What have you opened this week?

[Glenn E.]

1987 Kopke Colheita 2x 375ml
1987 Graham Malvedos
1987 Porto Sousa

The first two for an Anniversary dinner at Surrell in Seattle on Saturday night, and the last one for our actual Anniversary dinner tonight at Castilla in Bellevue.

Can you guess which year we were married?

[Mike J. W.]

Quinta da Pacheca 20 y.o. Tawny. One of my favorite 20 y.o.'s.

[Eric Ifune]

DR 20 year old white.

[Eric Menchen]

1955 Kopke Colheita, 375ml.

[Glenn E.]

1977 Gould Campbell VP, magnum, for the wedding of two friends.

A stunning wine. It's so good that I need to open a 1977 Fonseca just to make sure it isn't actually the best VP from 1977.

[Mike J. W.]

1977 Gould Campbell VP, magnum, for the wedding of two friends.

A stunning wine. It's so good that I need to open a 1977 Fonseca just to make sure it isn't actually the best VP from 1977.

This is a great Port, but I've also run into some bad bottles of this more so than other '77's (same with their 1980 Vintage). Nonetheless, I buy them when I see them at auction for a good price. The '77 Smith Woodhouse is also an excellent '77.

[Glenn E.]

1977 Gould Campbell VP, magnum, for the wedding of two friends.

A stunning wine. It's so good that I need to open a 1977 Fonseca just to make sure it isn't actually the best VP from 1977.

This is a great Port, but I've also run into some bad bottles of this more so than other '77's (same with their 1980 Vintage). Nonetheless, I buy them when I see them at auction for a good price. The '77 Smith Woodhouse is also an excellent '77.

Interesting, because we discussed how uniformly good this Port is while we were drinking it. In our experience, it has been much more reliably good than any other Port from 1977. Fonseca, Taylor, and Graham can be better, but then again they can be worse. And you never really know which you're going to get with them because it doesn't seem to be a storage issue. They just have more significant bottle variation, at least from what we've seen.

I also haven't had any bad bottles of the 1980, but certainly there's been more variation in that vintage than I've seen from their 1977. I have two OWC 6-packs of the 1980 and so far (only 3 bottles in) those have been consistently good, so maybe the variation with the 1980 is a storage issue? Who knows.

[Mike J. W.]

1977 Gould Campbell VP, magnum, for the wedding of two friends.

A stunning wine. It's so good that I need to open a 1977 Fonseca just to make sure it isn't actually the best VP from 1977.

This is a great Port, but I've also run into some bad bottles of this more so than other '77's (same with their 1980 Vintage). Nonetheless, I buy them when I see them at auction for a good price. The '77 Smith Woodhouse is also an excellent '77.

Interesting, because we discussed how uniformly good this Port is while we were drinking it. In our experience, it has been much more reliably good than any other Port from 1977. Fonseca, Taylor, and Graham can be better, but then again they can be worse. And you never really know which you're going to get with them because it doesn't seem to be a storage issue. They just have more significant bottle variation, at least from what we've seen.

I also haven't had any bad bottles of the 1980, but certainly there's been more variation in that vintage than I've seen from their 1977. I have two OWC 6-packs of the 1980 and so far (only 3 bottles in) those have been consistently good, so maybe the variation with the 1980 is a storage issue? Who knows.

The 1980 I opened 2 different bottles (different points of acquisition) for a tasting a few years back. Both were bad, although to be fair, the one did have mold under the cap. I gave up and opened a '70 Dow instead. About a year later I opened a 3rd 1980 GC and although it wasn't undrinkable I did notice some slight VA. I have a few left and I hope they're good.

[Glenn E.]

DR Very Old White Port bottle #198 (their 50 YO before it was a category) for a 50th birthday party. I'd have loved to have been able to open something from 1972, but those are really hard to find for a reasonable price.

[Andy Velebil]

Haven't opened much, started a new assignment and work's been super busy, but last night I needed a little sip or three of Port. 2007 Dow's Colheita hit the spot.

[Eric Ifune]

Kopke 20 year old.

[Mike J. W.]

Barao de Vilar 10 year-old White. It's so smooth and very inexpensive as well.

[Roy Hersh]

This is a great Port, but I've also run into some bad bottles of this more so than other '77's (same with their 1980 Vintage). Nonetheless, I buy them when I see them at auction for a good price. The '77 Smith Woodhouse is also an excellent '77.

Interesting, because we discussed how uniformly good this Port is while we were drinking it. In our experience, it has been much more reliably good than any other Port from 1977. Fonseca, Taylor, and Graham can be better, but then again they can be worse. And you never really know which you're going to get with them because it doesn't seem to be a storage issue. They just have more significant bottle variation, at least from what we've seen.

I also haven't had any bad bottles of the 1980, but certainly there's been more variation in that vintage than I've seen from their 1977. I have two OWC 6-packs of the 1980 and so far (only 3 bottles in) those have been consistently good, so maybe the variation with the 1980 is a storage issue? Who knows.

The 1980 I opened 2 different bottles (different points of acquisition) for a tasting a few years back. Both were bad, although to be fair, the one did have mold under the cap. I gave up and opened a '70 Dow instead. About a year later I opened a 3rd 1980 GC and although it wasn't undrinkable I did notice some slight VA. I have a few left and I hope they're good.

My experience with GC 77 is excellent and agree on the consistency front as mentioned in the most recent newsletter. The 1980 is Great and about as good as the Dow's, Graham's and Warre's. Symington's "owned" 1980, along with a couple of others that over-perform in that good under-appeciated harvest

In time, will the 1980 surprise many and turn out to be the 2nd coming of the 1960, also ignored since 1955 and 1963 were so legendary?

[Thomas V]

Sipping on a Warre's Otima 10YO Tawny while contemplating what I will surprise my neighbour with for his 40th birthday next weekend.

I don't have any port from 1982 so the options are between these 2.

1980 Smith Woodhouse VP
1983 Ramos Pinto VP

Leaning towards the RP as it is more mature than the SWC, which could use a little more time. What do you guys reckon?

[Glenn E.]

Sipping on a Warre's Otima 10YO Tawny while contemplating what I will surprise my neighbour with for his 40th birthday next weekend.

I don't have any port from 1982 so the options are between these 2.

1980 Smith Woodhouse VP
1983 Ramos Pinto VP

Leaning towards the RP as it is more mature than the SWC, which could use a little more time. What do you guys reckon?

To me the 1983 Ramos Pinto is more special because they're harder to find. (At least around here.) I also usually like them a little better than the 1980 Smith Woodhouse. But that's just me... either of them would be great!

[Andy Velebil]

Rocha 50th Anniversary Tawny, from 1/2 bottle. Better than some previous, but it is soundly in the drink sooner camp now (bottled early 2000's IIRC)

[Glenn E.]

Birthday weekend! Lots of Port...

(earlier in the week)
1964 Pocas Colheita (b. 2008)
(Saturday)
2008 DR Colheita Branco
2015 Graham LBV
1964 Casa do Douro Colheita (b. 2003)
1958 Kopke Colheita
(Sunday)
1985 Fonseca Vintage Port

[Eric Ifune]

Brunheda 40+. A newer bottling.

[Roy Hersh]

Glenn how was the 1958 Kopke showing, and the 1985 Fonseca bottle. Scores too please!

[Glenn E.]

Glenn how was the 1958 Kopke showing, and the 1985 Fonseca bottle. Scores too please!

I thought the 1958 Kopke was fantastic, but others were more impressed by the 1968 Andresen in the flight. (I had the '68 Andresen 3rd after the Kopke and a '91 Andresen.) I think the Kopke suffered by being last on the night, particularly since we'd been hanging out and drinking the first 3 on my Saturday list all afternoon. Palates were getting pretty fried by the time we got to it. I still gave it 96 points and WOTN.

The 1985 Fonseca was young, powerful, and sorely under-decanted after an early dinner at The Herbfarm. I only had time to give it about 3-4 hours in decanter, then another 3 hours in bottle, before we drank it with and after dessert. This was one of those bottles that could have used 12 hours! No notes or score, unfortunately, but it was very nice.