For The Love Of Port

Crusted is just greatttttttttttt
Huge % of the production goes to UK, and why?
Because the wines are great and cheaper that a vintage.
The last two crusted that i taste it was Graham's 2004 and Niepoort 2011, and Niepoort was muchhhhhhhhhh upper quality than graham's.
Never taste that 2004 that you have but if it's a niepoort, its greattt.
The wine will not improve to much, even if you have it on your cellar, for more years.
The blend and the 3 years the wine stays on the bottle before goes to the market, and that is all the potencial of the wine.

Filter and decant the wine 1h before have it, because it have a lot of sediment.
You can drink these crusted during 8-10 days after decating, for sure.

Enjoy it because its a great style of Port Wine

I have one more bottle of SW Crusted from I think 1976??? From the 70's I know that and it's drinking pretty well. A touch spirit and perhaps simple, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Moses Botbol wrote:I have one more bottle of SW Crusted from I think 1976??? From the 70's I know that and it's drinking pretty well. A touch spirit and perhaps simple, but thoroughly enjoyable.

For sure Moses, but does not improve as a VP.
It works like a LBV Unfiltered.

Crusted was the style that got me serious about port.

I really think the producers should put more effort into this style - it's a great stepping stone to lead customers from ruby reserves and LBVs to the joys of vintage.

It can also be blended to be a drink now or lay down port - or buy a case and very slowly work your way through it.

Niepoort's first crusted seems to have been a spur of the moment bottling of some juice that Dirk felt was just too good to blend away. It sold so quickly that the style is now a firm fixture, and is being blended more for the long haul rather early drinking.

Derek T. wrote: I've told you guys before, if you had stayed being British instead of going for this silly independence thing we might have let you have some of the good things in life

I'll stick with my Lotus, Range Rover, and Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

Moses Botbol wrote:

Derek T. wrote: I've told you guys before, if you had stayed being British instead of going for this silly independence thing we might have let you have some of the good things in life

I'll stick with my Lotus, Range Rover, and Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

What no pork pies?


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Andy Velebil wrote:

Moses Botbol wrote:

Derek T. wrote: I've told you guys before, if you had stayed being British instead of going for this silly independence thing we might have let you have some of the good things in life

I'll stick with my Lotus, Range Rover, and Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

What no pork pies?

As much as I'd like to say no Treif for me, pork may be my favorite meat...

While I understand Tom's points. The issue is really price and quality. Most Crusted fall in that no-mans-lands between unfiltered LBV's and SQVP's. Price wise it's a tough sell. Most people aren't going to spend the money to buy a Crusted that is similar to a LBV but more money. And why by a Crusted when you can get a better quality SQVP for a touch more money. In the older days, prior to easy to get high quality unfiltered LBV's and now the proliferation of really good quality and inexpensive SQVP's, Crusted Ports filled a nice hole between Ruby Reserve and VP's. Really, it's become a victim of changing times and products. That said, there will probably always be a very small market for them, but I don't ever see it being as popular as it was long ago.

If someone took the initiative, they could be a niche supplier of Crusted Port that are unique like Niepoort does with Garafeira.

Most Crusted fall in that no-mans-lands between unfiltered LBV's and SQVP's. Price wise it's a tough sell.

Not that tough, it's a good stepping stone.

There is also another good reason for the producers to make more crusted which is that it's not tied to a single vintage. That really is a burden to the producers when they are making an LBV or VP. When blending a reserve or crusted from multiple vintages, it is surprisingly easy to make a blend that is far superior to any of the components.

Tom Archer wrote:

Most Crusted fall in that no-mans-lands between unfiltered LBV's and SQVP's. Price wise it's a tough sell.

Not that tough, it's a good stepping stone.

There is also another good reason for the producers to make more crusted which is that it's not tied to a single vintage. That really is a burden to the producers when they are making an LBV or VP. When blending a reserve or crusted from multiple vintages, it is surprisingly easy to make a blend that is far superior to any of the components.

But the other issue becomes having too many SKU's in one's portfolio then trying to sell it as a retailer. When you approach an importer/distributor/or retailer and you've got this laundry list of stuff for them to sell, it all comes down to price point and having too many items in your portfolio. As a retailer there is no way I'd want an $18 Ruby Reserve, $27 unfiltered LBV, a $30-35 Crusted, and a $45-50 SQVP all sitting on my shelf as I try to explain to the majority of people who know nothing about Port why they should buy a Crusted and then trying to explain to them how it's made and the year is not the year of what's in the bottle. How it's sorta similar to a VP and an LBV, but different at the same time. You and I get it. The mass of people don't. The reality is the majority of the wine drinking world doesn't want confusing items and they don't want to learn new terms (Think the UK and the whole "Single Harvest Tawny" issue). People like having years on things, especially when that year has some age behind it and is actually what's in the bottle.

A properly marketed Crusted could sell for more than a SQVP. They just never went after the market with that notion. It's new enough to consumer that a well market product could easily justify that price. "A blend of the most celebrated vintages of the last two decades..." Sounds good to me.

Moses Botbol wrote:A properly marketed Crusted could sell for more than a SQVP. They just never went after the market with that notion. It's new enough to consumer that a well market product could easily justify that price. "A blend of the most celebrated vintages of the last two decades..." Sounds good to me.

You mean last few years...which is then "A blend of the best vintages of the century" if you believe one reviewer. wrong wine and from the wrong country, my bad

I just think "blend" has been getting a more negative vibe in general these days. People want small batch Bourbon, single malt Scotch, single vineyard wine, artisanal cheese ...

Andy Velebil wrote:As a retailer there is no way I'd want an $18 Ruby Reserve, $27 unfiltered LBV, a $30-35 Crusted, and a $45-50 SQVP all sitting on my shelf as I try to explain to the majority of people who know nothing about Port why they should buy a Crusted and then trying to explain to them how it's made and the year is not the year of what's in the bottle. How it's sorta similar to a VP and an LBV, but different at the same time. You and I get it. The mass of people don't. The reality is the majority of the wine drinking world doesn't want confusing items and they don't want to learn new terms (Think the UK and the whole "Single Harvest Tawny" issue). People like having years on things, especially when that year has some age behind it and is actually what's in the bottle.

Oh, I dunno, most retailers already deal with that with the 1000s of different wines that they carry. (And by "deal with that" I mean "completely ignore it".)

At least until recently, Port actually had an advantage over dry wine in this regard because there were so few producers (relatively speaking). They still do have an advantage, but the emergence of the quinta-producer is starting to erode it. It used to be that you had maybe 10 Port brands to choose between at the store unless it was a pretty serious Port specialist shop. But then, the Port specialist shop had no trouble explaining everything to customers in the first place.

Glenn E. wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:As a retailer there is no way I'd want an $18 Ruby Reserve, $27 unfiltered LBV, a $30-35 Crusted, and a $45-50 SQVP all sitting on my shelf as I try to explain to the majority of people who know nothing about Port why they should buy a Crusted and then trying to explain to them how it's made and the year is not the year of what's in the bottle. How it's sorta similar to a VP and an LBV, but different at the same time. You and I get it. The mass of people don't. The reality is the majority of the wine drinking world doesn't want confusing items and they don't want to learn new terms (Think the UK and the whole "Single Harvest Tawny" issue). People like having years on things, especially when that year has some age behind it and is actually what's in the bottle.

Oh, I dunno, most retailers already deal with that with the 1000s of different wines that they carry. (And by "deal with that" I mean "completely ignore it".)

At least until recently, Port actually had an advantage over dry wine in this regard because there were so few producers (relatively speaking). They still do have an advantage, but the emergence of the quinta-producer is starting to erode it. It used to be that you had maybe 10 Port brands to choose between at the store unless it was a pretty serious Port specialist shop. But then, the Port specialist shop had no trouble explaining everything to customers in the first place.

In dry wines, when people use such widely different winemaking processes in different wines, they usually split their offerings into different brands so as not to confuse the consumer. I have trouble keeping people straight with VP v LBV v TWIOA v RR when introducing them, adding a price point similar to LBV and potentially a profile similar to LBV or VP as well, would just further confuse the matter for 99% of folks. I can see why most shops have no interest in carrying crusted.

That said, I think the QPR is probably usually great, and since there's little effort to expand the category, due to its semi odd lots blend nature, I'm happy to keep it a secret .


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