Fells’ new MD catches up with Jo Gilbert on the company’s past, present and future, including its secret weapon.
As one of the longest-standing agent importers in the UK, Fells has a history that is almost very nearly unique. Like Mentzendorff, its biggest competitor, Fells happens to have been founded in 1858, before going on to represent the interests of a leading Port house.
Despite record spend on groceries during Christmas in UK supermarkets, sales of beer, wine and spirits were all in decline over the same period.
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James Lawrence looks at the resurgence of an aged Port to appeal to new consumers
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With the red grapes still coming in across various estates, leading producer Symington Family Estates is predicting one of the best Douro vintages in recent years.
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Quinta do Noval has launched the second wine from their ultra-premium, limited edition Terroir Series – a collaboration between Carlos Agrellos, Noval’s technical director, and Christian Seely.
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The UK Port industry is celebrating six-and-a-half centuries of cooperation and trade this week, which included a celebratory dinner hosted by Taylor’s in the Tower of London’s White Tower.
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The famous fortified’s efforts to attract a younger demographic look to be paying off as travel plays favourably to its home nation. James Bayley has the details.
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Quinta da Boeira’s Helena Teixeira talks to Barnaby Eales about microbiology, minimum intervention and shaking up Port classifications.
With the mantra of “not your grandfather’s port club”, Symington Family Estates has teamed up with Rebel Port Club to launch a speakeasy style pop-up experience in London aimed at initiating a new generation of port drinkers.
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Symington Family Estates has launched a new video course ‘School of Port’, an online video course about port and the Douro.
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As the biggest consumers of wine per capita globally, it might be expected that domestic sales of Portuguese wines would have fared well over the course of the pandemic, where drinkers globally were largely turned onto local vinous offerings.
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Jacopo Mazzeo looks at what regions such as the Douro and Jerez are doing to survive in a market increasingly hostile to fortified wines and explores whether these efforts are effective. Port, for instance, is heading in two diametrically opposed directions: simplification and (extra) premiumisation, with new categories that span from youth-friendly RTDs to Tawny 50yo and White 50yo. Sherry meanwhile, has just changed a number of its regulations and now embraces unfortified wine.
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Cockburn’s Port is hoping to encourage more “unexpected ways” of drinking Port with two seaside-themed pop-up bars this summer, one in Brighton and one in Falmouth.
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Cockburn’s has produced a trio of experimental ports under the name Tails of the Unexpected.
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The Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP) has given Port producers the green light for the commercialisation of Port & Tonic RTDs, dubbed as 'Portonic' by the trade.
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Symington Family Estates has announced that it has bottled six quinta vintage Ports from 2019, of which two will be released en primeur – Quinta do Vesúvio and Dow’s Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira.
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Sogevinus Fine Wines has declared the launch of two single Quinta vintages, Kopke Quinta de São Luiz 2019 and Burmester Quinta do Arnozelo 2019, as well as two classic vintages under the seal of Casas Cálem and Barros.
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Port sales to the UK increased by 11.4% in volume and 2.8% in value in 2020, according to the Port and Douro Wines Institute (IVDP).
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Port lovers and the ‘Port curious’ are being targeted by Churchill’s Port in a new direct-to-consumer initiative, described as the first of its kind.
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The UK remains at the forefront of the premium Port category, with sales of late-bottled vintage (LBV), quality white Port, aged tawnies, single vineyard and classic vintage ports, all remaining resilient through Covid. A nation of consumers stuck at home, looking to indulge, appears to have been largely positive for the quality end of UK Port sales. Built on a long-standing relationship with the UK, sales at Symington Family Estates are up 10% by value and 9% by volume compared with this time last year.
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