For The Love Of Port

I picked up the Ramos Pinto 10 year-old this afternoon (having just spent rather too much money on an English flageolet on ebay, I left the 30 year-old on the shelf for a return visit…). It’s certainly more interesting than any other 10 year-olds I’ve had in the past…there’s a complexity to the flav...

[With apologies for dredging up an old post!]

I saw this on ebay...one day left, current price 99p...

Sandemans Port Bottle Stopper



Andy, you say that your bottle’s t-cork is worn...this seems like a perfect replacement!

Thanks, Andy and Moses. I haven’t seen much Ferreira for sale around here, but my favourite independent wine merchant has the 10 (and 30) year-old Ramos Pintos, so I might start there and then seek some of the others out (though at my usual rate, it’ll probably take me a few years to work through mo...

Glenn, Thanks for that: it’s extremely useful. I’ll keep an eye out for those! I think part of the problem is knowing which are the generally good shippers for tawny: I think they tend to be quite different from the solid LBV/VP ones. I had the Otima 10 y/o last year. I didn’t find it unpleasant but...

In a way somewhat stereotypical of my nationality, I tend not to drink much of the wood-aged stuff. Indeed, looking at my notes, the only one I’ve had in 2008 was a 1986 Delaforce Colheita. It appears I haven’t drunk any blended tawnies at all; for whatever reason made sense at the time, I’ve always...

Moses Botbol wrote: Leeches, bananas, dates, figs, and blackberries as the primary tastes.

I hope you meant lychees rather than leeches! :)

I didn't know that. I knew England was a big market but not France. But I'm sticking by my original point. That the US is the biggest wine market period and the potential for the US to drive up Port prices exists if Port becomes way more popular here than it is currently. I'm not saying that I beli...

Let’s see if the Far East gets a taste for vintage port and then watch out… All of the older vintages will dry up quick and there will be higher premiums for 1st and 2nd tier ports on release. I am surprised port has not caught on as quick in China as it is easier to drink than dry wine (to someone...

Roy, have you thought about trying to acquire a palate over in Europe and then independently shipping it over? This would involve a certain amount of hassle (not least finding someone in Europe whose business’ name you could use for the order) but you do seem particularly determined so it might be a...

Tom, I hope some of these experiments will be filmed and posted on YouTube or the like! If I remember correctly, the explosion of the kind encountered by Roy is not unique and they had to remove the CO2-powered models from a few markets.

The first 1,000 entrants will receive a £2-off voucher redeemable against their next purchase of Cockburn's, and the winner will be announced on the website in October 2008. That amused me quite a bit! Incidentally, the new website doesn’t actually exist yet, despite quite a lot of fluff from Beam ...

But is it due to the old vines or like the 1931 Nacional, is it just a matter of great location, soil, exposition to the sun, etc? Roy, I wonder whether the fact that these parts of the vineyards are known for their special vines becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy? I can easily imagine that...

Have a look at this table of prices from the IVDP, and note in particular the first column, Vintage Port http://www.ivdp.pt/en/docs/Porto/Table%2014.pdf This shows that the average price obtained for vintage port shipped to the UK was 13.94 euros per litre, which works out at £8.36/bottle, less tha...

Moses Botbol wrote:Odd line up of ports. Why is anyone judging an 1985's at this point?

How do they what ports are represented?

That's what I was wondering. Even amongst the younger Ports, some, like the Sandeman 2000 LBV, will be coming to the end of their main retail period.

So true, i remember traveling to New Zealand in 2005. A member of the group forgot her orange was still in her bag. A $ 100 NZ was the fine and the orange was lost. The level of "bio-security" Down Under is a bit stunning. I went on an orchestra tour to Australia many years ago and they n...

Marc, a picture would probably help, as your description is fairly archetypal for older Vintage Port!

The Phylloxera epidemic does remind us of how vulnerable the wine industry is to new pests and diseases. With so much depending on very specific varieties of one species of plant, it would not be beyond the realms of possibility for another epidemic to cause havoc throughout the world again. We only...

I stumbled across your forum some time ago and have been a keen follower since. I've only just become a member though. I'm at university in the UK; and whilst I am keen on drinking port, i'm finding it hard to establish a cellar/collection, something that I am most eager to begin. I have a few bott...

I’d never thought of leaving the stopper off the decanter…after all what do you do with it whilst the decanter’s in use? More seriously, I can’t think that it has any appreciable affect on the Port (at least not before the Port should be drunk). As for temperature, it is literally room temperature, ...

Actually, a few months ago I reported that Niepoort already had 1987 Garrafeira in demijohn and that would be the next one that Dirk releases. As to the size of the 1977 Garrafeira, I don't believe that it is markedly different in terms of quantity. However, there are only a fixed number of those o...