What have you opened this week?

[A.S. Demka]

DR 40 Year Old Tawny Port (bottled 2021)

Opened for Port Club. This was one of the bottles I purchased after DR announced that they were no longer going to make a 40. I said I'd take everything they had left, which turned out to be 18 bottles.

I opened another one from this purchase recently and was ... concerned. It was fine, but it wasn't as glorious as it should have been. I scored that one 92, and these should normally be 95-96 for me. So I was worried that their remaining stock (which they recalled from Porto to ship to me) had been somehow damaged.

Luckily, that one seems to have just been an off bottle. This one was worth 96 points!

When did you buy these? DR definitively makes the 40 yo (again?), as I recently bought 6 bottles (2025 bottling) during the port harvest tour. They’re even better than the ones I bought in 2021 (375 ml, bottled in 2021). I love them!

[Glenn E.]

DR 40 Year Old Tawny Port (bottled 2021)

Opened for Port Club. This was one of the bottles I purchased after DR announced that they were no longer going to make a 40. I said I'd take everything they had left, which turned out to be 18 bottles.

I opened another one from this purchase recently and was ... concerned. It was fine, but it wasn't as glorious as it should have been. I scored that one 92, and these should normally be 95-96 for me. So I was worried that their remaining stock (which they recalled from Porto to ship to me) had been somehow damaged.

Luckily, that one seems to have just been an off bottle. This one was worth 96 points!

When did you buy these? DR definitively makes the 40 yo (again?), as I recently bought 6 bottles (2025 bottling) during the port harvest tour. They’re even better than the ones I bought in 2021 (375 ml, bottled in 2021). I love them!

They made a limited run of 250 bottles of a 40 Year Old "Special Edition" in 2025 because so many of us had been asking for it. I bought 24 of them myself (and shared with 3 others). My understanding, though, is that they do not intend to keep it as a regular product. They still intend to only make the 10, 20, 30, and 50.

As noted, this bottle in this note was purchased after they made the original announcement that they were no longer going to make a 40. I contacted them directly, asked how many they had left, and bought all 18 that they had left.

[John M.]

Yesterday in Pennsylvania 9 of us gathered to taste a selection of Pocas Tawnies and a Mystery Bottle (article forthcoming)....7 are FTLOPers (Brad B., Mike J. W., Matt Wags, Lucas, Andrew K, Tym L. and me, other two are enthusiasts nonetheless.

10 Year
20 Year
30 Year
40 Year
50 Year
Bonificador
1997 Colheita
1992 Colheita
1982 Colheita
1967 Colheita
Mystery was a 1937 Porto Rocha

Great showing by the set wit the WOTN being the 50 Year Old followed by the Bonficador.

Big shoutouts to Brad for hosting and for Tym for driving 6.5 hours thru a snowstorm just to attend!

[Lucas S]

I was floored by the quality of these Pocas tawnies. All the Colheitas were very good. Only the 20 and the 40 tawnies didn't shine in the comparison, but were still good, everything else was stellar. Looking at retail prices now, probably the 30 ($65) and 1997 Colheita ($45) are the best QPR. And I would surmise the 1992 Colheita has the most cellaring longevity, with plenty of tannins, some cloudiness, and structural support. Special shoutout to the Bonificador, a beautiful woody port, and the unique 1937 Rocha mystery which was my WOTN despite 29 years of bottle age.

Was good fun seeing everyone again. Thank you to Bradley for hosting the occasion, and Mike and John for the bottle/glass logistics.

[Al B.]

I managed to bribe Glenn over to the UK for a quick visit so we opened a bottle of Niepoort VV (1960s bottling). Glenn opened a bottle of DR Very Old White.

Niepoort VV

IMG_8015.jpeg (148.25 KiB) Viewed 13374 times

[A.S. Demka]

DR 40 Year Old Tawny Port (bottled 2021)

Opened for Port Club. This was one of the bottles I purchased after DR announced that they were no longer going to make a 40. I said I'd take everything they had left, which turned out to be 18 bottles.

I opened another one from this purchase recently and was ... concerned. It was fine, but it wasn't as glorious as it should have been. I scored that one 92, and these should normally be 95-96 for me. So I was worried that their remaining stock (which they recalled from Porto to ship to me) had been somehow damaged.

Luckily, that one seems to have just been an off bottle. This one was worth 96 points!

When did you buy these? DR definitively makes the 40 yo (again?), as I recently bought 6 bottles (2025 bottling) during the port harvest tour. They’re even better than the ones I bought in 2021 (375 ml, bottled in 2021). I love them!

They made a limited run of 250 bottles of a 40 Year Old "Special Edition" in 2025 because so many of us had been asking for it. I bought 24 of them myself (and shared with 3 others). My understanding, though, is that they do not intend to keep it as a regular product. They still intend to only make the 10, 20, 30, and 50.

As noted, this bottle in this note was purchased after they made the original announcement that they were no longer going to make a 40. I contacted them directly, asked how many they had left, and bought all 18 that they had left.

Thanks for the additional info, appreciated !

[Al B.]

We had a Fonseca vertical on Tuesday last week, for which I opened a bottle of 1948.

The 1985 at the tasting was a poor bottle, so I opened one of mine at home this weekend. Just the way it should be!

[Roy Hersh]

2008 DR White Colheita

[Glenn E.]

I managed to bribe Glenn over to the UK for a quick visit so we opened a bottle of Niepoort VV (1960s bottling). Glenn opened a bottle of DR Very Old White.

And a wonderfully fun VV it was, too! It had me completely fooled because I did not detect any of the usual flavors that tip me off to a Niepoort. Then again, I think I have only had the VV 1 or maybe 2 other times, so it's not like I have much experience with it!

As Alex noted, I opened a DR Very Old White which was superb as usual.

We had a Fonseca vertical on Tuesday last week, for which I opened a bottle of 1948.

The 1985 at the tasting was a poor bottle, so I opened one of mine at home this weekend. Just the way it should be!

"My" bottle for the Fonseca vertical, adopted from Charles, was a 1992 Fonseca which I judge to be merely "fine." I noted that it felt 45 years old, not 33, and even that may have been generous. It was one of those bottles that you'd happily drink any day, as long as there weren't better bottles around like there are during a vertical.

My experience with 1985 Fonseca in London continues... I have no idea why, but they just don't have as good of bottles over there as we have here in Seattle. I scored this one 91 which is pretty normal for me in London, whereas bottles here in Seattle are routinely 94-96. I may need to open another one here like Alex has done.

WOTN for me was a beautiful 1977, followed by a 3-way tie between Alex's 1948, a 1970, and a 1994.

[Moses Botbol]

This week we drank an '85 Gould Campbell VP and started on an '11 Crasto LBV. We should finish off the LBV tonight.

[Al B.]

Over the last few days we've opened the F85 I mentioned earlier, G83, a bottle of the Churchill Club Tawny that was a special blend for the short-lived Churchill Port Club and a bottle of Quevedo 40YO (2022 bottling).

The F85 was fabulous. The G83 had slightly too much VA to be enjoyable. The Churchill Club Tawny is lovely, so elegant. The Quevedo 40YO blends together power and finesse in perfect harmony,

[Lucas S]

Andersen 10 White
Decent enough, but I wouldn't rebuy it as its a bit watery & spirity at the same time.

[Glenn E.]

Andersen 10 White
Decent enough, but I wouldn't rebuy it as its a bit watery & spirity at the same time.

Interesting. I wouldn't use either of those adjectives to describe it, so I wonder if your bottle was somehow off?

[Lucas S]

It got better today with more air, it's quite a balanced port overall don't get me wrong, but after the Pocas tasting that we had recently, it's not doing it for me on the flavor front.

Also, I must admit my experience with white ports is still limited at this point, so maybe it's a white port thing I don't understand yet. I did also buy this at Lisbon in Newark, where they can, uh store Ports a bit warm...

[John M.]

2017 Maynards LBV - Unfiltered.

[Glenn E.]

I opened one of the new, limited, DR 40 Year Old Special Edition for Port Club last weekend... and it was corked. Makes me worry about the rest of the bottles, because there were only 250 made so the corks likely all came from the same batch.

[Mike J. W.]

Delaforce Quinta da Corte 1991 SQVP. The cork was 2/3 soaked and the Port looks more like a 20 y.o. Tawny, but a quick taste shows it's pretty decent. We'll see how it shows tonight after a 7 hour decant. Definitely some oxidation going on, but it's not unpleasant so far.

[Eric Menchen]

1997 Quinta do Vesuvio VP. You know it's good.

[Andy Velebil]

1997 Quinta do Vesuvio VP. You know it's good.

Was it good? Hahahahha

[Roy Hersh]

150 year old Tawny Port cask sample. Unreleased yet.

1982 Graham's Single Harvest Tawny Port bottled 2018

Dos Santos 10 year old White Port

1957 Niepoort Colheita - bottled 1976