Garrafeira Nacional's Black Friday - 50% off in mature wines

(Disclaimer: I am in no way ITB).
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Thinking in particular of those here who are either based in Europe or have access to European storage, I found this discount campaign from Garrafeira Nacional, valid until December 4th, to be very exciting. Ports are offered at a 20% discount, and while the selection is enormous, the base price of great Port and its status as a special occasion wine around the house does not make me inclined to purchase in large quantities. The 50% discount on over 300 references of mature/aged table wines, though, is tremendous: among those references are both wines from the pre-EU paradigm of Portuguese winemaking - mostly from the co-ops, who made rough, tough yet incredibly age worthy stuff which is now drinking splendidly when well stored - and from the very first wave of modernization in Portuguese winemaking, beginning mostly in the 1990s.

Iā€™ve splurged hard, buying both well known references and others Iā€™ve only heard of from my parentsā€™ and grandparentsā€™ generations. These will hardly ever be found anywhere else in the world, and some may be on their way to disappear, like the superb Tapada de Coelheiros wines by AntĆ³nio Saramago which I have been lucky enough to have from the 1996 to current vintages (1991, alas, seems to be gone from the face of the Earth). With the majority of wines in the sub-15ā‚¬ range these are very much worth a gamble en masse, and I actually feel like a Berserker for once. [wow.gif] [cheers.gif]

EDIT: As of May 5th the campaign appears to have resumed!

Black Friday in Portugal now? Whatā€™s this world coming to?

Thatā€™s exactly what I thought when kids started celebrating Halloween around hereā€¦

Hi Tomas - thank you for the heads up on this. I will be biting, and have a couple of the Samarago wines in mind, but Iā€™m not that familiar with a lot of the older wines. Would you mind sharing 4-5 other suggestions available on Garrafeiraā€™s site, for someone looking to dive deeper into Portuguese wines?

The surest values would be the Caves SĆ£o JoĆ£o labels - PoƧo do Lobo, Porta dos Cavaleiros, Frei JoĆ£o, and the Caves SĆ£o JoĆ£o Reserva (the 1995 is going for 12,50ā‚¬ and that is such a steal Iā€™m at a loss for words. I am positive I will one day look back on these prices with nostalgia, as so many others do for other wine regions).

Other than those, I have a lot of experience with the SĆ£o Domingos Reserva and Garrafeira wines, and Laurent Gibet also posted a large tasting of these recently which confirms my view that they are simple wines that nevertheless age surprising well. From the cooperatives, Portalegre, Reguengos (the famous Garrafeira dos SĆ³cios) and Borba are the three I would single out in Alentejo. I also took a gamble on brands whose more recent vintages I enjoy and are solid (Vallado, Tapada do Chaves, Quinta do Portal) and on Serradayres, a once remarkably well known Tejo label of previous generations which appears to have disappeared, but which came out with wines at a later date than I expected.

The Coelheiros wines are certainly the finest out of all of these, at an evidently higher price. Nevertheless I think sub-50ā‚¬ prices for these back vintages are terrific, and it might just be the last chance for most buyers to taste the 1996-1999s before they sell out (my absolute favorite is 2001, but itā€™s not discounted and those with a stronger preference for mature wines might disagree with me anyway).

Iā€™ve bought a few Caves Sao Joao in my market for $35-60 USD. Great deal even at those prices, wish I had access to moreā€¦

Tomas - amazing info, thank you so much. Iā€™ve now submitted what is almost certainly my most interesting order of the year, and I may have gone overboard given the opportunity to buy aged wines at such prices. Canā€™t wait to try these!

Awesome! Iā€™ll be looking forward to the TNs. The pre-1990s wines are quite rustic and were not at all approachable in their youth (this was seen as a sign of quality in those days) but after decades in the bottle there are a lot of surprising overachievers. The co-ops kept this philosophy for longer.

Wow, what an incredible opportunity to dig into old vintages.

Tomas, while weā€™re at it. What are your views on the new Portuguese producers that are making waves (kind of, at least amongst certain retailers here in Germany) these days - Alvaro Castro, Nieportā€™s Quinta de Baixo, and Filipa Pato, for example? Would you expect some of these wines to develop well over time in bottle, despite the fact that these are surely produced in a different way and are far less rustic than some of the wines pre-1990?

I will be picking a handful of these myself to explore a bit, but given your expertise would be interested in your thoughts too.

Thanks again. Itā€™s fun exploring outside of the ā€œbig-nameā€ regions and grapes.

Three of the finest producers in the country, whose top bottlings are splendid and absolutely meant for the cellar. What has been ā€˜lostā€™ from previous paradigms of Portuguese winemaking is that every single wine used to be really tough in its youth, and so now weā€™ve got properly mature wine at the price of daily drinkers. The best wines today are in a totally different league from these old ones, but with the prices to match, and the less expensive wines are made to be drunk young.

Thanks for the tip! Started to spread the word and I guess now at least a few orders have been placed from Finland!

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Same for Holland :slight_smile: Got some of the Coelheiros, am looking forward to them! Amazing how many back vintages they have at very modest prices

I wouldnā€™t exactly call Alvaro Castro ā€œnew.ā€ He might be the finest winemaker of the Dao and for some time now.

Absolutely, although with LuĆ­s Seabra (Textura Wines) and Jorge Alves (Taboadella) making wine in the DĆ£o, he has finally got some worthy competition.

It looks like Garrafeira Nacionalā€™s mature wine promotion is back! With discounts ranging between 20% and 50%, there are still quite a few selections available from the previous campaign - Coelheiros, Caves SĆ£o JoĆ£o, Borba, Portalegre - as well as interesting references which werenā€™t in the previous campaign, like the very first wines from Quinta dos Carvalhais, the Abreu Callado wines with quite a few available vintages, and 1988s from Quinta do Carmo - part of that very brief period in which the brand reached its greatest heights under JĆŗlio Bastos. Also, theyā€™re offering a wine glass for each bottle!
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Shouldnā€™t this be moved to commerce corner or somewhere else?

Cheers

Nah people post deals on here all the time. Thanks Tomas!

Fantastic! I got some more Frei Joao for a steal and will try the Quinta do Carmo. Will leave some of the Coelheiros for others this time :slight_smile:

Tomas, do you know if they will hold wine for a year or so?