For The Love Of Port

and if so, which retailers are providing the crates with the port?

Most VP comes in 6 or 12 pack wood boxes. Most stores remove bottles from the case to display them. I would suggest if you want an OWC that you let your local retailer know so they can just order and hold the full case for you, unopened. Some on-line stores will ship the wood box separately for an extra fee.

Get a case of Quinta do Vesuvio. They have the nicest OWC in my opinion.

Andy Velebil wrote:Most VP comes in 6 or 12 pack wood boxes.

More like which ones do not ship in wood?

Thomas V wrote:Get a case of Quinta do Vesuvio. They have the nicest OWC in my opinion.

The thing with their footlockers is that they are too nice and I don't want to spoil the presentation by drinking one. I seriously fret any time I remove a bottle from one.

The Vesuvio OWCs are beautiful. That hasn't stopped me from drinking from them. But after drinking some 1998s, I discovered that more recent bottlings, notably 2012, have bigger bottles that won't fit in the old case.

I just ordered some 2015 Quinta do Crasto. It is in an OWC, and I saw that Broadbent is as well. As Moses has posited, I suspect most are in wood.

Eric Menchen wrote:The Vesuvio OWCs are beautiful. That hasn't stopped me from drinking from them. But after drinking some 1998s, I discovered that more recent bottlings, notably 2012, have bigger bottles that won't fit in the old case.

I just ordered some 2015 Quinta do Crasto. It is in an OWC, and I saw that Broadbent is as well. As Moses has posited, I suspect most are in wood.

Are you putting newer bottles into older OWCs?

Moses Botbol wrote: The thing with their footlockers is that they are too nice and I don't want to spoil the presentation by drinking one. I seriously fret any time I remove a bottle from one.

Ahhh the OCD strikes. I like order and neatness as well, but that wont stop me from drinking my Vesuvio. Then you must buy single to replace the ones you took? Or buy singles to drink so you don't mess up the selo numbering order as well

Thomas V wrote:

Eric Menchen wrote:The Vesuvio OWCs are beautiful. That hasn't stopped me from drinking from them. But after drinking some 1998s, I discovered that more recent bottlings, notably 2012, have bigger bottles that won't fit in the old case.

Are you putting newer bottles into older OWCs?

That was my plan. I drank some 1998s, and while I bought an OWC of 2011, I bought just two bottles of 2012. The 2012 bottles won't fit in the 1998 OWC. I knew the OWCs had changed over the years (viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14527), but hadn't noticed the change(s) in bottle size before this.

Get a case of Quinta do Vesuvio. They have the nicest OWC in my opinion.

Until you're stacking cases in your cellar and have a few Vesuvios to include in the pile - then you start to swear..

I so much wish the port producers would take a lesson from the French and standardise their case sizes for VP - I wouldn't mind if they were all the same size as Vesuvio, but as things stand they don't stack well with either the square six pack cases nor the rectangular ones. However you try to work it, Vesuvio = wasted space..

Tom Archer wrote:

Get a case of Quinta do Vesuvio. They have the nicest OWC in my opinion.

Until you're stacking cases in your cellar and have a few Vesuvios to include in the pile - then you start to swear..

I so much wish the port producers would take a lesson from the French and standardise their case sizes for VP - I wouldn't mind if they were all the same size as Vesuvio, but as things stand they don't stack well with either the square six pack cases nor the rectangular ones. However you try to work it, Vesuvio = wasted space..

Even the French aren't standardized like they used to be

It really is an area where the producers would do well to work together. They can keep their fancy bottle shapes and packaging for the tawnies, but for VP a standard bottle and standard case would do a lot for collective brand identity.

I chatted with the head of the IVDP last year and mooted the idea of a standard port bottle - he was all for it. I have even given some thought as to a design of bottle that would not look partisan, and came up with the idea of creating a design that was a combination of the designs used by Croft, Graham and Sandeman for their 1945 vintage.

A combination of these designs would neatly bridge the spread of the major producers. It's a bottle that is very slightly wider and stockier than most modern port bottles, with a flatter shoulder and a relatively tight pinch below the bulb of a tall neck.

The Graham and Croft '45 bottles are almost identical, whereas the Sandeman '45 is a halfway house between them and a modern bottle. I think a compromise design would have more gravitas than the current 'stock' design offered by the glass makers.

Do they also use wood crates for half bottles? Are they packaged in 6's or 12's?

H. Eisen wrote:Do they also use wood crates for half bottles? Are they packaged in 6's or 12's?

They do. I have a OWC of 6 x 0.375 bottles of 2015 Fonseca Guimaraens.

I have a OWC of 6 x 0.375 bottles of 2015 Fonseca Guimaraens

Really? - a quarter case of ordinary SQVP in owc..??

Tom Archer wrote:

I have a OWC of 6 x 0.375 bottles of 2015 Fonseca Guimaraens

Really? - a quarter case of ordinary SQVP in owc..??

I was wrong. Went down and checked. It is a case of 12 x 0.375. I forgot I shared the case with my father at 6 btls each.

By the way Fonseca Guimaraens is not a single quinta vintage but their second label. The grapes come from all of Fonseca's three main estates.