What have you opened this week?

[Moses Botbol]

Have a 1920 Dow lined up

'20 is a great vintage, and the old Dow's are usually excellent - how sound is the bottle?

I'll have to go into the basement and take look again. I can't recall. Will post a picture. Can't recall if I have had '20 Dow before.

The red line is where the fill is.

[Tom Archer]

Nice - bottle looks entirely kosher to me..

[Eric Ifune]

Bulas 20 year old.

[Moses Botbol]

Friday night:
1920 Dow Vintage Port
1963 Dow Vintage Port
2005 Kopke White Vintage Port

Saturday night:
1963 Warre Vintage Port
1963 Cockburn Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

Last night, a 1968 Krohn Colheita from the Premier Cru fire sale. Bottled 2008, as I recall.

Tonight, a 2003 Noval Vintage Port. Haven't tasted it yet tonight, but this was one of my favorite VPs when it was young so I stocked up. (Well... for me. 14 bottles of the same VP seemed like a lot back then.)

[Tom Archer]

Last weekend:

Dow '72

So soon after the splendid '70 vintage, one might have assumed that Dow were so impressed by their '72 juice that they couldn't resist declaring it, yet this is a rather lacklustre wine that is not very 'Dow' in character. Nice enough, but beginning to weaken, I suspect, 4-3

Last night:

An eclectic 'bring a bottle' dinner party in London - I took a 1940 Dalva colheita, bottled in 1973. 45 years in bottle has left this wine beautifully smooth and pale. By contrast, a '68 Noval on the table, bottled last year, had the very pronounced tart edge that characterises newly bottled colheitas, which I personally find rather disagreeable - others seem less bothered however.

- And then someone put a Ferreira 1815 on the table.. An ullaged bottle and not in good shape, but still drinkable after 203 years..

[John M.]

2003 Warre's LBV...first bottle opened in a while. Looked and tasted like it was 5 years old, not 15. Easy drinking.

[Gary Richardson]

Maynard's 40 year Tawny. A nice Tawny for the price. Love the bottle, but it was causing chaos in the cellar ... so it had to go ... along with its lovely wood frame.

[Mike K.]

Maynard’s 40 is such a great value. Solid wine at a very good price. And agreed, the bottle is attractive but a storage nightmare. I’m sure retailers hate it too.

[Tom Archer]

Graham 1985

This feels like an 'everyday' VP yet I've opened over 300 bottles of VP at home since I last popped one of these back in late 2011.

And it's a tad disappointing. Not a bad bottle I think, more that it seems to have hit a dumb phase in its evolutionary journey. Plenty of potential, but not right now..

With optimism, score 5-7

[Thomas V]

Graham 1985

This feels like an 'everyday' VP yet I've opened over 300 bottles of VP at home since I last popped one of these back in late 2011.

And it's a tad disappointing. Not a bad bottle I think, more that it seems to have hit a dumb phase in its evolutionary journey. Plenty of potential, but not right now..

With optimism, score 5-7

I've had 2 of them over the last year and both have been excellent. In 94 point range...

[Glenn E.]

Last night, a 375 of 1987 Kopke Colheita, bottled 2013. From the last Kopke buying opportunity. I got 24 of these since it's our anniversary year.

Tonight, a 750 of 1970 Taylor VP, Oporto bottled. It was a toss-up between this or a 1970 Fonseca, but I had 4 Taylor and only 2 Fonseca that I could find so Taylor wins. 1 of the 3 remaining Taylors is English bottled; the other two are the same as this one. It's in a decanter now to give it 6 hours, at which point I'll transfer it back to the bottle to take to the restaurant.

[Al B.]

Malvedos 2004 - I was surprised how approachable it is; full of black cherries and dark chocolate

[Eric Ifune]

1977 Fonseca. A good bottle.

[Andy Velebil]

1970 Croft VP. A very good showing of it.

[Thomas V]

1987 Wiese & Krohn colheita. Very enjoyable as always and at a strong price point.

[Glenn E.]

1970 Croft VP. A very good showing of it.

I got several (8?) of these several years ago from WineBid, and as I recall they were roughly $30 each. I've enjoyed them, but I also recall us talking about them at the time and we guessed that mine were probably not stored 100% properly as they show quite old. They're not heat damaged, and they're not leakers, but they're also not in the same league as basically any other 1970 VP.

I assume this bottle of yours was more in line with what you would expect from a well-stored 1970 VP?

[Andy Velebil]

1970 Croft VP. A very good showing of it.

I got several (8?) of these several years ago from WineBid, and as I recall they were roughly $30 each. I've enjoyed them, but I also recall us talking about them at the time and we guessed that mine were probably not stored 100% properly as they show quite old. They're not heat damaged, and they're not leakers, but they're also not in the same league as basically any other 1970 VP.

I assume this bottle of yours was more in line with what you would expect from a well-stored 1970 VP?

Yes it was.


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[Moses Botbol]

Opened an '85 Gould Campbell last night. Hoping to make the bottle last a few days. So far so good. Been several years since I tried this. Still going strong!

[Tom Archer]

Opened an '85 Gould Campbell last night. Hoping to make the bottle last a few days. So far so good. Been several years since I tried this. Still going strong!

My experience of GC85 is of a very robust wine that needs at least another decade before it enters mainstream drinking.