Crusted vs LBV

[Evangelos M.]

Is there a general consensus on what people prefer here?
I am DEFINITELY a bigger fan of crusties so far. I have tried 2 crusties and 2 LBVs. All sampled after 24 hrs decanting. The LBVs were less bodied and not as think as the crusties. Am I nuts?

[Marc J.]

I'm in total agreement with you. I'd say that the overall quality of crusted ports across the board is generally higher than that of the LBV segment. Although I must say that there are a few LBVs out there (Churchill for example) that can rival the best crusted ports. In America it is fairly difficult to obtain a variety of crusted ports. Dow's seems to be the only one that is readily available, but I have found it worthwhile to seek out some of the other shippers of crusted port in order to try a cross-section of styles (there are only a handful of houses that produce crusted port to begin with!).

[Evangelos M.]

Hmm, it's a shame I really like the crusted and would love to try more than the Churchills and Dows I have found in the US.

The LBV I am drinking right now is the 95 Warres, the Dows crusted 99 is much better to me.

[Al B.]

I am a fan of crusted ports, especially if you can find them with or give them 20 years of bottle age, they really do mature well in the bottle. I guess that this is because they can be blended up from the best wines left over from a number of vintages.

However, I also love traditional LBVs. The Warre '95 is a good example, as are those made by Quinte do Noval. To my taste and experience these unfiltered LBVs are just as good as my experience with crusted ports and probably have almost as much ability to age and improve in the bottle for many years.

However, I have never tried a crusted port from Dow - I shall have to keep my eyes open and try one against the Warre '95 one day!

Alex

[Roy Hersh]

Just about all we see over here are young Crusted Ports from Dow. As Evangelos mentioned, we don't have much of a selection and I'm glad to see he has access to two Shippers of Crusted in his area. Only one here.

I have seen a couple of bottles floating around the US in 15 years of watching auctions and retailers lists. Anything with age on it is always from the UK or EU. There is no tradition here in America for this category and there are probably more citizens of the US on this Forum who have heard of "Crusted Port" than the rest of the country combined.

[Bjørn Tore Aastorp Ruud]

We have only one Crusted port in Norway, the Churchills which is very good.

Do you know if there are many producers who makes Crusted?