An Ineluctable Pair: 2017 Vintage Ports

BY NEAL MARTIN | JUNE 04, 2019

“My name is Neal Martin...and 12 months later, I still love Vintage Port.”

Who doesn’t love a General Declaration? There is always a frisson of excitement when the major Port houses put aside their friendly rivalry and gather together to announce that a season produced fortified wines worthy of historic names such as Fonseca, Dow’s and Noval Nacional, among others. It reminds me of the climactic scene of Ghostbusters, when our intrepid heroes risk something “very bad” by crossing their proton streams to defeat the evil Gozer. Admittedly, a Port declaration is not quite as dramatic as that. But it has a similar effect: a joining of forces to form a consensus about a vintage that is more powerful than a single Port house declaration.

However, General Declarations do not come in pairs. They are supposed to be drip-fed, three or maybe four each decade, keeping Port aficionados on their toes. The chances of consecutive General Declarations must be incredibly low, considering not just the meteorological odds of a textbook growing season but also the willingness of all Port houses to declare. (Although, come to think of it, how many “vintage of the century” declarations are the Bordelais on now?) The closest the Douro has come is in 1991 and 1992, with what you might call “semi-declarations,” though Charles Symington told me that in fact there were consecutive General Declarations in 1872/73. For the record, I cannot actually remember those.

Last year, as Taylor Fladgate, Symingtons and Quinta do Noval et al, declared the 2016s to palpable relief, since the last was back in 2011, there were already murmurings echoing down the Douro valley that 2017 had knocked the ball out of the park and that it would be sacrilegious to forgo another Declaration. And so it has come to pass. “I consider these wines to be among the best that I have known during my time at Quinta do Noval,” enthused Christian Seely, who oversees Quinta do Noval, part of AXA Millésime’s portfolio. “The decision to declare them was a very easy one.” Charles Symington joined the chorus of approval, writing: “In my 25 years as a winemaker in our family vineyards, I have never seen a year like this.” Adrian Bridge at Taylor Fladgate told me that both vintages reached the “absolute quality” to make a declaration, especially because they produced different styles of Port.