Pick Four (or Five)

[Eric Menchen]

For a tasting around the New Year, I'm thinking of serving 1991s and 1992s. I have the wines listed below. If you were picking four or five bottles, which would you pick? My one idea of the moment is to actually pick same names from the two years, with Fonseca and Warre (possibly the Taylor too for six) to compare and contrast. Another thought is to just stick with 1991.

1991 Croft
1991 Fonseca Guimaraens
1991 Graham's
1991 Quinta do Vesuvio
1991 Smith Woodhouse
1991 Taylor Quinta de Vargellas
1991 Warre
1992 Fonseca
1992 Taylor
1992 Warre's Quinta de Cavadinha

[Marc J.]

Given a choice I'd probably select the following:

1991 Fonseca Guimaraens & 1991 Taylor Vargellas (will provide a nice comparision of second-label VPs)

1991 Graham & 1991 Warre (two fully declared VPs from the same year with significantly differing house styles)

1992 Fonseca (another VP from a different year that is at a completely different point in its maturation - in addition it is a blockbuster VP!)

[Lamont Huxley]

If I was picking I think I'd do 91 Taylor/Fonseca and 92 Taylor/Fonseca. If you did 6 bottles I'd say add the Warre's 91 and 92.

Whatever you do, if you're picking from that kind of a stash it would be hard to go wrong.

[Glenn E.]

What a choice! Sounds like that's going to be a great party.

If your group is "expert" enough, then I agree with Lamont. Serve the '91 Guimaraens and '91 Vargellas, then serve the '92 Fonseca and '92 Taylor after them. If you need a 5th bottle, I'd go for the '91 Croft. Of course that's the expensive route, especially for the '92 Taylor. But for a group of Port-nuts, that'd be a fantastic lineup.

Another option that would work for Port-nuts or more casual Port drinkers would be to serve the 4 x SQVP (yeah, okay, the Guimaraens isn't technically SQVP) and again hold the '91 Croft in reserve if you need the 5th bottle.

Or serve the 4 x '91 VP for the wide variety of styles. Not sure what I'd make available as the 5th bottle in that case... the Vesuvio sort of jumps out at me, but as I recall the '91 Vesuvio isn't as great as the others so it might be a disappointment if served last.

You have a great selection to choose from - I don't think you can go wrong!

[Roy Hersh]

No question which I'd pick for sheer hedonism:

1991 Croft
1991 Vargellas
1992 Fonseca
1992 Taylor

[Eric Menchen]

I would characterize my group as experienced but not experts, with a couple of relative newbies thrown in as well. Most are repeats from my Croft vertical a couple years ago. For the moment I'm liking Marc's plan. Well, I like Roy's for the hedonism, but I'm not sure they're ready for pure hedonism. For that matter, if 1992 Taylor is holding like the 1994, I may not be ready either

[Eric Menchen]

Decanting the 1992 Fonseca at 9 a.m., and finished the decanting with the 1991 Fonseca Guimaraens at noon. That one was quite extracted, to the point I wondered if I should have poured it later.

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[Andy Velebil]

looks like a fun evening to me