For The Love Of Port

What are good UK shops to buy port from for delivery to the US? Some I often see on wine-searcher or in this forum are:

Justerini & Brooks
Fine and Rare Wines
Nickolls & Percks
Berry Bros. & Rudd
Southwick Court Fine Wines

Any opinions as to which are the most reliable (both from UK members, and US members who may have had shipments from them)? If they are all great, that would be usefull information as well.

Any help would be good, as many of the ports I would like to have are available there, but I am quite hesitant to buy without at least some anecdotal evidence. Thanks!

Jay

Jay,

I have only used FRW and Southwick from this list.

FRW are a broker who source their wines from all over the world. I believe that some of the wines on their list are already in the US. It often takes 3 to 4 months for the wine to reach you from FRW but I have never had reason to complain about what I have received.

1 bought 2 bottles from Southwick just recently and they were excellent. The pre-sales service was top class and I had my wine within 2 days. Very well packaged. Southwick have posted a few lists here on the Forum Marketplace recently which is how I came to use them. Without claiming that Roy recommends this merchant, I am quite sure he would have satistfied himself with their reputation before agreeing to post their offers on this site.

Both of the above suppliers are happy to send you digital photographs of the wine before you buy, although FRW are dependant on their source for this so sometimes cannot get hold of a picture to send you.

Altough I have not used the other 3 on your list they do all have excellent reputations here.

Best of luck

Derek

BB&R is beyond reproach, but the prices on Port, are only "middle of the pack."

Berry Brothers has a branch at Heathrow which is very convenient if you are flying through London. They are also very good at packing things up to fit on planes. I once carried more than a dozen bottles in two little cartons with a rope grip and it worked out very well.

I was told earlier this week that the BB&R location at Heathrow's Terminal 3 is now closed for business, by a reliable source in the Port trade.

They are still open at Terminal 1 - I picked up some bottled from there just a few weeks ago. Not sure if you can make arrangements with them to have bottles ready for you to pick up from T3 if you buy in advance?

BBR also have a shop at London Gatwick.

Derek

Another name to check out (at the top end of the scale) is Peter Wylie - a large proportion of his trade is export.

Tom

The only reason I have not bought from Wylie is that he would not accept credit cards. Buying wine overseas ... I want the security of paying by CC in case of a dispute with the merchant that is thousands of miles away.

Thanks for all the comments! I'll let you know what me experience is in time, probably pretty soon as I put all the advice to work!

Jay

BB&R have announced that they will be closing all their Heathrow shops on July 16 this year. Their web page gives the reasons why, but it is essentially that the rents are too high in the airport and the business that used to be the traditional mainstay of the duty free outlet is now replaced by overseas orders via the web.

Alex