For The Love Of Port

Martinez 1997 to share at a varied wine dinner.

A bit closed. If you have any, I’d leave them 2-3 years before seeing how they are.

NV Sandeman Apitiv Reserve White Port 1964 Krohn Colheita Branco 1981 Kopke Colheita 1983 Graham Vintage Port NV DR 40 Year Old Tawny Port Opened these (along with a Quinta Vale Dona Maria Reserve Ruby and a Fonseca Bin 27 Reserve Ruby that Stewart provided) for a tasting that I donated to a charit...

Must be something in the air. I opened a Quinta da Côrte 2016 LBV - not a bad vintage for LBVs, it seems.

Smith Woodhouse LBV 1982. So young, so much more life ahead of it. So easy to drink. So happy I waited 5 years from opening the previous bottle. So sad this was my last bottle. So now I have to recycle the empty case.

...If someone has any 375ml bottles of 1977 Gould Campbell, let me know. I have magnums and 750s and it might be fun to try all 3 side-by-side-by-side. That would be a nice Port to test out the theory. Or one of the other main brand SFE 1977 Ports. They released Dow, Graham and Warre in (proper) 2....

Martinez 1967 for the Easter weekend. Great Port, fully mature yet with so much life ahead of it.

Martinez 1997. Had some bake / earthiness on the fruit on the first evening but much of that blew off the half that sat in the decanter and got finished the next night.

A half bottle of Croft 2004, bottled in 2009. Still drinking very nicely, full of sour cherry fruit. Just the right wine for when the decanter has somehow become empty but you’re still thirsty.

We recently opened a bottle of Niepoort 1912 colheita, bottled in 1981, and gave it 24 hours in the decanter. Over that time it opened and really got to show at its best. It needed at least 12 hours but was probably at its peak at about 22 hours. After about 22 hours (a) our palates were a bit tired...

I try not to buy a lot these days, but I couldn’t resist 48 half bottles of 2007 Vintage Port @ £12 per half. 12 each of Dow, Warre, Gould Campbell and Smith Woodhouse. I really like having a decent selection of halves at home for everyday drinking. These will be perfect once my 1994 / 1997 / 2000 /...

Niepoort 1991 - rather tasty and nicely mature.

Dow's 20 year old Tawny - smells great and first taste is good, but follows with strong alcohol heat, which ruins it for me a bit. Will hold it in the fridge for some time, hopefully it mellows a bit. And did it? Last weekend I opened a bottle of Krohn 1961 for a friend born that year. It showed ve...

Don’t forget it was only Vintage Port which had to be bottled in Portugal before being exported.

Other types of Port could be bottled outside Portugal until the 1990s - I have 1993 in mind, but that’s just my memory talking.

I’ve opened a Noval 2097 Colheita to enjoy over the next day or two (or few).

I opened a bottle of Taylor 1963 - which was sublime - and a bottle of Adams 1963 which was really pale and had a soggy cork - but had turned into a delicious and elegant colheita.

I don’t recall having had a bad bottle with one of those capsules.

I quite like them. They’re easy to remove (just slide a flat-bladed screwdriver under the cap and pop it off), reusable and protect the wine from any cork failure other than TCA.

I opened a Graham Crusted, bottled 2000 for a Port-experienced friend, who was so impressed by the elegant fruit and powerful acidity - like drinking a pumped up version of Graham 6 Grapes.

That was followed by a bottle of Adams 1963, very tawny and simply sublime.

Anyway, I'd love to hear from Alex B. when he tasted the 2014 bottling he mentioned, if it was from Taylor's or Krohn? Either way, neither made it as we are sure that Taylor's obtained it from the Carneiros. But I do know that it was Cristiano van Zeller that came up with the idea for the bottling ...

Now that they've all arrived, here are my recent purchases... 3 x S. Leonardo 30 Year Old Tawny Port 3 x S. Leonardo 40 Year Old Tawny Port 6 x Andresen 10 Year Old White Port 3 x Andresen 20 Year Old White Port 3 x Andresen 40 Year Old White Port 5 x DR 30 Year Old Tawny Port 10 x DR 40 Year Old T...

Inspired by a friend’s recent experience with this Port, I opened one yesterday. It’s finally starting to mature. It’s damn delicious! Yes they're starting to round out nicely at nearly 40 years old. :lol: I do still see some bottle variation, which I suspect is what Moses is seeing. Some bottles a...