2004 Osbourne LBV Port

[Paul Fountain]

I drank this over a week in January 2011. I double decanted this but didn't give it any sitting time. While it wasn't obvious on the nose, the taste was spirity and unbalanced with the alcohol masking the fruit completely. There was no change after a couple of days. I then put it in the fridge and found that over the next couple of days that it was better when drunk straight out of the fridge where the coldness subdued the alcohol enough to allow the fruit to come through a bit. All in all, I found it disappointing for the $40 dollars AU it cost me. There is better value to be found elsewhere. 74 points

[Andy Velebil]

In my limited experience with some Osbourne products I also have found them quite spirity and generally lacking in overall structure, so your note makes perfect sense to me. I don't know what pricing is like in your neck of the woods, but I'd say $40 would be well beyond what I'd be willing to pay. Maybe you could list a few things available near you with prices and we could help point you to something that would be the best value as to what you're looking for.

[Paul Fountain]

Hi Andy,
$40 is pretty normal in these parts for Portugese LBV. This came from the the biggest liquor retailer in my parts where prices are usually the best, but there isn't much competition. The stores that actually stock Port rarely seem to have the same Ports. In theory we should see prices drop a bit as the Australian dollar has been up as high as its ever been against the Euro but I won't hold my breath on that. In comparison, I've picked up 03 and 04 Taylors LBVs at auction for a bit under 40 in the past couple of months. I've also had the Dows 04 LBV (rather nice) and the 01 Fonseca LBV (not great) at the $40 price mark. The best value has been the Quinta do Pego 05 LBV at $29. I've tried most of the LBVs I can find, but I still have a few Rubys to try. There are still some Noval 03s LBV kicking around at $54 individually. I can get the Grahams 6 grapes at $40 through a wine co-op I'm a member of. They also have the Grahams 98 Malvedos at $70 AU which is the cheapst VP I've seen outside of the auctions. The Niepoort ruby is about $32. The fonseca Bin 27 is around $50
Just to give you an idea, the VPs are really expensive here too 07 Noval VP and Warres $150, 03 Noval VP $195, 07 Croft and Fonseca VP are both $109, 05 Vale Dona Maria $135. In comparison my favorite Australian VP style sells for around the $30 mark.
So its a bit of a sorry state of affairs down under. I've bought most of my (small but growing) collection at auction

cheers

Paul

[Andy Velebil]

and I thought the Canadians had high prices!