Fine wine comment: Some serious Port

The overwhelmingly positive global reception to the 2007 vintage Ports has revived the category, according to Adrian Bridge, CEO of The Fladgate Partnership.

The 2007 vintage Ports have been very well received around the world and many journalists are comparing the year to such greats as 1963 and 1977. We are very pleased with the level of interest and I was in the US last week where a number of merchants tell me that the success of the 2007 has revived interest in vintage Port.

The point for investors in fine wine, in my mind, breaks down to two issues. If you are investing in your own cellar so that you have some fine wines to drink and some to sell then you can probably take a broader approach. If it is purely for investment then you have to get the very best of each year. This means the brands that consistently are considered the best. It is interesting to note from Liv-ex data that Taylor’s has the highest Robert Parker average rating (for the second year running) of any wine on the planet. This will translate into greater price appreciation.

Vintage Port is in limited supply; Taylor Vintage 2007 was 10,000 cases, Fonseca 2007 at 9,000 and Croft 6,800 cases. It is not made every year. The rarity is what will cause prices to go higher in the future.

I think it is worth reflecting on the reason why so many of the iconic Bordeaux properties have gone stratospheric in recent years. Much of this has been driven by the Far East. This market is rapidly developing and as with any market development we see the red wines growing before the niche wines like Port and Champagne. Nick Heath, Taylor Fladgate’s marketing director, is telling me that in several Far Eastern markets he is beginning to notice a marked increase in awareness of fine Port. This may not translate to sales in the next few years but it could. The medium term view is very positive.

Vintage Port can still be purchased from older years. It is still possible to get 1985 from us. This is a wine that is ready to drink, yet will continue to evolve – our 1985s will last for another 30 years. Many are now being consumed and demand for ready-to-drink vintages will increase – investors should buy these before they are no longer widely available.
The question of style is interesting. We have not changed our style but we have got better at making vintage Port. At a basic level we have only been able to use the fortifying spirit of our choice since we, the industry, broke the government monopoly in 1992.

Our group has worked very hard since then on our fortifying spirits to get them as neutral as possible, allowing the fruit to be more fully expressed. The point is that vintage Port is one of those drinks that can be appreciated at different stages for different reasons. Some people do prefer the younger, fuller fruit. Others the mellowness and spicy elements that come with age. It was always thus with Bordeaux and it is because old Bordeaux is hard to come by that so many consumers have got used to drinking that wine with a fruitier style. As the supply of older vintage Bordeaux dries up we will see the same in Port.

On a final point it is worth noting that in the old days we would sell about two thirds of a declaration and hold the rest back to sell later. The last vintage that we did this with was the 1985 – since then the demand has been such that we have decided to meet demand at the time of declaration. This means that the game is also about to change and the pressure in the secondary market will increase.

Adrian Bridge, 15.04.10