1991 The "under appreciated vintage"

[Roy Hersh]

Unless you bought the many very fine 1991 Vintage Ports early on, it is one that gets lost in the rest of the decade and is not that easy to come by. Given that 1992 had received all the hype, 1993 a total washout, 1994 a top 5 vintage of the century in everyone's book, 1995 solid and reasonably priced, 1996 a few excellent VPs with few declaring ... given the generally declared and highly structured vintage that produced few great wines but many good ones, 1998 the sleeper of the decade where you really need to be discriminating and savy ... and 1999 where there are four or five really fine VPs.

But 1991 could very easily have been a generally declared vintage and there were more declarations in 1991 than even 1992. We can have that discussion along the way, but this is not about comparing or contrasting 1991 with 1992. I happen to be bullish on 1991s and have oftentimes kept this to myself so I could purchase all that I wanted of this vintage. Not that I have accomplished that goal, it is time to pay homage to this very fine and overlooked Port year.

So what 1991s have you tried, or are you cellaring? Do you feel that they are hard to find and what do you think of their pricing?

[Robert O.]

I have one 1991 Dow that I am holding on to that I bought at auction. And now that you mention, I haven't seen much 1991 around. Lots of '92 but not much '91.

I'll have to start keeping my eye out.

[Gary Banker]

I have four 1991s - 1 Croft and 3 Graham's. I'm leaving them until they get older and I have drunk all the 1983s and 1985s. I'm considering getting some more Graham's and Ferreira that are available locally.

Gary

[Mike McCune]

91s in my cellar:

Croft - hard to find and provenance lousy (as written before about bottles found in USA), good bottles are delicious, I have 2 left that look ok. Buy from UK. (see 2005 Croft for great price for a fantastic young Croft)

Fonseca - starting to drink well with decanting, took till now though. I have 750s/375s (paid around $60/30) - Wine-Searcher shows limited for ~$100/bottle now.

Graham's - available, delicious (my mother-in-law and 2 friends, all non-drinkers, ended up putting quite a dent in a bottle a few years ago)

Taylor - excellent and my favorite, this one (and Fonseca) were hard to find for a while but now seem to pop up here and there occasionally. Purchased for ~$67-75 - now >$150 on WS!).

In order of preference: Taylor, Croft, Fonseca, Graham's

[Paul Eddy]

Bought most of mine in year end sales presumably when the merchant wanted more space for younger vintages. I have mainly Dow's and also Fonseca Guimaraens, Graham's, Noval Nacionaland Taylor Vargellas. I have only tried the Dow(Jan07) which was nice and fruity but seemed a little soft. I do not know if it was just a little closed or if this is as good as it gets. I am not a big fan of drinking young ports ie under 20years so my knowledge on wine development at different ages is poor. With regard to the price I would not have bought them undiscounted-far too pricey!

Paul.

[Richard Henderson]

post deleted

[Richard Henderson]

Cellar Tracker says I have 20 bottles of the 1991 vintage , 6 Graham and 5 Dow and a few other odd bottles of Guimaraens, Q d V and a solitary Churchill.
I have tried most of them. Excellent value, excellent port.

[Marc J.]

Over the years I've picked up a number of '91s and at this point I'm just cellaring them. Possibly in four to five years I may begin to pop a few corks but for the time being I'm letting them sleep.

[Bjørn Tore Aastorp Ruud]

I tried the Churchills 91 and it was very good balanced and can age well.
We do not have any port from 1991 in Norway right now.

BTW I am a fan of Churchills VPs.

[Todd Pettinger]

My own experiences with 1991 is limited to one half bottle of Krohn. It seemed a bit prematurely aged - well into a tawny colour and flavour notes. Very easy-drinking though. Here is my TN.

(While looking for my own TN, I found one of Jay's...)

I have one bottle of '91 Vargellas, which was very pricey, even for my neck of the woods (everything seems to be expensive!) at $120/bottle. From what I have read previously, it is worth the investment, although time will certainly tell. Of course, TN will be posted once consumed, but don't expect that in the next, say, decade!?!

Todd

[dave leach]

although i've had only a few bottles of 1991 over the past few years, i'm beginning to think it is an under appreciated, undervalued vintage. most of the posts here on ftlop have been on the positive to very good side of things, and it seems to be a better value than 1992.

my favorite by far is the 1991 croft. i had 2 bottles about a year ago, and they were drinking beautifully. i'm not sure what issue mike was referring to about usa crofts?, my two were purchased here and were excellent. but he's right, it is hard to find.

i have a 91 nacional, which i got for a great price($175), but someone said it was a transition year of some sort for that house, and roy i believe rated it so-so.

scored a mag of 91 vargellas for a wonderful price(sorry todd, $40 cheaper than you paid for your 750!) i'm still looking for a reason to jump into this year in greater depth with my collection--anyone have any KILLER ports to recommend?

dave

[Todd Pettinger]

scored a mag of 91 vargellas for a wonderful price(sorry todd, $40 cheaper than you paid for your 750!)

OUCH!
Although what a score Dave!!!
Todd

[Moses Botbol]

my favorite by far is the 1991 croft. i had 2 bottles about a year ago, and they were drinking beautifully. i'm not sure what issue mike was referring to about usa crofts?, my two were purchased here and were excellent. but he's right, it is hard to find.

I am with Dave on the 91 Croft's. I have a case and tried two bottles before putting away in storage. I would've drank them all if I did not exercise restraint! Real give-away's for the money and no brainer. I am going to be on the hunt for additonal 91's of anything.

Are there any stinker 91's someone has run into?