For The Love Of Port

This past week:

12x quinta de la rosa 2011
3x warre 1980

Both a little over $70 CAD. It is very surprising to me that vintage ports 31 years apart in age are the same price. I actually paid more for the 2011s.

I love the noval labels. I'm sure the wine is good, too!

In no specific order,

Dow
Fonseca
Warre

In general, i know port changes colour as it ages, with aged wines lighter and more red/orange than younger wines. I am wondering if there is an accepted science as to why certain ports mature more quickly or more slowly. For example, Warre 1980 is still very dark and seems much less mature than a f...

There has been a lot of discussion about the 85's recently, specifically the Fonseca and Taylors. Will you be sharing your thoughts on this bottle, Roy?

I have received a few 20 and 30 year old tawny ports and I am wondering if they should be stored vertically or horizontally? I probably won't drink them for a few months at least, maybe not for a year. They all have t-stopper corks, I believe. I am sure this has been asked before but a quick search ...

Hi Roy, The folks at Devine Wines told me that they have a port guru come do tastings with them every so often. I now assume that you are that guy. Are these open to the general public or is it more of a invite only tasting? I live in Saskatoon and in the future would love the opportunity to drink s...

We had it again the next day, stored in the bottle with a cork stopper for the night. I am not sure if I noticed too much difference. There was still a nice fresh, almost sourness to it that mixed well with the tannins. It seemed to possess much the same character as it had the day before. Next time...

With my family for Canadian Thanksgiving. Very dark purple. It was opened beside a 2011 Quinta da Gricha and showed just as dark, and very purple. It did, however, smell older. The Warre smelled of dried plum and figs, and a little bit floral. Tasting it, I thought it was still quite sweet and very ...

This is from a case of 12 through the opimian society in canada. Very dark in colour, but more red tones than the other 2011 ports I have had. On the nose, rather spicy, I thought, though my dad thought more minty. In the mouth, silky smooth and very rich. Tannins puckered me up a bit but as they fa...

Decanted 6 hours. Deep Purple, basically black in the glass. It had a very full, sweet nose with little bite. Reminded me of strawberry fig jam, a little earthy. Up front in the mouth, it was initially immensely sweet, lots of sweet berries and a jammy richness. A nice burst of tannin tempers some o...

I will do a tasting note for this one (my first!) but I'll start by saying that it convinced us to buy another 12 bottles. Pretty sublime stuff.

Trying out a bottle of the 2011 Dow's this evening. Very excited for it. It smells so jammy in the decanter.

In Saskatchewan, we have a kopke 30 year white tawny. While I haven't had it, some of my family members attended a tasting where it was the final wine tasted. They thought it was pretty special, very sweet, very smooth. Surprisingly dark, too, from what they mention. I think it has run its course he...

Received a 375 ml of kopke white 30 year old tawny as a gift. I haven't read much about aged whites but I hope it's good.

I just found out that the 2011 Quinta da gricha will be released this year, bottled in magnums it seems, although when and where I have no idea. Opimian did secure a small batch that they offered to their members in regular 750s. I will have to find some churchill's 2011 to compare it to!

Hi All, My name is Grant Henneberg, from Saskatchewan, Canada. I have been a frequent reader of both FtLoP and TPF for the past two years or so. I am in my early twenties and am studying Mechanical Engineering. I'm here mostly to sit back and learn. I appreciate the wide ranging discussions of port ...

I asked about this one on TPF, but thought that someone here might know more about it, or about how churchill usually goes about declaring this port. I ordered a case through the opimiam wine society in Canada and am excited to see how this one stacks up against other 2011s. I have seen zero mention...

We bought a bakers dozen of a few houses, so for each of those we will drink one young(over the next two years) when we get together with our family and then primarily store the rest. The vesuvio we only found 10 of altogether, though, so we might not pop one of those young.

We tried both the fonseca and the dow over christmas. It was a split decision in my family, my dad and I liked the elegance of the fonseca, but my brothers liked how powerful the dow seemed. It will be interesting how these guys age. They were both fantastic.