The next big event on the calendar is the flowering and fruit set that occurs in a month's time. Here the definition of 'good' diverges - those who seek quantity want this part of the season to pass off uneventfully, but good vintage years often suffer problems at this stage that reduce yield. Small crops have some history for being good crops, although there are exceptions.

Tom

What a busy day I've had!

Left Pinhao at 7:00 and drove, almost, straight to the Grahams lodge in VNG. I was given the normal tourist your by a nice young lady named Sara. She then took me to the new tasting bar in the main visitor tasting area and served me the following wines:

2 x white ports
Graham Six Grapes
Graham LBV 2001
Malvedos 1998
Graham 2000
Vesuvio 1994 x 3



More later, need to check in in case I miss my flight home

Taylor lodge VNG.

A non-standard personal tour from a man named Andrew. Taken to places that mere mortals like may rarely get to tread, including a VP cellar containing more bottles of VP than it is possible to imagine.

Tasted the following in the Tasting Room of the Fonseca lodge:

Croft Pink
Taylor chip dry
Taylor LBV 2002
Taylor 20 yrs
Vargellas 2005
Fonseca bin 27
Fonseca Organic
Fonseca 20 yrs
Panascal 2005

Excellent.

After that we went to the car park where Adrian Bridge, David Guimareans and Alistair Robertson debated with Andrew on how best to get me to the Niepoort lodge

Did you remember the corks?

Tom

uncle tom wrote:Did you remember the corks?

Tom

I did remember, but I past the shop 8 times and it was never open.

Derek

Derek, how did you like Pacheca wines and port? I really think think they are a secret kept in Portugal.

Frederick Blais wrote:Derek, how did you like Pacheca wines and port? I really think think they are a secret kept in Portugal.

Frederick,

Unfortunately I didn't make it to Pacheca for two reasons. Firstly because my appointment was cancelled the day before I arrived due to the Quinta being in a bit of a mess after a rainstorm and secondly because I missed my early morning flight from the UK and couldn't have made the appointment even if it hadn't been cancelled.

I will go there next time I am in the Douro as I have heard good things about them.

Derek

...and who said that you could change your avatar and rank back?

KillerB wrote:...and who said that you could change your avatar and rank back?

Me. I decided that my period of sack-cloth and ashes had passed no that I have returned to Blighty and am no longer feeling like this

Derek

Here is a brief report on my final visit on this trip...

Niepoort Cellar VNG

I was given a tour by the son of the Cellar Master, Jose (Ze) Rodrigo. Ze worked for a couple of other shippers before joining his father to help run the Niepoort opperation in VNG a few years ago. He is as passionate as a man can be about the wines he looks after and it was a great privilage to meet him.

The cellar is unlike anything I have seen in VNG. It is a true working cellar and bottling plant, not the polished and sterile environments you see on the tourist route. Ze walked me through the various parts of the cellar and explained the the history of the place and what each part of the cellar is used for. He also explained that the cellar is going through a period of transition following the purchase of the old Osborne cellar from Taylor Fladgate recently. The new cellar is being used as the administration centre and for the storage of new wines. The old cellar remains opperational but it seems will eventually become simply a storage facility.

The highlight of the trip was being taken into the inner sanctum of the world of Niepoort - the room where all the old bottles and Garrafeira Demijohns are stored. I don't think I have ever seem more dust in my life - it really is the epitomy of what an old cellar is meant to look like. The number of Demijohns in storage was quite staggering, almost 4,000 with equal shelf space allocated to ageing bottles of VP, Colheita and oddities that are no longer sold. If ever there was a place I would like to be buried alive it would be in that cellar - so long as I had a corkscrew with me

Next we tasted some wines:

Colheita 1987
Colheita 1998 (I think?)
20 yr old Tawny
LBV 2004
Vintage 2005

...plus a few others that have disappeared into the dim and distant past.

The 1987 Colheita was superb, as was the 2005 VP.

This visit was one of the more memorable parts of the entire trip as I had access to a place that very few people have ever seen. If you ever get the change to go here it is an absolute must.

Derek

Over the next few days I will post some TN's and other threads containing photographs of the Quintas I visited.

Derek