For The Love Of Port

Instead of doing a poll where everyone could vote on a specific vintage from a very long list, I hope this discussion will prove to be more fun. Although it would be easy to pick a top two or three, PLEASE resist the urge to do so and pick just YOUR all-time favorite vintage for VPs. Thanks!

What a tough question and how to answer? The way that I started to think about my answer to this was to think through which wines do I really enjoy drinking - which are my favourite wines?

From that I came out with a shortlist of three vintages that might qualify as my all time favourite:
1963 - Taylor, Fonseca, Graham, Nacional are all stunning wines. The second tier shippers of the time (Sandeman, Noval, Ferreira) may be starting to fade but well kept bottles are still wonderful. In general these wines are delicate, attractive and still with plenty of fruit and tannin.

1966 - Again the top names are stunning wines and are still improving. The Nacional 1966 is one of the wines on my "must try" list but the Fonseca, Taylor and Grahams are still maturing. Brilliant wines that will be better in 5-10 years. In addition, I have yet to come across a second tier wine that disappointed me. These wines I would generally describe as balanced, robust and with plenty of life ahead.

1994 - I'm a sucker for the Vesuvio from this vintage, which is drinking so well now that I have a hard time keeping my hands off it even though I know it will be better in 2014. I have yet to find the 1994 wines close up. With the exception of the Nacional, the wines from this vintage are so enjoyable now and yet offer so much more that this vintage has got to be in my top three shortlist. As a generalisation I describe these ports to friends as delicious for drinking today, full of youthful fruit still but with the structure and stuffing to mature and improve for decades.

So which vintage to choose as my number one? Part of what I enjoy about port is associating the years in which the wines were made with the history of the world at the time the grapes were growing. 1963 is famous for Kennedy's assassination, the Profumo scandal and the Great Train Robbery in the UK, the first woman in space, the first successful kidney transplant and the military coup in South Vietnam that led to the Viet-Nam war. Oh yes, and the year that I was born!

1966 was the year in which Indira Ghandi was elected leader of India, England won the (soccer) World Cup, Mao began the Cultural Revolution that decimated China and Egypt completed the Aswan Dam to control the seasonal flooding of the Nile River.

1994 was more recent, but it's surprising to see what is still so fresh in our memories but which actually happened 13 years ago: Los Angeles was hit by a major earthquake, NATO invaded the former Yugoslavia, Nelson Mandela and the ANC were elected into government in South Africa, the Channel Tunnel linking England and France was opened, mad cow disease hit British cattle, Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party and the IRA declared a ceasefire in Northern Ireland.

So, I have to pick only one of these vintages as my favourite. Its tough and I'm probably naturally biased towards 1963 as this is my birth year but, overall, I would say that I will choose

1994

As these wines are just stunning and I am convinced that they will outlast me and be with my daughter for the rest of her life - did I mention that she was born in 1994?

Alex

I've got to go with 1927. While I can't equate it's strength to 1948 or 1994 and won't be able to until they get to the same age, I suspect 1927 is the vintage of the 20th century.

I guess I should clarify:

What I am looking to find out, is which vintage that you consume is your favorite vintage of all. I am not asking which is the best vintage of the century, albeit I agree with 1927 in that regards. I have only had a handful of 1927s and don't have the breadth of tasting experience to compare it to vintages 1955 or younger.

By the way, Alex, that was a most brilliant and well thought out response!

Thanks!

Sorry Roy. Your post seemed to be asking what was my favorite vintage that I had drunk, not what was my favorite vintage that I drink regularly. Also, my comment about 1927 was just in support of my opinion based on the '27s I've drunk.

Based on your clarification, I would say my favorite vintage that I drink fairly regularly is 1977. I haven't had any consistently bad wines, just an occasional bad bottle. My favorite wine of the bunch is Warre right now because of where it's at in its development. I think that will be overshadowed by the Fonseca in about 5 years or so.

Thanks much.
John

John,

As long as you have drunk VP from the vintage, it matters not if it is regularly, so 1927 it is, for you.

I'd have to go with 1955. The '55 vintage was outstanding and wines produced combine a nice amount of very enjoyable fruit along with a backbone that will allow them to keep for a very long time. Niepoort, Cockburn & Graham are simply stunning, Taylor & Fonseca aren't far behind either.

Awesome explanation on your choice Alex!

Hmmm....1955 would be my final answer...although it is a toss up with the 1994 vintage.

I just have been wowed over and over by perfectly drinking 55's; Taylor (thrice), Cockburn (twice), Fonseca (once), and Graham's (twice).

But, ask me this question in 25 years (and in another 3 cases of 94's) and it will likely be the 94 as it is the first major vintage I purchased in bulk and the one I have been sneaking into over the past 8 or 9 years since (as was previously mentioned) they do drink rather well young, especially after some time in the decanter.

I'm going with 1977. The wines are excellent, but its also the first vintage I bought heavily and so I still have most left.

I have a sweet spot for 2000. Probably the Vintage I've drink the more Ports from and it was also the first Vintage I started really getting interested about reporting my tasting notes and doing articles. In their youth, almost all Port were having floral notes and I just crave that smell.

Recently I had a 2000 Niepoort with 70% cocoa chocolate, awesome mix!

My biggest problem is that I am at the beginning of my discovery into Vintage Port, and having tasted so few, I cannot participate in these types of questions or polls.

Guess that means I have to start buying and trying more VP!

Todd

Or a trip to Seattle during the peak of Port season, when I will make it worth your visit.

I am actually surprised that there are not 20-30 posts here as I thought this would be of great interest to just about every Port enthusiast here. I'll wait another day, before sharing my favorite vintage, which so far has not been mentioned as a favorite by anyone else.

Todd Pettinger wrote:My biggest problem is that I am at the beginning of my discovery into Vintage Port, and having tasted so few, I cannot participate in these types of questions or polls.

Guess that means I have to start buying and trying more VP!

Todd

I agree with Todd. I've trien numerous VP, but none of the really mature ones. I believe that the oldest I've tried is 1982 and that was not one of the top producers. Sadly I don't have the funds to buy older VP so I guess I'll have to wait for my cellar started in 1994 to mature :?

My favorite to date was the 1985 Fonseca, even when factoring in the horrible decant job the restaurant had done. 1/2 the glass had significant sediment.

I will qualify this however as I've tried very few vintage ports as well and am waiting for my cellar to age as well and mostly drinking LBVs at this point.

My favorite vintage is 1970. I have drank more bottles of this vintage by far than any other vintage, and almost all with pleasure.

1970 was the currently available vintage when I started drinking port. When the 77s came out they quickly became more expensive, but were not as drinkable because they were so much younger. Since 1977 was considered a far better vintage, the 70s stayed affordable for a long time. 1970 also was a big and widely declared vintage which also kept prices down.

I have conducted many tastings of the vintage over the years.

1970 Offley Boa Vista was cheap and good and I drank several cases in the 1980s.

As the decades have past, the top few of the vintage have aged beautifully and are magnificent today. I would rather have a 1970 Taylor or Fonseca than anything else, unless I go back to the great 1948 Taylor or Fonseca, or even older vintages.

Very hard to put down to one vintage. I'm sure if I could taste more; 1927 or 1945 could be my favorites... For vintages where I have experience in, I would say 1963 is my pick; the '63 Croft being my favorite of the vintage.

1963

Primarily because of the Grahams, a fantatic port by any measure.

Jay

OK, finally we're reaching some critical mass in this thread and now I feel it is ok to put in my two cents.

There is no right or wrong here as this is up to your own tasting experience, palate and to some degree ... even age.

Having had all but one specific VP that I am dying to try some day, I've had the good fortune (probably why I have no fortune) to try just about all great 20th century Ports at least once or thrice. Sure I have liked and loved the 1912s and 1927s I have tasted. 1945 and 1948 to me would be like "Sophie's Choice" and I would be hard pressed. 1966 has more outstanding wines today than 1963, but when the '63s were in their prime ... YEE HAW. There are a few great survivors and that would be any easy decision for me to make.

1977 was fabulous but how many are living up to their great PO as in POtential? Skip the thin crop of great wines from the decade of the 1980s and fast forward to the exalted 1994. Anyone who chose this vintage, I certainly can understand. A great breadth of finely made VPs that will be outstanding for decades to come, rewarding patience. In time, it may be viewed as 1927 is today.

I gave a lot of thought to 2000 and a strong argument could be made for that vintage of which I definitely own more than any other, more than even the quantity of '94s in my modest collection, which goes back a few years.

However, Shawn D. beat me to the punch. 1970 to me is exactly what came to mind when deciding to post this thread. The top half dozen+ Ports from this vintage are all going to be legends:

a. Quinta do Noval Nacional can not be touched by any other VP from '70
b. Fonseca is like drinking a liquid dream come true
c. Taylor - I named my daughter after the '70 bottling as you've read before
d. Graham's is one of my all-time favorite wines from this producer that was bought by the Symington family in this year
e. Niepoort from this vintage, floats my boat anytime I've had it
f. Dow - a simply remarkable achievement and their best wine between 1945 and 1994 imho
g. Feist - who? :o This is one hell of a VP!

The 1970s are drinking beautifully today. It is time to break them out of their racks if you have never had one. I was late to the game and had to pay $49 per bottle for my earliest case buys of Fonseca and Taylor (long ago consumed) and was not thrilled to pay the hefty sum of $60 when I reloaded a few times each with one case of Graham too. But yes, I have spent as much as $119 a bottle for Fonseca and Taylor ... because it was worth it to me to have perfectly stored ex-cellars buys.

I can not say it any better than Shawn did and am glad to see that at least one other FTLOPer also chose 1970. I believe he may be a couple of years older than me, but could be wrong. He probably paid like $15 a bottle when he bought in!

Again, no right or wrong answers here. So thanks for participating as it has made for a fantastic read!

Roy Hersh wrote:
However, Shawn D. beat me to the punch. 1970 to me is exactly what came to mind when deciding to post this thread. The top half dozen+ Ports from this vintage are all going to be legends:

Wow... I anxious to try one of my Croft 70 magnums!