For The Love Of Port

Without a doubt 1970 would be my choice if I had to pick a single vintage. Almost across the board, '70 produced some stellar wines with a long life ahead of them. '77 would come in second with '85 not far behind.

Marc

Erik,

I've heard that the WSET course is quite good. A local wine shop was offering the WSET course next month (one of the few locations in the U.S. where it is taught) and I was thinking of taking it but I'm going to be out of town during the period of time frame that it is being offered.

Marc

Roy,

It looks as though I'm going to miss you by a week. I'll be in London the previous week as well as the week following. Nevertheless, there is a L.A. offline on the horizion....

Marc

Thanks for the TN! After reading your tasting note I think that I may pick up a bottle or two to see where it goes in a few years.

Marc

Let's see....right now on Death Row I have a Sandeman 1977 & Graham's 30 year old. I also have a Taylor 1995, a Fonseca 1992 & a Warre 2000 that will be making their way to Death Row in the near future.

Marc

Mark, nice site! Glad to see a nice variety of ports. I also live relatively close by and I am looking forward to your port tastings!

Marc

As I understand it, the splash of white paint denotes the "top" of the bottle while it is being stored in the lodge prior to the label being attached. As a result the crust (sediment) will develop opposite the white paint and if moved the shipper will still be able to determine the "t...

Todd,

Hey I did the Ironman a few years back as well. It was GRUELING! Nevertheless it was a great experience (I could of done without the swim) and I also learned quite a bit about inner motivation.......

Marc

First of alll, I look at the color of the port. I'd expect a long-termer to be in the dark purple to inky black color range. On the nose I would anticipate some large fruit notes - If a wine is too flowery at this stage chances are it won't last. After taking a sip I would look for some dark fruit, ...

Roy, I was probably expecting more since the '62 Malvedos is one of the better Malvedos vintages from the '60s (or at least was one of the better vintages) and I was expecting a wine that might be past its peak, but still enjoyable and pleasant. Clearly it was WAY past the optimum drinking window an...

Upon opening the color resembled that of a 20 year old Tawny. I fully expected a single quinta port with 45 years of bottle age to be light at this point in its development, but I wasn't anticipating it to be quite this light. On the nose there was quite a bit of brown sugar and a bit of alcohol in ...

A glass ot tawny!

Count me in! I'm doing a little globe trotting in October, but I will be back in town by the end of the month. 'Bout time we had another L.A. offline!

Thanks for the note! I have some of this in my cellar and I was interested to know how it was developing.

Great interview!

I have 7 of the 12 in my cellar and I'm working on the other 5 (all more recent vintages). I must say that I really haven't been purchasing many bottles of recent vintages lately, but I'll make the effort in order to round out the list!

I'm not so sure the Yankees can pull it out. After that drubbing of the Yankees by the Orioles I'm thinking that the Red Sox must be feeling pretty good about things right about now.....

Hummm....one of the better finds was Churchills VP 1994 for $24.75 or it could be a Graham's Malvedos 1962 that I just purchased last week for $50.00.

I'd fall into the "B" category. By and large I drink port (in all of its variations) most of the time, although I do have quite a bit of dry wine in cellar. For the most part I consume dry wines with meals and typically I'll have port on its own.

Typically I drink port a couple of nights a week (usually on the weekend). Unless Andy is holding an offline, in which case all bets are off!!!