For The Love Of Port

6 x 1983 Tuke Holdsworth vintage port
1 x 1966 Warre's vintage port
1 x 1995 Fonseca Guimaraens vintage port

1X Gould Campbell 1985 VP
2X Croft Quinta da Roeda 1983 VP
6X Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas 1986 VP

Expected delivery today

Only a couple. All the vintage ports currently in my cellar are quite young (read: too young), so I went and got a Niepoort LBV 2005. I haven't tasted this vintage yet, so I thought I'd get some and then see if I should buy some more bottles. I've also purchased a half bottle of Dow's Quinta do Bomfim 2006. Young, I know, but I thought a half bottle might be a nice way to get to taste it (given the current lack og proper port tastings over here).

Anybody had Churchill's Quinta da Agua Alta 1992 recently?

Churchill's 2003
Gould Campbell 2007
Niepoort 2003
Quinta do Vesuvio 2005
The first and third are on sale at Wine eXchange right now, and the other two reasonably priced IMHO.

1 x 375 - 2007 Quinta do Noval... also from wine exchange

I have been completely unable to resist Tesco's pricing of the Croft 2004 Unfiltered LBV. At the last count, I had bought 82 of these lovely little half bottles. Expect to see them at future tastings in 10-20 years time when they will be soft and mature, yet still fruity and elegant.

At £3.35 ($5.35), who can resist?

I'm soon going back to London, this time with only one goal - 4/5 days to fully enjoy the "Wine Mecca" and meet people with the knowledge and enthusiasm to champion the cause of good wine.

Berry Bros (St James's Street+Basingstoke Outlet), several Jeroboams, El Vino, Lea & Sandeman, Roberson, Bibendum, Uncorked, Haynes Hanson & Clark, The Sampler (a classic!), Philglas & Swiggot to say hello to my friend Enzo,The Winery, one or another Corney and Barrow bar and for last but definitely not least the Port lovers' gem - Crusting Pipe!

So I'm already starting to have what I call as "One more Port investment attack" and this time I'm already doing a pre-on-line- selection of some Ports from UK Wine Merchants.

It's about time to bring back the "kids" to the motherland, get some hidden gems and enjoy the £ x € parity!

> Rebello Valente 1983 Half Bottle 3x £14.95 @ Roberson's - This is purely for fun as it's my birth year and this one it's still missing in my collection;

> Dow's 1977 2x £58.47 @ Bibendum - The more I taste Dow's VP, the more "Dow's addicted" I become. This is undoubtedly the best 77 I've ever tasted, listed in my top3 best VP... I know it will keep for longer, but boy is it drinking well now.

I've just got as a gift from my father a Whitman's Port - Over 100y Old Tawny Port Special Edition by Dirk Niepoort and Cristiano Van Zeller;

Well, the year is coming to an end once again. Am I getting older? It sure seems that these years are rushing by quicker and quicker! Let us all hope that we have seen the end of troubled times and that the economy continues on it's upward spiral. When today I had a large number of NEW, fresh and young Port Lovers buying, tasting and enjoying premium Ports, all I could think of is that this is a good sign - that things are indeed starting to move in the right direction.

I wish all of you a prosperous 2010! A year full of health and happiness and that all of your wishes will be fulfilled! Above all, !

Gustavo Devesas wrote: ...Port investment...

Since I'll never sell a bottle of Port, I have a hard time characterizing my Port purchases as "investments".

Peter W. Meek wrote:

Gustavo Devesas wrote: ...Port investment...

Since I'll never sell a bottle of Port, I have a hard time characterizing my Port purchases as "investments".

Same for me Peter, I totally understand you. What I mean with investment is buying at the right time, place, condition and at a challenging price. We all know that the fact that fine wine market had seemed impressively impervious to the hurricane blowing through the financial markets for most of last year, it clearly could not remain immune indefinitely. For example, wine shops and retailers in Porto are looking to liquidate their wine holdings: merchants had seen the writing on the wall and had already begun to empty their inventories. Distressed sellers and restaurants also started offloading, while a number of wine funds found themselves on the receiving end of growing numbers of redemptions - this means it's the right time for the consumers to invest as Al B. made with all those 82 bottles of 375ml LBVs.

As a "six months to" finally graduate as a master in wine marketing I love to understand these situations as they are perhaps the most challenging of the modern wine investment era, for a variety of reasons. Never before we had such a flood of investment-grade wine appeared on the market simultaneously. At one stage, it seemed to almost grind to a halt as prices tumbled. This time around, the amount of wine held for "investment purposes" increased significantly, leading to a greater sell-off when the market turned.

Fortunately for us Port lovers, other areas of the fine wine market have also performed beyond expectations and Port Trade was blessed by the Vintage 07 en primeur campaigns that were a turn-up for the books in almost every respect. Going into it, there were fears that another undersold and over-priced vintage could affect the wider markets. Fortunately, those concerns were not realised, instead, many wines were sold through the supply chain, providing yet more evidence of consumer confidence and an improving market.

So is now still the time to buy? IMHO certainly, the market looks much more secure compared with the turbulence of last year and things are picking up. As long as nothing goes seriously wrong in the world economy, it’s just a question of when, not if.

Peter W. Meek wrote:Since I'll never sell a bottle of Port, I have a hard time characterizing my Port purchases as "investments".

I consider it an investment in my future happiness. And like all investments, I want to buy low and maximize payoff, which in this case is not a monetary payoff, but a payoff to myself.

On the other hand, this week I bought a 1983 Cockburn, so that's more like playing the lottery. A case was available, but I'm not into high stakes gambling, so I just bought a single ticket.

Eric Menchen wrote:On the other hand, this week I bought a 1983 Cockburn, so that's more like playing the lottery. A case was available, but I'm not into high stakes gambling, so I just bought a single ticket.

LOL... that's exactly the feeling I had when I purchased my two bottles! I needed them to complete my "Roy's 12" set, but was really afraid that I'd just be throwing money down the TCA-oilet.

1 x Taylor's 2003 Filtered LBV @ $23
1 x Warre's 1999 Unfiltered and Bottle Matured LBV @ $28
1 x Ramos Pinto 2001 Unfiltered LBV @ $24
1 x Graham's Six Grapes reserve ruby @ $24

2007 Quinta Vale D Maria Vintage Porto, from the deal I posted in the marketplace forum.
I also ordered a case of 2007 Delaforce from Raeder's, but at $11.99 each I expect to get an e-mail telling me it was a pricing mistake. Update - cancelled.

Eric Menchen wrote: I also ordered a case of 2007 Delaforce from Raeder's, but at $11.99 each I expect to get an e-mail telling me it was a pricing mistake. Update - cancelled.

Kinda figured that would be the result at that price. If not I would have bought 3 cases just for a daily drinker

Multiple times when I suspected a pricing mistake I've sent an e-mail to confirm the price, but no one ever answers. So now I just submit the order and hope. Maybe one day I'll get lucky, or maybe one day I'll just give up this exercise.

Eric Menchen wrote:Multiple times when I suspected a pricing mistake I've sent an e-mail to confirm the price, but no one ever answers. So now I just submit the order and hope. Maybe one day I'll get lucky, or maybe one day I'll just give up this exercise.

Never ever give up, only quitters give up

Andy Velebil wrote:Never ever give up, only quitters give up

Favorite t-shirt/bumper sticker: "Rehab is for Quitters."

12 X 1997 J.W Burmester
4 X 2003 Quinta do Noval
4 X 2005 Niepoort
1 X 1995 Fonseca Guimaraens

The 1997 Burmester on sale at phillipson wine dk. Seems to be a bargain at approx 12,5 € a bottle.
They also offer Burmester 1937 Colheita for 120€

6 x 2003 Smith Woodhouse VP from the FTLOP offering

I was on a buying hiatus for the past 5 weeks, the longest I've gone in a long long time. That all ended when that 2007 Crasto Reserva deal came up I posted about. Oh well, back to step one of twelve