What started it ?

[Luc Gauthier]

Hey guys , what turned you on to the world of Port

[Derek T.]

My ex-father-in-law introduced me to port in 1989 as an after dinner drink and taught me the basics about the different styles. At that time I would only be drinking premium rubies and LBV's with the very occassional SQVP. I didn't know the history of the Douro or anything about classic VP from declared years at that stage.

I dunk port occassionally on and off for a few years but had no serious interest in it until I went to Portugal is 1999 and bought a few bottles of good stuff. I progressively became more interested in the history but didn't reach full Port Geek status until I bumped into Fred and then Roy on the Symington's port forum around 2 to 3 years ago. I specifically blame these two people (and Alex Bridgeman) for the current state of my liver and wasteline

My first experience of drinking real classic VP's was at the 1st FTLOP Offline in London in Nov 05 - the rest of the story is spread across my 1000+ posts on this forum 8)

Derek

[Al B.]

Another great question even in the absence of Grandpop Roy. He will be proud of how well we've looked after the forum while he's been enjoying his way through a Taylor and Fonseca vertical going back 8 centuries (I think that's what he said).

I was always brought up in an environment where it was normal to drink wine with a meal. I vaugely remember being given a glass of red wine (actually, 50% wine and 50% water) for the first time when I was quite young, I would guess 8 or 9. Needless to say this was not in the puritanical countries of the UK and the US. That continued to be a Sunday lunch tradition for a few years, with less and less water being added, until it evolved into today's practice of a single glass of wine with a meal as a normal, everyday accompaniment to most evening meals.

These days it is often a single glass of port instead of a glass of wine, but the idea is the same. It accompanies most meals we eat extremely well.

Port was a discovery on my 21st birthday in 1984. I don't think I ever drank port before that day as my parents were not port drinkers but loved their Claret and Spanish wines. However, my grandparents had bought me a case and 1 bottle of Taylors 1963 VP in 1966 specifically to give to me on my 21st. It had been stored in Berry's cellars since being shipped and was moved only the once - to give to me for my birthday. I was given the unopened case and the bottle was opened, decanted and served to the family.

That bottle was stunning. I had never tasted anything like it before and it knocked me off my feet. It was sublime and demanded to be sipped and savoured. The flavours changed so much in the glass and over the time that we drank this after dinner and into the night. I was hooked.

However, at the time I was a student and so - apart from the occasional family celebration - I did not continue to buy and drink port. I would frequently think back to that bottle opened on my 21st and I would frequently be tempted to open another one, but the next time a bottle was opened was for my 25th birthday and then my 30th. I've opened a few others since then but I still have 4 of the bottles that my grandparents gave me left in my cellar.

It was about 15 years ago that my wife and I got through the stage of being poor, where all our money was being spent on buying a house or a car or commuting to work. Our first "luxury" holiday was a cruise up the Douro River in 1992 (I think). While we were there we visited a number of the lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia and a handful of the Quintas close to the Douro as we cruised. The visit I most remember was to Malvedos. I came back from Malvedos with a variety of bottles and cases, one of which was the 1979 Malvedos. I still remember the looks on peoples faces as we unloaded all the cases from the taxi we had used to get us back to where the boat was moored. We opened the 1979 for the end of cruise party while most other people were drinking beer or spirits. What a waste to be in Portugal, on the Douro River, and to be drinking something that wasn't port.

After that 1979 Malvedos, that's when I realised that too much of our money had been spent on things which were not important. Things like food, clothes and housing. From the time we returned to the UK from this holiday in 1992 we have regularly bought vintage or single quinta vintage port. At first it was for immediate consumption but this changed to also include port for aging and port to leave the children in my will. The change happened when I made a decision about 12 years ago that there were too many wines in the world for me to get to know and understand all of them and that if I really wanted to get to know wine to the sort of level of depth that I wanted to then I needed to choose one region and concentrate on that region. I chose vintage port - while I will drink and enjoy wines which are not vintage port my cellar of non-VP has been shrinking slowly and the proportion of VP in the cellar has been increasing steadily. These days I probably buy 1 bottle of table wine for every 12 bottles of port, with the table wine being drunk within a month of being bought.

So that's how it all started for me. That's the story of what persuaded me to start spending my money on VP.

And, of course, it doesn't help that there is a great bunch of really friendly people on this forum who are looking for an excuse to open a really great bottle of port to share with someone that they know will appreciate it.

Alex

[Alan C.]

This is an interesting thread. More stories please!
Mine is already on http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... php?t=2457
Luc, is that what brought the question to mind? Or was that just coincidence. And more importantly, wheres your tale?
Alan.

[Alex K.]

Well I was, and still am, a wine drinker. I started guzzling higher quality stuff starting about twelve years or so ago. At that point I started collecting and slowly built up a collection, mostly of nice Clarets but not high value ones. I knew of Port but mostly LBVs.

Then four and a half years ago I stumbled across the Wine Spectator wine web-site and joined the forums there. Whilst on it I bumped into bman then StevieCage, Ronnie Roots and Lady Roots. These people are Portheads. It's all their fault, I'm not to blame...

Whilst in Amsterdam the Dutchies started forcing better and better Ports down me until I could resist no more. Worse was to come when the Canadian ring-leader, bman, organised a Port night at Berry Bros and Rudd. There I was subject to a torrent of high quality Ports by Graham's, Dow, Taylor and Fonseca for 1970 and 1977.

I ended up here, penniless and destitute where the truly psychotic Alex (not me, the other one) forced me to sell all my worldly goods and attend a weird sect meeting, headed by a mysterious bearded American at a secret underground location named "The Crusted Pipe". Here, the Devil subjected me to more Fonseca, Graham's and Taylor but with the added sin of Sandeman's, now with even more age - 1963, 1966 and 1970 again, just to reiterate what I'd learned before.

IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT

[Steven Kooij]

Happy to have brainwashed you Alex! :twisted:

When I was in university I was a beer drinker, but would occasionally treat myself to a bottle of Port – from the supermarket, of course: sweet, high in alcohol and cheap! Then in 1997 I took a 6-month internship / practical term at the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in Vila Real. As the student complex I lived in there did not have a fridge to store a steady supply of cold beer, I turned to wine and Port: again cheap and surprisingly tasty to boot!
A lot of my friends there were into wine: studying agriculture or oenology (I was studying biology & environmental science), and several had family-owned vineyards - they gave me a taste of the REALLY good stuff. I recall an evening when my friend Rui dropped by room, holding a dusty bottle without label or capsule, and saying: “we should drink this, my grandfather made it”. We are still not sure what it was exactly, but most likely it was a Vintage from the late forties or early fifties, made from his own vineyard near Sanfins for the family cellar. I was hooked!
Back in The Netherlands, I quickly fell back to beer – Port was just to expensive. This changed during my last year at university – I bought my first VP that year (a half bottle of Kopke ’85 – long gone) and usually had a bottle of Bin 27 and one or two LBVs open at home. After I graduated in 1999 (receiving a Burmester ’94 VP from RonnieRoots – still have it) and getting a steady job and income, I started collecting Port…I spend my first Christmas bonus entirely on VP…mostly ‘85s, using Godfrey Spences’ book as a guide.

In 2002 the hobby was becoming almost an obsession, after realising that some Port producers made killer dry wines as well. I’ve always had Ronnie & Lady Roots around as fellow addicts, and that year the three of us drove down to Portugal for our first wine-themed holiday…what a blast. The moment we spotted the first quinta we knew by name (I think it was Bom Retiro): we were almost jumping up and down in the car with excitement!
Since then, the three of us have always been sharing the good stuff together and participated in several Port and wine competitions; the highlight being Lady Roots winning the Graham’s Trophy for best Port taster of the Benelux. Ronnie and I (Lady Roots provides much appreciated help with tasting samples) now have our own import business – wine (and Port!) from the Douro, of course!

[Derek T.]

Can we please have some contributions from the other side of the pond? (and many more from anywhere in the world!!)

Andy, Stewart, Jay, David(s), Eric, Roy - what's your story? how did you come to have a taste for 3 year old VP? I think it is only fair that you tell us where your obsession came from. After all, most of us here have now blamed Alex Bridgeman so in the interest of balance I think you should chip in with some stories that Alex has been unable to influence.

Derek

[Gilles Séguin]

For me it all started in a wine tasting course in 1990(I think). The last evening we tasted the Fonseca Bin 27 port. It was tasteful and I liked it very much. Before that the only thing I knew about port(so I though)was the ''Canadian port'' served at military mess dinners for the toasts in the middle of the dinner. It was more of a red wine with sugar ! The taste was ...

After, it was a slow but sure discovery. From tastings events I then tasted the real stuff. I didn't had a lot of occasions to taste port in the beginning of my ''tasting career''.

Now, I am trying to taste port whenever possible. The first vintage port (as far as I can remember) that I tasted was a Warre's 1983. It was excellent. Warre's became a regular in my cellar since. But I must admit that it was at first not only because I liked it, but it was one of the best for the price. Not as costly as Dow, Taylor, etc and sometime excellent.

In my tasting group we had a port tasting event some years ago and it was just spectacular. That was the only time I tasted Noval Nacional (I am not sure of the vintage, I think it was 1970?) I was hooked for good!

Most of the port that I drink are non-vintage, tawny's, LBV's, VC. Not because that I don't like VP, on the contrary, but the price is sometime to much. That said, VP are a very good value for your money compare to other wine, so I must admit that I buy VP more often then other wine (bordeaux, burgundy, etc) The quality you get for your money would have cost you a lot more for let say a first growth bordeaux. And it is easier to put the money for a port, because for PORT its not the same :)

So, now one third of my cellar is port, mostly VP. And I am happy
I now try to drink VP more often, my brother is always happy to help.

Gilles

[Jay Powers]

Three year old VP? Perish the thought! Although I have recently tried many younger VP’s (the 2000 Niepoort comes to mind, plus the many we tried…including Derek …. on the last FTLOP trip), not all of us on this side of the pond like them young….at least not if we can get them old!

I cannot think of the exact moment I became a port fan. Like many of us I suppose, I started out in secondary school with beer and cheap booze. By the time I got to university it was good beer and good booze, primarily European beers (stouts, porters, ales, weizen, and heffe-weitzen) and tequila with the odd scotch thrown in. This is the way it stayed until long after graduate school, despite many attempts to “civilize” me by my wife and others.

It is only relatively recently (last ~4-5 years) that I have become a huge fan. It’s hard to recall exactly, but I must blame my father in law. Always when visiting, my father in law, Steve (who is quite the cook along with his wife), have served what I now recognize as an astounding assortment of wines at dinner, and being wonderful hosts, they have always had a nice ale around for me, the slightly backwards son-in-law.

When Carolyn and I moved to California, my in-laws would come (and still do) and visit several times a year. Living in the Bay Area, there is no shortage of fine restaurants around and when they visited we would always go out to one or more of these world class places. On one occasion they gifted us with a certificate to use later at Fleur de Lys along with a night at a nearby bed and breakfast. When Carolyn and I took advantage of this gift, Carolyn got the wine pairings but of course I ordered beer, although I’m sure the sommelier and wait staff were scandalized. With the dessert cheese course, I tried Carolyn’s wine and thought to myself –this is pretty good. As it turns out this was a Port (some sort of LBV). Feeling pretty mellow and not needing to drive home, I pondered the wine list for perhaps the first time in my life, and ordered a glass of 1963 Vintage Port (and no, I did not enquire about how long it had been open, being ignorant at this stage).

Well, to say the least, this glass of Port blew me away! And I don’t even remember what house it was. From that point on, I began investigating. Every dinner out was an opportunity to try a new Port, and of course my father-in-law was always willing to share from his nicely aged cellar when we visited! I distinctly recall a 1997 Grahams LBV at one dinner with my in-laws, and later at one work dinner, I was able to have a glass of 1997, 2000, and 1966 Grahams VP. At this point it was all over. I began my search in earnest and began building my collection (and eventually joined this forum, and even went to Portugal on the last FTLOP trip).

So that’s the story. Now I’m sitting on a cellar full of port across time. Although I have learned to appreciate the big, young California Cabs, for dry red wine I favor Bordeaux (does that help Derek)? I have quite the sweet tooth, and asides from Port I favor Sauternes, Riesling, Madeira, and Tokaji. In fact, I even recently bought my first magnum of Sauternes…..still don’t know what I’ll do with that given, we don’t have many big parties But Port still rules the cellar.


Jay

[Derek T.]

Great stories - more please?

[Moses Botbol]

I grew up in a Portuguese neighborhood, called "Portuguesville". Everybody in my town is from the Azores or mainland and all things Portuguese are cherished, including linguica and of course Port

As for wine, most people were drinking Lancers or Maetus... Port on the other hand, tawnys seem to be more popular with the Greenhorns than Vintage, maybe it's the cost?

I just fell for the winning formula of wine, sweet, and strong at am early age.

[Luc Gauthier]

Well , since I asked the question , might as well share .
I've always had a soft spot for peanut butter .
As for the fortified nectar of the gods , it all started seven yrs ago .
It was the 1st time I met my in-laws . . .
You could cut the tension with a knife .
We were at opposite ends of the political spectrum , didn't see eye to eye on education , heck , they EVEN didn't like peanut butter . . .

But there was one thing my father-in-law and I both agreed on , yep you guessed it : blue cheese
And my father-in-law suggested since that since this was a start , we should try a 10 yr tawny Cabral .
And ever since , we've celebrated every year with a VP of Tankers choosing

[Andy Velebil]

Like Jay, I started out my university days drinking the hard to find (at that time) Guiness, Murphy's Irish Stout, Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat (ahh those old CWoH meetings...sorry I digress) and other dark beers from the other side of the pond. I'd had exposure to wine from about high school forward, as a good friend of mine had family that managed a winery (Cinnabar) in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I would make the occassional trip up to the winery for the weekend, helping out in the fields, at tastings, etc. Although I had the entire cellar to drink from I still was not a big wine drinker at that point. I did slowly start learning the basics of wines, how to taste, when to pick, yada-yada-yada. But this did start, slowly, getting me more and more into wine. As I got older and my wine drinking progressed, my friends would take to me to other wineries in the area that they were friends with to show me what else was out there.

I can't recall the specific day or what I drank, but as some point about 5 or 6 years ago I was given a Port to drink after a dinner. I cannot recall what type it was, etc. as I was having a hard enough time trying to remember all the intricate details of dry wine. But I remember being astounded by that glass.

By this time my brother, Tony, was already becoming quite the wine collector and drinker. Although he is not a Port fan, I will forgive him But he took me to a wine store near our house and I found a bottle of 1966 Taylors VP. I remember it being just over $100 a bottle and the wines store employee told me it was a "Decent bottle." So I got it and took it home, even though it was way beyond my budget at that time.

I had no idea about decanting Port, giving it air time, etc. I pretty much popped and poured. OMFG, was my reaction. I fell in love and all I wanted was more VP, and the next bottle I bought was a Taylor's 1970 VP. OMFG #2 happened I found what I liked in the wine world.

I started to seek out more info on Port, which was very hard here in Southern California. And there was not much I located on the web. However, I did run across Roy on Robert Parkers web site (Squires forum) and started reading all his posts about Port. I emailed him a question or two and he answered one...although I think there was one question that he never answered (all is forgiven now Roy ) Although I've never told Roy, until he reads this, I would read and reread his old posts on Parkers forum. Without that I probably would have given up on Port, as I was getting very frustrated trying to find solid AND current information about Port. As it seemed wine drinkers knew everything about dry wines, but nothing about Port.

As I got more excited about Port the local wine store got in some 1986 Dow's Quinta do Bofim. They were selling it cheap (around $20) so I got 1/2 a case...my first major Port purchase...oh, I was so happy and excited that day. I had no idea what Bofim was, but I so wanted to buy some port with a little age on it and being a bit poor at that point in my life, it was what I could afford. As those earlier 2 bottles set me back a lot, but were so worth it. Over the last few years I was able to get on my feet financially (although far far from being wealthy) and I started getting more and more Port that I found at good prices.

Eventually a guy called Roy started this web site called For The Love Of Port. It was my dream come true. I found others who loved Port as much as I did. Which was great since my friends, at that time, didn't drink Port and my other friends in the wine industry were no help when it came to information about a strange old wine from Portugal.

Now, I am a Port-o-holic along with the rest of you. I was lucky enough to go with Roy and others from this forum to Portugal on Roy's trip last year. It was a dream come true and I was like a kid having christmas everyday for a week!

As a side note, I still have the empty 1966 Taylor bottle...being my first VP I will never toss it out. I also have one bottle of the 1986 Dow's Q.d.Bofim. I'm not sure when I will drink it. I know it is not a blockbuster, but it holds a lot of sentimental value to me.

So, I guess I blame Roy for my Port debauchery

[Gizzyeq]

Last year I was having dinner with a friend at a restaurant in the city(I was then still newly introduced to wine) and I decided to try a glass of port after dinner since I heard/read so much about it... it was a 1980 Dow's...and it blew me away I was instantly hooked!
Went out a couple days later and picked up a half bottle of 2003 Dow's and threw it in this ghetto decanter that my parents had around the house(I read Roy's decanting methods a while before) and wanted to try it...I slowly sipped that puppy over the next day...WoW the initiation was complete I was officially hooked for life heh

funny thing tho...I first started reading/lookin up info about port(before I ever tried it) was because of "birth year wine" I'm a '77 child so most people of that vintage if they ask or search on an online message board will usually be recommended Port since it was a not so good Bordeaux year.

I got a couple of my friends(non winos) hooked on port but yeah everyone kinda balks at the price of VP so a lot buy the tawnies and wait for me to open vp hehe which I don't mind at all since I absolutely hate drinking alone so my cellar keeps getting bigger n bigger :?
It's meant to be shared anyway!

[Paul Eddy]

In 1980 , first job just married, I was reading Punch magazine and saw an advert for genuine Burmese cheroots from Greens of London. Fancying myself as as cheroot chomping Clint type I ordered a pack and along with it came a catalogue for wine. They were selling VP and as I had tasted VP before at hotels I thought I would have a couple of bottles. So I ordered a Smith-Woodhouse and a Gould-Campbell both 1977 for £8.95 each. (wipes tear from eye). They duly arrived with an explanatory leaflet telling me that they would not be ready for drinking for at least twenty years and would last longer, so I dutifully laid them down at the back of the wardrobe feeling slightly deflated.

That christmas I saw in a local Victoria wine shop some VP for sale. I bought a bottle of 1970 Fonseca for about a tenner. ( wipes more tears away) I took the bottle to my in-laws who fortuitously had a decanter and we had it on christmas day with stilton. It was superb and just by chance I had decanted it the day before, probably about right for so young a wine. Every christmas after that I provided the port and my father-in-law the stilton and so an obsession was born. I read more and started collecting odd bottles which was easier to do back then as they were often available in local wine stores and some bargains were to be had.

I then moved on to collecting Claret followed by Burgundy Sauternes Rioja Tokaji and Champagne. Port has always been an important part of my buying but I must admit since I have been using FTLOP I have seen a significant increase in port purchases. Thank goodness my wife loves port!

As an aside during my life I never found collecting/saving anything else at all possible, from pocket money to stamps, but wine and port especially is not a problem. So do any of you out there like me just collect wine or do you or have you had other collecting passions?

Oh and finally ,yes, I do still have those two original bottles in my cellar.


Paul.

[Scott Anaya]

I'm my mother's child and have an incredible sweet tooth. So Port came naturally to me. About 10 years ago soon after moving to Alaska I began to "collect" wines. Since I was employed by a very small nonprofit organization that only meant buying a case of cheap wine for drinking throughout the coming month and usually for drinking all of them on a Friday night -party night. One day i threw in this cheap Aussie sweet wine which I will even refrain from calling port with a "little p" I bet it was the cheap penfolds tawny. I was hooked. Pretty much exactly the way White Zinfandel got me drinking wine. NOTE: Penfolds tawny is now bought by me for cooking only. I make a mean port wine mushroom ragout!

Slowly, year by year I paid off student loans from University and began to expand both my wine and Port tasting base. I realised what I liked and could barely afford (LBV's, 10/20 year tawny, 15 yr Madeira), and what I loved and can not really afford (old colheitas, VP, ancient Madeira) as well as what I don't care for but unfortunately can afford (value tawny).

It is here that I should admit to having purchased a few caveat emptor VP's in those days and looking back I was glad I did. No one else I knew in Alaska was drinking Port and it allowed me to taste some of my first VP's of note. Man they were good, and I bet the little bit of Signs-of Seepage allowed that 92 Talyor and the 94 I'm forgetting to maybe mellow a bit and be so good so young. Like the Penfold's tawny, I have abandonned the end of bin sales.

Thankfully I was eventually promoted to be Executive Director of Organizations and while it is still a not-for-profit size salary, I seriously save and line item Port into my budget. I patiently place minimum bid after minimum bid in various auctions and have managed to drink and build a small but fun collection of VP's, Colheita's, and Madeira's which grows and shrinks, especially during cold Alaska winters.

Living in Alaska with only a few wine distributors for the entire state, I am forced to get virtually all of my Port and Madeira at Auction, especially since the liquid ban at airports has made packing more than a few bottles in checked luggage impossible during my travels.

[Paulo Barbosa]

For me it all began in 1978 when I was only 7 years old. Sunday lunches at my grandmothers in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil and the whole family would convene for those extended lunch extravaganzas. All the young ones, myself being the youngest, would get a little shot glass of Sandeman Fine Ruby Reserve Port.

My Grandmother would always say "only a little bit".

After that, Port was it.

Through college all my friends were filling up on beer and I just kept the port flowing. Being fortunate that the split vintage 91-92 came around during my later years of college, the prices were quite affordable. I recollect buying Taylor 92 for 55.00 a botle. What a blast.

Now with a little white hair, and available funds, it has become an obssesion.

As my family toast would say "As nossas boas qualidades que nao sao poucas" translation "to our good qualities which are not few".

The rest is history