What have you opened this week?

[Andy Velebil]

San Leonardo 40 yo.

That’s good one. assume you’ve chilled it in the fridge given the heat? We’ve got a heatwave going. Not Vegas level, thank god, but pushing 100 isn’t fun. My “port” identifies itself as a Long Island Ice Tea today LOL.

[Al B.]

A bottle of the Confraria 40YO Tawnies David Guimaraens blended to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Confraria.

It is a delicious, elegant and very flavoursome 40YO.

[Andy Velebil]

A bottle of the Confraria 40YO Tawnies David Guimaraens blended to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Confraria.

It is a delicious, elegant and very flavoursome 40YO.

It really has pulled together since it was released. A fantastic old tawny. I love that it doesn’t show a dry dusty side that some 40 year olds get. Elegant is an excellent descriptor.

[Eric Ifune]

San Leonardo 40 yo.

That’s good one. assume you’ve chilled it in the fridge given the heat? We’ve got a heatwave going. Not Vegas level, thank god, but pushing 100 isn’t fun. My “port” identifies itself as a Long Island Ice Tea today LOL.

Yup!

[John M.]

Tonight meeting with a friend who is new to Port, but not wine. In a short time they have amassed some nice bottles of Port (active on auctions). We agreed to meet for dinner and they are bringing a 1983 Fonseca and I am opening a 1983 Smith Woodhouse. A tiny horizontal.

Please do report on how each shows. And raise a glass with him to welcome him to the wonderful world of port drinkers and how we’re very different than those “other” dry wine drinkers

Both Ports were awesome but so distinctly different, true to form on SW 1983 in that it does not look aged at all. Fonseca was in an excellent spot and for me was a hair better now (94 ts). The SW was still youthful with a long way to go (93 pts). TNs will be posted soon. Both were well received and a split amongst which was the fav. by our small party.

[Glenn E.]

My last bottle of Ferreira 20 Year Old Tawny Port "Dona Antonia" which used to be called Duque de Braganca.

Seemed a little hot, but otherwise as good as always.

[Roy Hersh]

Currently in WA State, at a great restaurant ... I shared a 2002 Andresen VP last night and beside it was tasted alongside my friends' 1967 Kopke Colheita. Both shined, and my scores were 1 point apart. Both were wonderful. I loved that the 2002, with 6 total hours of decanting, showed even better than the bottle we had at Andresen! Oxygen matters. And the 1967 was wonderful, slightly less so than 1966 but really intriguing and delicious!

[Mike J. W.]

1977 Dolamore Crusted Port.

[Moses Botbol]

Carcavelos Villa Oeiras 10 Anos Tinto

[Glenn E.]

For the FTLOP 19th Anniversary Party...

Friday, August 2
1964 Niepoort Garrafeira
1964 Burmester LBV
1964 Fonseca Guimaraens
1964 Graham Malvedos
1964 Ramos Pinto
1964 Taylor Quinta de Vargellas
1964 Butler Nephew
1964 Gonzalez Byass
1964 Quinta do Noval Nacional
NV Quinta de Brunheda Tonel #4 (a VVO from before VVO was a category)

Saturday, August 3
1994 Taylor VP (magnum)

Sunday, August 4
NV Taylor Very Very Old Tawny Port Platinum Jubilee Edition

All told we had 27 glasses of 1994 Vintage Port on August 3, but 2 were from the magnum above and 1 was a Taylor VP 750, so "only" 25 different Ports.

There were 11 different Tawny Ports on August 4, all at least 50 years old.

It was a good weekend.

[Moses Botbol]

2012 Mouchao "Sobremesa Dessert Tonel Aged" A top notch ruby reserve style port. Worth looking for next time at liquor store.

[Eric Menchen]

Borrowing from Glenn:
For the FTLOP 19th Anniversary Party...

Saturday, August 3
1994 Burmester VP
1994 Smith Woodhouse VP

Sunday, August 4
NV DR 50 Year Old Tawny

I had more 1994s to supply, but we had more than enough to drink. I may have a crack a few of the lesser ones to see if they need to be consumed sooner rather than later. And the Burmester is going on the sooner list.

[Eric Menchen]

2012 Mouchao "Sobremesa Dessert Tonel Aged" A top notch ruby reserve style port. Worth looking for next time at liquor store.

But from Alentejo, so not a Port
I have a bottle of the 2015, "Pipe Aged - Early Bottled." I really enjoyed one of these while there, so I brought one home.

[Moses Botbol]

2012 Mouchao "Sobremesa Dessert Tonel Aged" A top notch ruby reserve style port. Worth looking for next time at liquor store.

But from Alentejo, so not a Port
I have a bottle of the 2015, "Pipe Aged - Early Bottled." I really enjoyed one of these while there, so I brought one home.

I did not know where to post it. There is no dessert wine forum. I want to try some of the other dessert wines from them. Maybe next week I'll pick up something different.

[Eric Menchen]

I did not know where to post it. There is no dessert wine forum. I want to try some of the other dessert wines from them. Maybe next week I'll pick up something different.

Understood.

[Glenn E.]

I did not know where to post it. There is no dessert wine forum. I want to try some of the other dessert wines from them. Maybe next week I'll pick up something different.

Here is fine. There's also the Portuguese Table Wine forum, but since this is a dessert wine that doesn't really fit exactly either.

[A.S. Demka]

S. Leonardo 30 yo tawny, bottled in 2021

[LOUISSS J]

1964 Niepoort Garrafeira
1964 Burmester LBV
1964 Fonseca Guimaraens
1964 Graham Malvedos
1964 Ramos Pinto
1964 Taylor Quinta de Vargellas
1964 Butler Nephew
1964 Gonzalez Byass
1964 Quinta do Noval Nacional
NV Quinta de Brunheda Tonel #4 (a VVO from before VVO was a category)
...
1994 Taylor VP (magnum)

Wow! But 1964 didn't seem like a good year (for the Nacional too). How the Ports were. Were they still in good shape?
For the TF 1994 I'm not worried... but how was it (was there a différence between 750ml and 1500ml?)?

[Moses Botbol]

1970 Fonseca VP last night. Just a glass or two. Won't get back to until Thursday, unless the wife finishes it before then.

[Glenn E.]

1964 Niepoort Garrafeira
1964 Burmester LBV
1964 Fonseca Guimaraens
1964 Graham Malvedos
1964 Ramos Pinto
1964 Taylor Quinta de Vargellas
1964 Butler Nephew
1964 Gonzalez Byass
1964 Quinta do Noval Nacional
NV Quinta de Brunheda Tonel #4 (a VVO from before VVO was a category)
...
1994 Taylor VP (magnum)

Wow! But 1964 didn't seem like a good year (for the Nacional too). How the Ports were. Were they still in good shape?
For the TF 1994 I'm not worried... but how was it (was there a différence between 750ml and 1500ml?)?

The 1964s were about what I expected on Friday. A couple were good, but most were just fine. I had the Graham at 93 (rounded up... I wavered between 92 and 93 all evening), the Fonseca at 91, and the Ramos Pinto at 90. The rest fell between 84 and 88, though others at the tasting had even lower scores than I did. As I recall one person rated nothing higher than 88 and may have had one score in the high 70s (but definitely had a couple of 81s).

On Saturday, I thought the Taylor magnum was very impressive but others were less enamored with it. All of the 1994s were opened the night before but not decanted at that time, and then decanted for 2 hours the morning of the tasting. For the magnum in particular, I felt that was not sufficient decant time and that it opened up and got bigger throughout the day. It never reached the level of the Vesuvio or Warre for me, but both glasses of it were tied for 3rd on the day for me.

I thought the magnum showed better than the 750 by a few points. The 750 was juicier but seemed to lack the massive underlying structure of the magnum. This was all done blind, and while my notes for the 2 halves of the magnum were almost the same, my notes for the 750 were very different. That's not necessarily a reflection of the bottle size, though, as they very likely had very different storage over the years. I've had the magnum in the bottom of a Eurocave wine refrigerator for over 12 years... the 750 was recently purchased online so who knows how it was stored over that same period of time.