You've come to the right place and we're happy to see a young couple that has fallen in lust w/ Port. Nice to have you join us and if you are looking for some fine bottles, look at The Wine Library in NJ as a very solid source of reasonably price Ports. Your wine shop employee is whack if he puts the 1983 Taylor and 1985 Fonseca in the same sentence. Like comparing Forest Gump and Einstein. See if they will let you have the 1985 Fonseca instead. If not, you can drink the 1983 Taylor now. It is not bad, just average. The Fonseca OTOH is my top wine of the entire 1980's by any producer, which is saying a ton. Just one man's opinion though and you may find what I like, may not be what you and your husband like.
Keep experimenting and please know your tastes might change. Try an LBV from 2003-2007 range from a name that you've learned to trust. Try some 10 year old Tawnies and even a good Colheita to see what you like. Thank you for coming aboard on the Port side of the ship.
I am sure at some point we'll get to share some bottles!
Welcome Michelle! Reserve rubies are wonderful, but I'll second mentioning LBV if you want to venture beyond that and still have something you can drink sooner rather than later at a reasonable price. As for 1983 Taylor, I would definitely see if they will exchange it. Taylor has the #1 reputation IMHO, but for 1983 and 1985, it doesn't deserve it. There are lots of deals to be found in NJ, and in your neck of the woods I've also found some good prices at Cabrini. I just checked their website, however, and I don't see as much listed as I have at some times in the past, and I have to think the Grahams 2007 VP listed is a pricing mistake, at $21.99 for a 750!
Wow, everyone for the warm welcome!
Michael - yes, looking forward to trying Six Grapes! My husband's had it before, but at a restaurant, and I was reading here about how ports tend to degrade quickly at restaurants due to the handling. We'll crack into one as soon as we find it for not-$26! (That's the price at our corner wine shop, which seems wrong.)
Roy and Eric - thank you for the tipoffs on localish stores! I would like to nab the 2007 Graham's VP at Cabrini's price, except I have no idea where I'd stash it for the next 25 years. :) I think we have in fact had one LBV so far (Ferreira Dona Antonia, from the airport) and found it to be unexciting, about on par with ruby reserves, but I suspect it wasn't a pearl of the genre. Just looked up and read Roy's LBV overview on the site, and will take it shopping -- if anyone has tips on others not mentioned to stay away from or recs on must-tries, we'll keep a lookout!
The Dona Antonia Auction Reserve by Ferreira is not a LBV, and although decent, there are better options ... especially in the LBV category. The current release of LBV's is mostly 2007. The Fonseca is a rock star, Taylor is good, and Dow in the middle of those two (all 2007 LBV). I can tell from your last post, that you are a quick study and have been putting in time reading, which is great. Keep an eye on the Marketplace area of the forum as many of us are very happy to share the great deals that we come across. That generous streak here, is one thing I am very pleased about. I know from other general wine forums that is not always the case. It never feels good when someone reports on their amazing, successful purchase, only to have them mention there are no bottles left.
Anyway, within no time you will be hosting Port parties and coming to the ones that we hold as well. It is easy to get caught up in the sense of community as you will see, even our overseas participants ... many of us have met one another and go far out of our way to share bottles whenever possible with those that we've come to know here.
Michelle L wrote: I would like to nab the 2007 Graham's VP at Cabrini's price, except I have no idea where I'd stash it for the next 25 years. :)
Do get a bottle if you can! I had one some 3-4 months ago and it was fantastic. Really opened my eyes to what a young VP could taste like. If the price isn't a mistake you should get not one but several!
Now stuff from further back, like 2003, I am scared of opening and will wait some 10 years before touching it.
Either way, welcome! Good to have more people from NY :)
I'll let you know if that 2007 Graham's is a typo or not... I just tried ordering 6 bottles. That's a fantastic price, thanks for mentioning it!
Like Miguel said, Vintage Ports are often quite good while very young and can be a really great experience. I suspect that we're getting past the end of that wonderfully young stage now for the 2007 vintage, but it's probably still worth a try for $22. I really enjoyed the 2003s into 2008 or 2009, so it seems like about 5-6 years is where they start to change over. Pick one up and let us know what you think!
Michelle L wrote:looking forward to trying Six Grapes! We'll crack into one as soon as we find it for not-$26! (That's the price at our corner wine shop, which seems wrong.)
Yes,that is way to much. You should be able to find it for around $18 at most. Wine library even has it for $16.
Glenn E. wrote:I'll let you know if that 2007 Graham's is a typo or not... I just tried ordering 6 bottles. That's a fantastic price, thanks for mentioning it!
It's a typo. I received an email and a call this morning informing me that it is the 2007 Graham's LBV, not the Vintage Port, so I cancelled my order.
I don't know if this counts as a "deal" -- probably not a huge one if so -- but I was informed by the everpresent Valpak coupons that Buy-Rite Wines, near the Holland Tunnel, would deliver to my office for free! So I looked on their website, and apart from Six Grapes and Fonseca 2007 LBV at reasonable prices ($18 and $22 respectively), they have the Smith Woodhouse 1994 VP on sale right now for $39. I've never had a port of the famous 1994 vintage, and this seems like a good price to try one at! Based on Glenn and Miguel's experience at Cabrini, I called them to explicitly confirm it was the VP instead of the LBV, and they did say it was. In case anyone feels like picking one up too, website says there are 43 left.
Michelle L wrote:... they have the Smith Woodhouse 1994 VP on sale right now for $39. I've never had a port of the famous 1994 vintage, and this seems like a good price to try one at!
That sounds like a good (but believable) deal on a very nice bottle. I have three of those in my cellar, and the lowest I paid was $46.
John M. wrote:The Grahams is not on the website anymore--but they do have 2006 Quinta do Crasto VP of $19.99!! (although that sounds more like an LBV price).
I assumed immediately that the Grahams was a pricing mistake, and told you all so. The Crasto I would give slight odds favoring that being a real price for VP. From Cabrini I bought Quinta do Crasto 2000 VP for $22.73 and 2003 VP for $26.87, so $19.99 for a non-generally-declared year is conceivable.
Also grab some bottles of the 2007 Fonseca LBV ... great for everyday drinking. It is one of the best LBV's from the vintage for sure, plus the price is GREAT. Go for it!
Just a quick introduction. I'm in southern California. My wife and I are planning trip to Porto and a cruise up the Douro in May...then drive down to Lisbon for a conference on June 1st, 2013. I wanted to learn more about Port wine in general and specifically wanted to learn if there were some interesting smaller wineries/quintas/lodges that I could visit ... and ran across this website. It looks amazing. I am transitioning my small cellar from Bordeaux's to Ports as I have developed a love of Ports. My everyday drinking wine (which is actually about once a week) is the standard ruby - either Grahams 6 grape, or Fonseca Bin whatever, or a Croft, and an occasional VP. I wish I had discovered this site earlier...and I've only started exploring. I'll be looking around for several weeks I'm sure. Cheers.
Going from Bdx to Porto is quite the change up. We will be very happy to share info with you, but as you are discovering, there is a ton of good information here already. But please do feel free to ask questions, no matter how simple they may seem.
I am sure we'll get to meet and share some bottles at some point in time!
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Oh dear, this is going to turn into an expensive habit... but I suspect I'm preaching to the choir on that, right? :) ![[bye2.gif]](./images/smilies/bye2.gif "See Ya"){kind=small}
everyone for the warm welcome!![[kez_11.gif]](./images/smilies/kez_11.gif "Spent"){kind=small}
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Michelle!
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