For The Love Of Port

6 liters: http://www.winebid.com/Item/4239098/2007-Grahams

Wow, the one instance I had a 5 liter bottle of wine I found it tough to assemble enough people/food to drink it, never mind the trouble serving. I can't imagine the project a bottle that size would require considering you'd probably need more people to share it with since its fortified, not to mention a decant.

The irrational side of me wants it anyway. And honestly, that's the cheapest price I've seen for a bottle that size in quite a while. The opening bid works out to $75/bottle which is pretty normal for 2007s, so you're not actually paying any premium for the large format.

When I worked on the procurement committee for the largest PNW charity wine auction, the night before the auction, I helped lift and pour from an 18 liter bottle of Delille Cellars that was created for this specific event. Glad I wasn't the only one holding that bottle. Now if it had been Port ...

Agree w Glenn that it is not pricing at much of a premium to a 75cl.
Paid $60 for one on WineBid some 6 months ago.
Drank it a few months back and really enjoyed it. What a mouthful of fruit!
6 liters though... wonder how you'd get through it... maybe at a large wedding? If you have a kid born in 2007, could be a good one!
Miguel

Miguel Simoes wrote:6 liters though... wonder how you'd get through it... maybe at a large wedding? If you have a kid born in 2007, could be a good one!

Since the larger format bottles allegedly age more slowly, get it for a retirement party! Possibly your kid's retirement party.

I have no place to properly store a bottle that large. Wine refrigerators just aren't made to hold those things - you'd need a proper walk-in cellar to store it. And I'd probably want to have it professionally inspected and potentially re-corked every 20 years or so since the corks for those things are one-offs.

Glenn E. wrote:The irrational side of me wants it anyway.

+1, but as you mention later, where to put it?

Eric Menchen wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:The irrational side of me wants it anyway.

+1, but as you mention later, where to put it?

There's a guy I know who lives nearby who has a walk-in cellar. If we distract him with an old bottle of Madeira, we might be able to sneak it in there without him noticing.

Glenn E. wrote:There's a guy I know who lives nearby who has a walk-in cellar. If we distract him with an old bottle of Madeira, we might be able to sneak it in there without him noticing.

Getting it in isn't the issue.

Bradley Bogdan wrote...

Wow, the one instance I had a 5 liter bottle of wine I found it tough to assemble enough people/food to drink it, never mind the trouble serving. I can't imagine the project a bottle that size would require considering you'd probably need more people to share it with since its fortified, not to mention a decant.

Here's an idea..the first ever FTLOP convention! A Porto-Con.

I have an 18 liter bottle waiting for my 70th birthday this summer. This was bottled especially for the occasion. I don't expect to have much trouble emptying it, as we routinely go through over 60 bottles at one of these birthdays, and the 18 liter is only 24 bottles.


2004 Goretti Sagrantino di Montefalco Le Mura Saracene (twin to my bottle, held by Kenny)

Peter W. Meek wrote:I have an 18 liter bottle waiting for my 70th birthday this summer. This was bottled especially for the occasion. I don't expect to have much trouble emptying it, as we routinely go through over 60 bottles at one of these birthdays, and the 18 liter is only 24 bottles.


2004 Goretti Sagrantino di Montefalco Le Mura Saracene (twin to my bottle, held by Kenny)

Now that's a proper size bottle!!!

Andy Velebil wrote:

Peter W. Meek wrote:I have an 18 liter bottle waiting for my 70th birthday this summer. This was bottled especially for the occasion. I don't expect to have much trouble emptying it, as we routinely go through over 60 bottles at one of these birthdays, and the 18 liter is only 24 bottles.


2004 Goretti Sagrantino di Montefalco Le Mura Saracene (twin to my bottle, held by Kenny)

Now that's a proper size bottle!!!

For a proper sized birthday!

Peter W. Meek wrote:I have an 18 liter bottle waiting for my 70th birthday this summer. This was bottled especially for the occasion. I don't expect to have much trouble emptying it, as we routinely go through over 60 bottles at one of these birthdays, and the 18 liter is only 24 bottles.


2004 Goretti Sagrantino di Montefalco Le Mura Saracene (twin to my bottle, held by Kenny)

How do you pour such a bottle? via a siphon???

really... how is it done?

The corks on the Taylor double mag's are disappointing. I would've expected a top notch cork, not an average at best one.

Not sure if I would go through recorking, but it would be nice to have a couple of half bottles of the same vintage to top off in the future if need be.

Glenn E. wrote:There's a guy I know who lives nearby who has a walk-in cellar. If we distract him with an old bottle of Madeira, we might be able to sneak it in there without him noticing.

Getting it in isn't the issue.

Glenn's right, I am happy to have people bring in a large format bottle anytime they'd like and store it here. I make NO guarantees about the "angel's share" ... especially if it is a fortified wine. The long winter days and nights here in the PNW, provide the impetus to sit around the perimeter of the cellar with a cork screw, large bottles and long straws.

No need for a glass. Really!

John M.

Actually we did that in 2009!

John N. wrote:

How do you pour such a bottle? via a siphon???

We did the 18 liter with two of us holding the bottle which weighed 95 or 96 lbs. The hardest pours are the first few as the bottle doesn't need to tip very far in order to pour and to do so accurately we did not risk propping it on a table, as I saw that turn out badly in a restaurant. So, the winemaker held the front end of the bottle and I held the bottom and we had another person put the glasses right up to the lip of this ginormous bottle and we very slowly tilted the bottle in order to get it in the glass. We thought about pouring into decanters first, but this guy was all about the exhibition as people had paid a boatload to come to the pre-auction dinner the night before the event.