ThePortForum.com

Yesterday I went to an off-license that happens to be very near where I live to see what ports they have for sale...
I noticed a brand I hadn't heard of before: Vista Alegre by Vallegre (Quinta da Vista Alegre, Pinhão). The off-licence was selling four or five LBVs of this brand, the oldest being a 1996 LBV bottled in 2002. I found this to be reasonably priced at ┚¬ 14,50/bottle and I bought it.

The Vista Alegre LBV 1996 is in a black bottle with driven cork. The label states "unfiltered", so this will be my first unfiltered LBV. Taking into account it has aged 6 years in wood and another 6 in the bottle, I'm assuming it'll be nicely ready to drink. I laid down the bottle to let the sediment settle again, but I'll be trying it soon...

Curious to read about other people's experiences with this port I did a search in this forum on "Vallegre": no hits. On "Alegre": just one on aged white port. On incorrectly spelled "Allegre": a few more, mostly in Site Stuff and only one TN on a VP. It doesn't seem to be a well known brand among TPFers.

Vista Alegre is well distributed in the Netherlands, but not so much in other countries I think. It's a good producer, with some ports being good value and others underperforming slightly. I'm not a big fan of their LBV's, but they make some stunning aged tawnies (the 30YOT is very, very good) and the 2000 VP is a very nice one for the mid-term.

The headquarter of the company is Quinta da Vista Alegre, but these are not single quinta wines. The grapes are sourced from a number of quintas. I don't recall if all quintas are owned by the company.

I hope you like the LBV!

Vista Alegre is also well known in Denmark

It`s not my favorite brand
On my trip to Portugal i visit them in the valley.

I'm sure I have a photograph of the Quinta. I will look it out and post it here later.

Derek

Vista Allegre makes some great aged tawny's. But don't discount their LBV's and VP's, as some are very good and others are good QPR's.

Nice to hear that their aged tawnies are good, I like that style a lot. I'll definitly be trying some of those in the near future...but first the 1996 LBV.

Only two days to work for us this week because of two bank holidays right in the middle of the week (Queen's Day and Ascension Day) and most people having a day off on Friday. I'll probably be posting a TN on the Vista Alegre LBV 1996 soon...