In some markets it is difficult to find half bottles. For some of us, a half bottle would never be enough so we don't buy them. For others, they would love to have the option of half bottles as they don't get to drink a whole bottle because their wife is pregnant, their spouse doesn't like VP, dietary/health reasons, etc.
I know we are not your "normal" or better put, "average" Port consumer, as we are on the radical fringe but would you drink Port more often if you were able to find half bottles more easily?
Do you think that the typical wine consumer just getting into Port or becoming more serious about it, would drink more Port if half bottles were more accessible?
I like to buy a few half bottles of young VP to evaluate it while the full ones rest in the cellar. Though, at least in Québec, the price for half bottles are just not competitive. They sell them often 10%-15% more than the full bottle in regards to volume/dollar. If they were 10%-15% cheaper, then I'd be tempted to buy more for sure. I do believe half bottles can be a nice lift for people who are not sure about a Port and want to try it before buying more.
Living the dream and now working for a Port company
I am a big fan of half bottles of VP in restaurants. They provide the perfect opportunity for a few people to have a fantastic wine after a good meal without having to shell out for a whole bottle.
I'm not really enthused about half bottles of VP, but do find it useful to have the odd half bottle of a lesser beast to 'gap fill'
I will shortly be at home for just 36hrs before heading off to the continent for a few days - not really enough time to sort a bottle of VP, but a half of Q. de la Rosa's Finest Reserve (which I highly recommend) is likely to meet its demise..
Have only had a couple of half-bottles ever, but they seem like a novelty to me. If I had an opportunity to buy a case of half bottles at a reasonable price, I would consider it.
If I can get them at a decent price, yes I like to buy 375's. Sometimes I don't want to open a full bottle as I know I won't have time to finish it. A 375 is perfect for me to sip for a day or two. Plus if I can find 10-15 year old 375's they have already aged a bit more than a full bottle and allows me to open a slightly more mature VP.
I should add that, unless they are on sale, they only tend to make fiscal sense if you buy VP's or colheita's as 1/2 bottles. I've seen reserve rubies and tawnys in 375's, but the prices are almost as much as a full bottle, so not worth the price.
I struggle with splits. They're a better fit for me since I usually can't finish a full bottle by myself before it starts to fade, but I have a tough time paying the split premium which is often rather significant.
I'll buy splits if the premium is 10% or less, but it seems like that is rare.
Through Eric Levine's Cellartracker, I see that I have 229 regular 750's 81.5%, 8 magnums 2.8% and 44 halves 15.66%
The half bottle has its place depending upon the occasion. If a size is irrelevant it is the magnum. I cannot rememebr ever opening a magnum. I have the 8 mags from 1992 , my son's birh year and presumably they will be opened on special occasion in his life with lots of people there.
I probably open a half bottle about 15% of the time, usually with my wife. I do wish I had more of them.
I have to say I actually favor half bottles over 750mL bottles. I've managed to find them regularly at close to half the 750mL price. With larger bottles, I find that since I am often the only one drinking, I end up wasting a fair amount. And while I can always store half the bottle for later drinking, by simply purchasing half bottles I get to try a much larger variety of different ports with only half the investment. Of course, it really takes a lot of searching to find half bottles, with older vintages tending to be pretty impossible to find. I buy these one or two at a time in the normal format.
I know Roy is a big proponent of 500mL bottles and I tend to agree that this might be perfect.
For those of us who have vintage as the rare treat, and drink it alone, halves are very nice to have. Probably not a common idea for many in this forum!
I do enjoy the half bottle size and I believe that more people would try more VPs if they were offered in 375 mL format. I know for myself, I can rarely justify the cost of opening a full 750 of a good VP just for myself. If I had a lot more splits, I would likely be able to try a lot more variety of VP or SQVP.
I recently had a half of the Dow Quinta do Bomfim and it was the perfect size - yes it did leave me wishing for more, but for the price, I am not sure I would have ever tried this SQVP... and now I am glad I have had the chance.
I love half bottles and if I could find them more easily and they were priced close to the price per oz. of a full bottle then I would buy and drink far more than I do.
I only have a handful of half bottles in my collection as it is really tough to find mature halves in the resale market and it takes me ages to replace one when I open it. It is relatively easy in the UK to find very young (2000, 2003) port in halves but much more difficult once you get back to the 80s or earlier.
Having said that, I did recently have Andy''s help to clear out a store in California of their Smith Woodhouse 1980 in halves and these are now sitting in my cellar waving to me and trying to attract my attention...
I'm with those who prefer halves.
If I want more I can easily open another one!
And the empty half bottles are useful for 'temporarily' storing the remainder from any other bottle (whether Port or not).
As others have mentioned, the problem is locating them in the first place. For several years I stocked up on 66 halves of Gould Campbell and Smith Woodhouse at the duty-free Berry Bros shop at Heathrow Airport (sorely missed).
My issue with half bottles is storage space. They take up the same slot in my wine fridge that a 750 would, so I lose 375ml worth of storage. I have gotten around this by using the "bulk" storage space at the bottom of my fridge, but it still seems inefficient.
When I commit to opening a bottle of port (or any wine, really), if I don't expect I'll finish it in a reasonable amount of time ("reasonable" being driven by the type of wine and it's ability to hold together over a period of days), then I will pour half of it in a screwtop 375ml bottle (I have three for just such a purpose), and put them in my kitchen refrigerator. They seem to hold up just fine this way, though I've never tested for longevity (too fun to drink up!)
Having said all that, if I saw some 375ml format port for sale at a good price, I would consider the purchase, especially if it was something new that I wanted to try before committing to a larger purchase.
Rich Greenberg wrote:Having said all that, if I saw some 375ml format port for sale at a good price, I would consider the purchase, especially if it was something new that I wanted to try before committing to a larger purchase.
This is one of the primary reasons I love the 375s. With the 750s of true Vintage being so expensive, this is sometimes the only way I can try the more expensive wines that I don't want to spend >$100 just to sample early in life (to determine whether I think it will evolve into a Port that I want in my cellar for another 20-30 years.)
I would agree with everything said above about the advantages of half-bottles. I also quite like the 500ml size as I find that I often don't make it through the last 250ml of a regular bottle whilst its at its peak.
As a general thought, half bottles might also be quite interesting for group tasting as the potential number of bottles that could be tasted would double.
JacobH wrote:I would agree with everything said above about the advantages of half-bottles. I also quite like the 500ml size as I find that I often don't make it through the last 250ml of a regular bottle whilst its at its peak.
Although I view 500 mL bottles more as an anomoly than something that is to become the norm, I agree that sometimes 500 mLs is just the perfect size. Drinking a 750 alone could cause some of the Port to get over its peak by the time you are finished, which can be an awful shame. Conversely, sometimes I find the 375 is just getting really good when I am draining the last few drops and wishing there were a few more glasses left.
Although, as I said above, I don't see it becoming a normal size for Port.
but would you drink Port more often if you were able to find half bottles more easily?
