For The Love Of Port

Folks,

My 'old man' turns 65 in May. He's coming out to a party I'm throwing for him. As part of the family dinner I am going to serve him a 7 course meal with a wine from each decade of his life.

This is where you guys come in. The only wines that are set in stone are as follows:

2001 - Penfold's Grange
1998 - Penfold's Grange
1986 - Penfold's Grange
**Dad's favorite wine is Grange so we're doing the three meat courses with these wines.

But...I need some assistance getting him some port.
The only port I'm familiar with is the 1977 vintage as it's my kid brother's birthyear and I get him a bottle each year and we sit around polishing it off together over a great meal.

I'd love to have some ports from the early decades of dad's life. 1940's, 1950's and 1960's are wide open.

Can the collective knowedge base provide me any guidance on these decades? I'm also open to other wines for that period.

Thank you so much.
cheers,
Chris Freemott

Chris,

With 3 bottles of Grange already on the list you have either already blown the budget of the budget isn't an issue here. It would be useful to know which?

Also, are you looking to include one bottle of port from each decade from the 1940's to 1960's or are you just looking for 1 bottle?

The more information you give us the better or advice and more intense our jelousy will be

Derek

Chris,

I agree with Derek, if you could give us a price range per bottle (or a max for all Port bottles) that you are willing to spend, would help.

I am assuming you want ONE bottle for each of the decades (1940,50, and 60)?

Oops, sorry.

Buget - not a concern..One only turns 65 once

Decades:

Food lineup may help, and can be changed

Amuse: Multiple stuff, paired with a 1996 Dom P.

course one: Dover Sole w/ butter sauce
course two: The French Laundry's butter poached lobster dish
course three: duck ragout w/ pasta of some kind
course four: briased rabbit
course five: braised short ribs
course six: brain flannery 30 day aged strip steak w/ veal reduction
course seven: desserts
cheese and conversation

I am willing to pair whatever I can, be it port or more traditional wine with each and every course. If you guys think that a 194x port would work great with something - speak up. I could use all of the help I can get on this.

Some of the wines I've begun to source so far are - though none purchased yet:

1977 Grahams
1949 Wachenheimer Böhlig Riesling Beerenauslese
1950 Haut Brion
1955 Château La Fleur Pétrus
1964 Château Laville-Haut-Brion

Again, all of this is still coming together so I'm wide open on suggestions for anything - pairings, ideas etc.

dad loves port - so multiple flights or even accents to a dish that we pair w/ another wine would be fine and acceptable.

I'm planning on doing all of the cooking myself and the meal will be done at home over about 5 hours so the pace and consumption will be acceptable for the 6 of us.

Thanks folks!!

chris--dude!,
you need any help with your dinner? i'm available!! you've got a great start to your lineup. i would go with two ports, the 1948 taylor, which i just had a couple weeks ago and was perfect, and perhaps a 55 grahams or fonseca. the fun part of the evening really starts when the meal is done, and dessert and the port come out.

happy birthday to your pop, may he have 65 more!!

cheers,

dave

Thanks Dave.

I'll take a look at sourcing those two ports.

many cheers!

wow nice hedonistic dinner/party coming up! I can't add anymore than what everyone said so Enjoy it and have fun. Happy B-day to your dad!

Chris,

There are 2 things that you have said that simply add up to 1 particular VP - (a) budget not an issue and (b) Dad loves port - you have no choice, Qunita do Noval Nacional 1931 has to be the star of the show, provided $10,000 per bottle falls within your definition of "budget is not an issue"

Another idea would be to have 1 bottle from each of the 40's and 50's (~$1000-$2000) plus a mini horizontal, vertical or diagonal of 3 or 4 bottles from the 60's. My suggestions would be:

Fonseca 1960, 1963 and 1966 ($600) - Fonseca 1963 and 66 are two of the best ports I have ever tasted - 1960 would be dwarfed i this company but is the only other 60's vintage of Fonseca and would be worth the sacrifice to taste the other 2.

Fonseca, Graham's, Dow's and Warre's 1966 - ($800) - all great wines from an underappreciated year

Fonseca, Graham's & Taylor's 1963 (or 1966) ($1000 for 63 or $600 for 66) - you will find notes of all of these wine from the first ever FTLOP tasting event in London in the Archive are of this site - all great and all fairly easy to find

Quinta do Noval & Noval Nacional 1963 and 1966 ($4000+) words cannot describe this one, although the regular Noval would not live up to it's big brother it would certainly allow you to appreciate the differnece between the 2 bottlings.

Finally, if you go with any of the above suggestions - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE CAN I COME

Derek

PS: others will have to advise you on the 40's and 50's vinatges as my experience is limited to 2 wines from this period, Fonseca and Croft 55, both of which would be extremely good additions to your wine list, particularly the Fonseca.

Derek,

Those are great suggestions!!! Thank you for those.

As to your attendance..Not on this one. However, if you're ever in chicago - my home is always pouring something!! Just let me know!

Chris,

I am glad that you like the suggestions. One day I will be in Chicago and I will be sure to look you up and share a glass of port 8)

Derek

Chris,

A good thing you said no. Derek would have only had one drink from each bottle, the problem is there would be nothing left after that one drink...those darn Brit's

I learned my trade from Alex and Tom - I tried to resist but it was futile :?

Derek

Derek,

I've drunk with Brits....Andy's right...bring your own bottle to Chicago!! :twisted:

Only one bottle - will we be driving

Hey Chris,

I told you it would be worth posting here. Nice to have you visiting us at FTLOP. Hope this will convince you what a friendly place it really is. I wanted to give everyone else a chance to respond b4 jumping into the fray.

Alex Bridgeman who is a regular here and from London, comes to Chicago on biz from time to time. You should meet him as he is a great guy and can definitely handle his Port! 8)

To respond to your question as promised. You have received great advice albeit I am surprised that everyone has missed the most obvious answer ... hello ... BIRTH YEAR. 1942 was a very good vintage and plenty of Shippers declared that year. Enough, that finding a good bottle shouldn't be too tough.

The ones I can think of are: Sandeman, Niepoort, Rebello Valente, Feuerheerd, Quinta do Noval, Graham's, Niepoort and Taylor all made Vintage Port in 1942.

To be honest, I have only had the 1942 Niepoort (with Dirk here in Seattle) and the tasting note follows:

Review Home / Port
1942 Niepoort Vintage Port
Reviewed by Roy Hersh
I had asked Dirk if he would please bring a bottle of this wine to share as I've never had the opportunity to taste it before nor had I ever seen it sold anywhere. Yet I had read about it many times and really wanted the guests to taste what it was all about, knowing we'd probably never have this opportunity again. For some reason, I do not have a note on the color of the wine, which is a shame. The distinct aroma of coffee and roasted chestnuts was most pleasurable. A wealth of flavors accompanied this full-bodied wine with allspice and underpinnings of very sweet, almost over ripe figs and prunes. The complex melange of flavors on the 'show stopper' of a finish added extra points. I feel most fortunate to have experienced this wine, even if only this once. 93 points (5/3/2003)

So my strong suggestion is to obtain as many 1942 birth year Ports as you can find. If you need help sourcing them, let me know. Your best bet would be to call Berry Bros. & Rudd and have them obtain them for you and ship 'em all at once. That is what I would do in your shoes. In mine, I'd go to Portugal and buy one bottle at each Port house with advance notice.

Think BIRTHYEAR though!

Once again Roy proves that prior knowledge of the question is power

Derek

Chris,

Roy is right, this is the friendliest wine forum I have every seen. And why I post so much here and rarely at others. OK, just my

I'm really glad you are here and I hope you will continue to come back and post as regularly as you can.

Roy,

You are correct. I've been spending way too much time at Ebob.

i could use a break for some normal folks!!

Thank you kindly for the suggestion. I shall begin the quest for that bottle and will contact you should I strike out.

Sincerely,

CJF

Thanks Andy. Good to see you here as well.

I shall do more posting and less lurking!

Derek,

I know Chris from online for a number of years from Ebob and also he has been a newsletter subscriber since the beginning or thereabout. When he emailed me the question and knew he was lurking here anyway, I told him to take a chance and see how friendly this place really is. That is why I didn't provide the same advice by email. Glad to see you all welcomed him like everyone else and given the nature of his question, I knew it would be fun for you all to provide responses and I knew you'd all have great ideas for Chris. Of course, I thought one of you would come up with the most obvious answer ... birthyear.

Chris,

Let us know how your search goes. The guys in the UK probably can help you source bottles and then you'll just have to arrange shipment. You might want to call David Sokolin to have these purchased on the gray market for you.

Best regards,

Roy