As is customary, Winetasters attempts to banish the February blahs with a splash of luxurious Portuguese port. This winter, the cellar yields us a fantastic vertical from the extraordinary port house of Warre’s.

It is considered one of the “first growths” of port, a decision based upon centuries of excellent production. Extraordinary wines from 1870,1887,1896,1904 and 1908 were pivotal in establishing Port as one of the world’s great wines. Warre’s style is considered elegant largely due to the use of cooler-site fruit from their two primary vineyards Quinta da Cavadinha and Quinta do Retiro Antigo. Their stellar reputation continues and though we are featuring none of the early 20th century wines, we are pouring great wines that span the last three decades.

The Warre’s was established in 1670 and is the oldest British-owned port house. The famous Warre’s Warrior has been shipped continuously since 1750. For many years the Symington family has worked within Warre’s and in the 1950’s they purchased the brand and vineyards. Warre’s was added to a stunning portfolio that currently includes the Port houses of Dow’s, Gould Campbell, Grahams, Martinez, Quarles Harris, Quinta do Vesuvio and Smith Woodhouse. Vintage Port is the highest quality product in a port house portfolio. Upon harvesting and traditional fermentation, the vintage wine is left for 18-24 months before being tasted and “declared”. Declared port years happen only a few times a decade, when the best wines are considered suitable for extended bottle aging and are vintage-dated and bottled. In non-declared years the wines will be left to mature in wood and create the Ruby, Tawny and Late Bottled Vintage styles. Sometimes a property will declare only a portion of the vintage and produce a “single quinta” vintage port. These single quinta (quinta translates as farm) wines are often made from the best vineyard that the winery owns. In the case of Warre’s, the Quinta da Cavadinha is their prize property. It sits proximal to the famous vineyards of Quinta do Noval, Quinta do Bonfim and Quinta do Passadouro.

The oldest port in our tasting is the Warre’s 1977, a wine from a great year, mature and delicious with a Robert Parker rating of 92. The 1980 vintage is considered lighter and more elegant in style and will contrast nicely with the powerful 1985, a wine that Michael Broadbent awarded 5 stars. A 1991 (WS91) and the extraordinary 1994 (Broadbent 5 star) vintage ports will be compared with the single vineyard, Quinta da Cavadinha (RP91) from 1992. The great 2000 vintage (Broadbent 5 star) will appear beside the excellent 2003 (RP93).

Please click here to open a pdf version of the tasting description if you wish to mail in your reservation.

As always with our tastings, this event will be strictly non-smoking, and we request your cooperation in not wearing any scented after-shave or perfume.

Here are links to some of our previous Winetasters Port tastings:
Feb 2002: Broadbent Ports and Maderias
Mar 2003: Three Decades of Incomparable Vintage Ports from Grahams and Dows
Feb 2004: 1994 LBV Ports
Feb 2005: Graham's Vintage Port Vertical
Feb 2006: 1994 Vintage Ports
Feb 2007: Wood-Aged Ports
Feb 2008: 1970 Vintage Ports