For The Love Of Port

1985 Dow VP

It was my daughter’s wedding last Friday. We opened a 6 litre bottle of Quinta do Noval 2000 Colheita to be shared between the 120 guests. The following Monday I went to a cricket match and took a bottle of Taylor’s Terra Feita 1986. Congratulations to you, your wife and your daughter, Alex. Hopefu...

Andreas Platt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 09, 2025 6:01 pm for those interested...

viewtopic.php?t=16863

Andreas,

I know very little about Madeira wines (I have 10 bottles total, nothing fancy), but this was a fun, interesting read. Thanks for posting it.

3 x 2011 Niepoort Bioma Vinha Velha won at auction for $45 each. One to John M. Incredible pickup. Congrats. With the way Niepoort is going, that's the Port equivalent of buying Bitcoin 15 years ago. Great house, great year and special vineyard, even in the unlikely event the Port isn't the best, i...

3 x 2011 Niepoort Bioma Vinha Velha won at auction for $45 each. One to John M.

It's not the same vintage but the 2005 is quite a bottle! I bought one and after drinking it I bought 3 more. Plus it was around $20 Can. (around 14 Euros). The 2008 is very good as well. I also had the 2003 two weekends ago and it was really good. Is the $20 Can. for a 750 ml bottle? If so that's ...

Kopke 2003 White. It's not the same vintage but the 2005 is quite a bottle! I bought one and after drinking it I bought 3 more. Plus it was around $20 Can. (around 14 Euros). The 2008 is very good as well. I also had the 2003 two weekends ago and it was really good. Is the $20 Can. for a 750 ml bot...

Lucas S wrote: ↑Mon Sep 01, 2025 2:06 pm One question, should I keep this in the refrigerator now? I worry about how fast something like this will degrade once opened?

My vote would be yes, but you can experiment since you have several.

For sure, it was absolutely worth the gamble. I bought the lot thinking I would use them as gifts for the unitiated, but because they are so old, I'm not so sure about that anymore. I may just have to make the sacrifice of drinking them myself. Doing some more digging, Saccone & Speed was the d...

For sure, it was absolutely worth the gamble. I bought the lot thinking I would use them as gifts for the unitiated, but because they are so old, I'm not so sure about that anymore. I may just have to make the sacrifice of drinking them myself. The bottles are at least pre-1987. J. M. Lumen was an ...

I got 10 of these basic tawnies at auction for only $6.30 each all-in. There were no pictures, and for whatever reason, I believed they would be young, but oh no they are not. Luckily, they are still drinking perfectly fine. Somewhat simple smooth caramel, reminiscent of a young Portal White actual...

Roy Hersh wrote: ↑Wed Aug 27, 2025 6:23 pm 1966 Dow's VP
1950 Dow's VP
1963 Dow's VP

Roy,

Are you finding your bottles in small wine shops in Porto or at auction?

Calem Sagrado Collections 30 anos (bottled 2017). This was a gift from my son who purchased it while he was in Copenhagen.

Al B. wrote: ↑Thu Aug 21, 2025 12:23 pm An unknown Port, which turned out to be a bottle of Noval 1947.

That's a nice surprise, Alex. Hopefully you got it at a very good price.

'85 Grahams. Been in the decanter 3 days, hope to finish it off tonight. I'm opening one of those this Saturday for my annual beach get together with my college buddies. How is it? We just finished it last night. After 4 days in decanter was totally smooth and sublime. It's not going to disappoint....

My annual get together down at the beach with my college buddies was this past weekend. As usual, I brought the Port and we had tastings on Friday and Saturday night. The first night were all white Ports and they went over better than I expected. The only time most of them have Port is when we get t...

IIRC the bottling year is required on the label. Which, of course, doesn't help if there's no label. Legally, Vintage Port must be bottled between the 18th month and the 30th month after harvest. Which in practical terms means between March and March with years 2 and 3 years after the harvest year....

I'm in the process of entering all of my Port (and wine) into a spreadsheet I developed. Is there any way to tell when a VP (or SQVP) was bottled based on the selo? Or am I just better off assuming it's 2 years from the Vintage date?

If you really enjoy Tawnies and Colheitas, I would highly recommend Pocas and Andresen. Pocas has a very nice tasting room experience and they will also ship any Port you buy there to the States. Try their 40 and 50 year old. I don't know if Andresen has a tasting room per se., we were at their bott...

Moses Botbol wrote: ↑Tue Aug 19, 2025 6:51 am '85 Grahams. Been in the decanter 3 days, hope to finish it off tonight.

I'm opening one of those this Saturday for my annual beach get together with my college buddies. How is it?