Lots of new faces ... please introduce yourself

[Roy Hersh]

I think that's some of the basics. I love port and Madeira. Oh and I've decided to go on the Fortification Tour this year to learn a lot more than what I've been exposed to so far. I'm going to try to be a more productive member, less lurking.

Eric,

We are very happy to have another lurker join us and we've had a number of great personalities over the years come from the netherworld and become active participants here on .

I think it is great that you appreciate two of Portugal's great fortified wine types. You are going to be immersed, literally, during the Fortification Tour (prepare that liver ... now!) and will probably have even more to talk about in a month's time. I am looking forward to meeting you and sharing in some great Port and Madeira explorations as well as the DOC wines of the Douro.

See you soon and thanks again for taking a chance by joining us. I don't think you will be disappointed ... and I'm talking about our Forum(s) not the tour itself.

[Anthea W]

Roy hi

Thanks for the welcome and the background. I appreciate the detail, especially from a US perspective because I am totally lacking in that direction. I certainly don't want the port industry to diminish, let alone die, so I'm not going to bang on about. Suffice to say for anyone who does want to see the big picture, have a look at the IVDP website http://www.ivp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=73& ... 6&idioma=1

As for spreading the word, and getting port better known, like the French, we should try it as an aperitif. The problem with only drinking it at the end of a meal is that increasingly people will decline on the strength of 'I'm the driver'. If however we have it at the beginning of the evening, then bingo! Everyone, by definition, has a first drink, so that's where we need to move port to - up the front of the bus, not down the back end. After all, for years, we were happy to have a sherry before dinner. What's the difference! OK, enough soapbox!

As for the book, it is 75% written now. It has been a work-in-progress for sometime now, and this Easter has given me the time and space to crack on with it. I will list the contents briefly below. I see it as a slim pocket-book, great as a Christmas stocking filler. My objective is to get young people to try port and then make it their preferred drink. So therefore we have to think outside the box, which is what I've tried to do here:
* FAQs
* What is it
* Drinking it
* Eating with it
* Cooking with it
* Buying it
* Getting serious about it
* Appendix - cocktail recipes

I would welcome any thoughts from anyone, on its content, publishing or marketing.

[Luc Gauthier]

Hi Anthea ,
I like your analogy " puting port at the front of the bus "
I think a portion of port geeks have settled into a comfort zone .
Obviously you dont preach to the converted . :blah:
But hey , when I worked the night shift , after a shower at home , I'd have 3 or 4 glasses of a tawny or colheita before going to bed .

[Andy Velebil]

Welcome Anthea and Eric,

I am glad two have you join us here at , and have taken the time to introduce yourself. I hope you enjoy your time with us and please ask away with questions.

[Steve Pollack]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to introduce myself as I have recently become a member. I have been aware of the site for a couple of years, but for some reason just got around to joining.

As far as fortified wines go, my main interest is Madeira, though I have had some enjoyable vintage and tawny Ports. I hope to learn about and taste more of both Madeira and Port, and am extremely interested in the Fortification Tour in 2010. To this point, my favorite (in my limited tasting experience) is the 1863 Barbeito Bual. I first tried it about 6-7 years ago at The Blue Fin in NYC, which offered a Madeira tasting flight. I have Rare Wine Co to thank for igniting my passion for vintage Madeiras, as they have a magical way of describing them. I initially bought one bottle in late 1998, then a few more in 1999, and several more over the past few years. At this point I probably have around 15 bottles of vintage Madeira (and a few vintage Ports) in my collection. I am about to finish off the last of a 1912 D'Oliveiras Verdelho. Just waiting for a nice cool evening here in Los Angeles.

I want to thank Roy publicly for immediately reaching out to me and making me feel welcome. I can tell that it will be a lot of fun meeting other members of this community, and sharing our passion for fortified wines.

Hopefully I'll be able to attend the next tasting in the Los Angeles area.

Cheers,
Steve

[Andy Velebil]

Steve,
It's awsome that you finally signed up and it's great to have another L.A.'er here! Shoot me an email (link on the right) with your contact info and I'll be sure to keep you informed when a few of us 'ers get together to drink some Port/Madeira here in the L.A. area.

AS I'm sure you already know, the madeira section has some real experts on the subject and I'm looking forward to you adding to that. The trips with Roy are worth every penny, I should know I've been on 3 so far and will be going again on this years Harvest Tour You'll get things that few others ever do and I often joke that you learn so much information that by the end of the week you've forgotten more than most people will ever know in their life time.

[Scott Vinieratos]

Hi! I have recently found a love of port and I am trying to expand my knowledge.

I have recently had a Brotherhood Ruby Port and loved it for the price point. I also tasted the Frank Family port when I was in Napa and absolutely LOVED it enough to buy a bottle.

I will search this website for suggestions of $20-$30 bottles of port to start expanding my palette.

[Eric Menchen]

Welcome Scott.

I have had a fair number of good US produced port style wines that I've enjoyed, and I will enjoy again Then I made a trip to Portugal and became obsessed like most of the folks here. You can spend a lot on a fine bottle, but you can find deals in the $20-30 range as well, and sometimes even less. In a recent exclusive offering for newsletter subscribers there were $6.50 half bottles of LBV Port and plenty of full bottles below $20. In the 20-30 range, I recently picked up 1985 and 2000 Delaforce for $25 each. It probably isn't the greatest Port ever made, but everyone has different tastes too, so one of those might very well turn out to be a favorite of mine.

Since those Delaforce bottles are no longer available, I'll throw out this suggestion for something even under $20:
Quinta do Noval Ruby
It is one of the finest rubies I've tasted. For a little more there are plenty of reserve-class Ports to be had. I'll leave those recommendations for others to make.

[Andy Velebil]

Scott,

Welcome to the family. Great to hear of your new found love of things fortified. As Eric mentioned, have no fear we'll have you buying some top notch stuff in whatever price range you're budget allows.

What I'd suggest, so it's easier for people to give suggestions to your question about what to buy, is to post your question in the "Port Forum" section of the forum. That way people can respond directly and much more easier. Remember there is no "dumb" questions here, so ask away.

I hope you enjoy your stay here and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Scott,

Nice post and welcome to !

Would you believe the very first winery I ever visited was Brotherhood in upstate NY? Then again it was in the 1960s and I was a younster at the time and my brother even younger. In those days, minors could go as long as they were with their parents. They gave us some sparkling grape juice and from then on I was hooked.

We hope you will become an active participant and we look forward to having you share your wisdom and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Cheers!

(written in Madeira)

[Scott Vinieratos]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes!

[Roy Hersh]

It is our pleasure! Glad to see you're enjoying yourself so far!

[dan s]

The name here is Dan and my wife is Katie. When we started dating we took a wine tasting class. It was all down hill from there - in wine and life. She quickly developed a taste for the sweeter wines, port and Quarts de Charmes are two favorites. Since she was born in 63, I try and keep a few bottles from that vintage around for her pleasure, but we do like other vintages.

Our bell weather port is a 19070 Dow. Everything is measured against that one (if anyone knows of any sources of this, I'd appreciate knowing about them). However, we don't limit ourselves to Dow's. I've enjoyed many a Graham's, Fonseca, Taylor, etc. Ask me some time about our 5th anniversary trip to London (hint: picture flights of port in front of her and flights of Armagnac in front of me). For "every day" drinking, we prefer Graham's Six Grapes.

I've been aware of this web site for quite a while, but have never been a subscriber until now. Please forgive my lateness. I have noticed a few familiar faces in the postings and look forward to the future here.

BTW: I also enjoy my Madeira's. I can probably recite every wine and vintage I ever had. I once heard the it was a "religious experience" and I have to agree on that.

Dan (and Katie)

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Dan,

What a fun introduction and welcome along with Katie too. Glad you registered on the site and decided to take part in the fun here. I love the Dow 1970 and don't blame you for really enjoying this one tremendously. I hope you will have a ton of fun here at sharing your knowledge and learning alongside all of us! Please always feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Best regards,

Roy (written from Vila Nova de Gaia)

[Andy Velebil]

Dan,
Glad you signed up and joined the fray here at . Thanks for the nice introduction about you and your wife and she is lucky to have a birth year with many fine VP's from it. Six Grapes is also a favorite QPR of mine as well, one I've always enjoyed. Look forward to having you around and be sure to check out the Madeira section. You'd be hard pressed to find a more knowledge group about Madeira than we have. Welcome aboard :hello:

[Heather Hathwell]

Steve: Yippee!! Glad you joined...... any word yet on your waitlist status for June 7 tasting (sorry to mention this under the Port section everybody)? If you don't make that then maybe I'll catch up with you at Palate sometime, though without the remainder of the 1912. I gave it to Steve and Octavio to polish it off. We need to work on Steve to arrange an offline there. Would be tremendous.

Welcome to FTLOP meanwhile. Knew you'd love it. Looking forward to your posting.

Heather

[goncalo devesas]

Hello wise Portwine people, my name is Gonçalo Devesas, I work in Vinologia, actually I´m Jean Philippe´s (the owner of Vinologia) son, and of course Gustavo´s brother, I started working in Vinologia since the opening day in the year 2000 untill 2002, then I worked in a Bank and in the Airport (ICTS - International Consultants on Targeted Security), the passion for Port was stronger and I returned in September 2008 to help my father in the business and if possible expand it...

I meet the great Roy Hersh , here in Vinologia, that for me he´s the TOP REFERENCE about Portwine, the best way to know about Port, I think it´s using this site...

[Eric Menchen]

Welcome Gonçalo and thanks for all your posts so far. It is nice to get a local perspective, in particular on those bottles that are harder to come by in some parts. We will have to drink some of those together some time

[Roy Hersh]

Bienvenidos e bom dia abraco,

How are you Goncalo? It was my pleasure to meet you too, although it was more than once. Thanks for the kind words, but there are a lot of people here who know a lot about Port wine. We call it: "Collective Port Wisdom."

I am struggling to finish the next newsletter but it should be out shortly. Your brother has put together this month's guest corner article and I am excited to help him be published for the first time. A great article too!

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate all of your very informed posts too. Please tell your father that a wine shop owner was contacting me today (his name is John and I forwarded the email to Gustavo) but this guy is looking to purchase some Port tongs and I always tell them to contact your shop!

Melhores cumprimentos!

Roy

[goncalo devesas]

Welcome Gonçalo and thanks for all your posts so far. It is nice to get a local perspective, in particular on those bottles that are harder to come by in some parts. We will have to drink some of those together some time

Hello Eric, first of all, thanks for the kind words and I´m shure that we´ll meet soon to :blah: and

Best regards ,

Gonçalo