Noob Qs!

[Paul G]

Hi Forum,

sry for this upcoming Noobquestions!:)

So do you always dink the whole bottle of your Vintage, or is ther a posibility to close the bottle? I found some vacuum closing stuff vor wine bottles a.s.o. ... does it work? Otherwise you realy need a goog moment, to oben a good vintage, since it is very expensive..:)

If you want to buy a vintage, that you want to drink now, do you alway look, that it is about the same age? f.e. to drink it now, it has to be older than 1970. Or do you also drink a 1980? A Want to buy 2 or 3 ready to drink, and of course some newer.. but do not know which vintage..

From which vintage on do you use a port tong?

Thx a lot,
Paul from Vienna

[Roy Hersh]

I forgot to mention in your other thread, that your English is pretty remarkable considering German is your primary language. So please don't even worry at all, because we have a lot of folks here who also speak other languages and English is their 2nd language, or 3rd. : )

As mentioned, I like to have others participate so will let them answer your questions and I will circle back to add my

That said, the youngest bottle I've ever used a Port tongs on was a 1994 Dow. So there is no rule about how old a bottle needs to be in order to use a Port tongs. I realize you are asking about how old ... but there is no real rule here, as anything goes. If you want to open a bottle of 10 year old Tawny Port with a Port tongs, nobody here would make fun of that. It is a great way to practice so that when you get to an expensive bottle of older Vintage Port where it really matters, you will feel comfortable in using the tongs.

[Paul G]

HI Roy,

thx a lot!

So is it just a question of tradition? I realy like traditions, but is there a real sens in it? Or would it be the same, just to push the cork (if it is impossible to get it out in one piece) into the bottle? Since you decant it anyway...

Greetz Paul

[Eric Menchen]

If I can I'll use tongs on anything 1970 or older, and sometimes on younger bottles. The last time I used them was on a 1977. Do you need to use them? Not really if you don't mind filtering out chunks of crumbled cork. But it is cool and fun. I tend not to use them on younger bottles, but you could; and sometimes you don't know when a middle-aged bottle will have a bad cork.

What age to drink now? That's a loaded question. Our UK contingent would say you shouldn't drink a VP until it is at least 21 years old, and the older the better. I think that's a good starting point, but I'm not going to let that stop me from opening a 1994 Quinta do Vesuvio or a 2005 Croft Quinta da Roeda. It really depends on the particular shipper, and it can also depend on the storage conditions for a particular bottle.

If I'm going to open a VP, in particular an older one, I'm usually planning on the whole bottle being consumed that evening or the next day. Some bottles might make it a little longer with refrigeration and/or some sort of oxygen evacuation, but I don't count on that.

[Paul G]

Hi Eric!
Thx! good answers!:)

Sometimes a read, that POrtdrinker write things like: "If I notice (while decanting), that the port is ready to trink, drink it." or "..you'll notice, when a VP wasn't ready to drink, and would have needed some more years to store in cellar..

How do I notice, that a port is reasy to drink and do not need to decant any longer respectively when I drink one, notice, that the other bottles of the same vintage need to last longer in the basement..?? :)

Greetz from the snowy Vienna
Paul

[Derek T.]

Paul,

On your question about drinking the whole bottle when you open it, there is a very easy method that lots of people here use that you might find useful.

When you open a bottle of vintage port and you think you will only drink some of it pour half of the bottle into a clean half bottle and cork it immediately and put it into your refridgerator. You can then decant what remains in the bottle you opened and enjoy that half over two, three or four days. The half that you have put in the fridge will keep for at least two weeks with almost no development whatsoever. I once did this with a relatively young port (2000 I think) and I kept the half bottle for 6 months before re-opening and decanting it and I didn't notice any deterioration.

The key to this method is to minimise the amount of air that is introduced to the wine, which is why I would recommend pouring it straight from the full bottle into the half bottle (with a high fill) rather than into a decanter and then into the half bottle.

If anything above seems unclear please don't hesitate to ask questions.

Derek

[Paul G]

HI Derek!

Sounds great! I thought of something like that!:)

To understand it right: You fill the half you want to put into the fridge unfiltered into the bottle.. right? So that you have to do the complete decanting before drinking?

Thanks a lot, greetz
Paul

[Derek T.]

To understand it right: You fill the half you want to put into the fridge unfiltered into the bottle.. right? So that you have to do the complete decanting before drinking?

Yes, that's how I do it, Paul.

Derek

[Paul G]

Thx, Derek!!!