For The Love Of Port

Cockburn's 1983 VP ... corked from the get go.

40 Year Old Tawny Ports by Quevedo and Poças.

Roy Hersh wrote:Cockburn's 1983 VP ... corked from the get go.

The good news is you have none left.

1963 Fonseca Vintage Port
S. Leonardo 40 Year Old Tawny.

David, that is what I thought too. For better or worse, down to 1 bottle, which I thought was a Graham's, (in same row) but it is a Cockburn's.

1963 Graham's Vintage Last night. Great port, but I doubt it'll get any better with age, but I don't see it declining any time soon either.

Roy Hersh wrote:David, that is what I thought too. For better or worse, down to 1 bottle, which I thought was a Graham's, (in same row) but it is a Cockburn's.

Hope it isn't AS corked as the others lol

30 year old S. Leonardo tawny port.

1960 Dow VP. A little hot but very tasty. I think it is on the down side, but still has some life left. This was an English bottling, Whitwham's or some such.

1958 Warre
1958 Cockburn
1958 Noval
1958 Fonseca Guimaraens


Last weekend I had some friends over for a mini-horizontal of 1958s.

1997 Souza Vintage Port. Very good and fresh. Glenn believedd it could not be any older than 2007. I can understand his thinking ... at least in this case.

Roy Hersh wrote:1997 Souza Vintage Port. Very good and fresh. Glenn believedd it could not be any older than 2007. I can understand his thinking ... at least in this case.

It was really dark!

2011 Dow Vintage Port - Amazing!

David Spriggs wrote:2011 Dow Vintage Port - Amazing!

Killing babies I see.

2003 Broadbent VP
Like a mellowed out 2007 Fonseca LBV. V enjoyable.
Making me wonder whether to age some LBV. Judging by the B VP the result is pretty good.

1987 Niepoort VP

2007 Dow LBV. I have a piece of venison backstrap I think calls for a Port-cherry reduction sauce. Of course I had to check the Port first to make sure it is o.k. Very tasty.

Miguel, Your post re possibly ageing some LBV is sound. Allan Sichel (in a 1950s book) suggested laying down Ruby Ports for a few years on the basis that he saw no reason why they would not improve. I think he put it no stronger than that. I have probably posted to that effect already, but I began doing so in 2009. It works, they do improve.

It is a little late, but I went into a Tawny mode for savoury cheeses and nuts (that always follow cheeses like Brie, Cheddar and local goats' milk ones) a couple of weeks back and bought some bottom of the range Sogevinus tawnies. Easily the best was Burmester, and I have had a few more since.

Alan McDonald wrote:Miguel, Your post re possibly ageing some LBV is sound. Allan Sichel (in a 1950s book) suggested laying down Ruby Ports for a few years on the basis that he saw no reason why they would not improve. I think he put it no stronger than that. I have probably posted to that effect already, but I began doing so in 2009. It works, they do improve.

It is a little late, but I went into a Tawny mode for savoury cheeses and nuts (that always follow cheeses like Brie, Cheddar and local goats' milk ones) a couple of weeks back and bought some bottom of the range Sogevinus tawnies. Easily the best was Burmester, and I have had a few more since.

I think the issue with aging basic stuff now-days is most are heavily filtered/fined and are cold-stabilized. So in reality they've been pretty heavily treated to retard the normal aging process. Sure everything will eventually change, at least a little over enough time. But a couple of years in the cellar for these basic and heavily treated Ports most likely isn't going to make a noticeable difference. I won't disagree with Sichel, back in 1950's. But I highly doubt they were so heavily filtered/fined and cold stabilized back then. So aging them would probably have softened the edges and made them a bit better.

2011 Cockburn VP

Havent opened it yet and looking for an indication of how much decant time to give it. Am thinking of 8+ hrs but could be totally off.

How long decant would you look to give such a young VP?

Graham 70 for my birthday (a few hours early but hey..)