For The Love Of Port

I am only just begining to buy and drink port in enough quantities to make me look beyond my local wine merchant and I was wondering where everyone buys their port. I don't necessarily mean what store but say at auction, internet, eBay, wine merchant, supermarket?

I hope the Poll works as I've not done one before.

I've bought maybe 4 bottles from auction places like winecommune or winebid, which I consider auction houses as opposed to Internet.

I answered with Internet purchases because that is where I have been getting most of my recent (good) ports. The prices in my area tend to be on average $20 more expensive than I can find in say California. Quite honestly though, the quantity of port I buy has been local, but the selection has not been very good, and I've had to experiment with traditionally non-major producers (Osborne comes to mind...lots of that stuff in this area at decent prices).

The other day I discovered a place in D.C. (about an hour's drive) that has a better selection (Niepoort and Vesuvio were avail), so I may be buying more stuff locally again if they have more sales.

Mike.

I use to buy from WC and internet merchants, but I been burned a couple of times with bad bottles (leakers). So I've started to buy from board members of FTLOP and Squires, and have been very happy. I know that I have to patient because opPORTunities to buy aren't very offend, but I have enough wine to last me a good long time, so it's worth the wait.

I like the idea of this particular poll. It should be interesting, so thanks.

I used to buy at auction back in the early 1990s when there was virtually only one choice in the USA ... long before winebid.com was even an idea.

Today, I prefer juggling six or seven main sources of supply from retailers by phone or email. I am constantly barraged by offers from internet wine offers. When my financials were in good condition, I'd open every one of them. Today I ignore most. I also buy a couple of bottles a year from some of the folks in the DC area like Schneiders, Wide World of Wines etc. (as I used to live in Reston, VA and it was close by).

Mike, which place did you discover there?

Steve, I think your method is very sound too!

The one good local (large) wine merchant has a reasonable selection and reasonable prices of aged tawnies (which are my favorite anyway) and recent vintage ports but a somewhat limited selection of older vintages. Its older vintage port prices are twice what most internet merchants list.

Hey Roy, the place I found was Calvert Woodley in northwest DC. The selection is pretty decent, but the prices reflect much of the area. I was fortunate they had a sale going. (That Vesuvio box is like the greatest thing ever! lol)

I wasn't impressed with the prices or selection at Wide World of Wines, but Schneiders has a pretty good one. Hoping for a sale shortly...or a good tax return.

Mike.

Trev

I buy from a combination of all of the first three options on your poll - plus buying from local supermarkets when they have something interesting in stock. Although I find that the "standard" supermarket pricing tends to be a bit higher than if you shop around, the "promotion" price in a supermarket tends to be pretty keen.

Alex

Mike,

Calvert Woodley never excited me, although they did have a well put together store ... but pricing was never great except their big sales 2x a year.

Wide World of Wines used to be located in MD, near DC back about 15 years ago and I bought all of my '83s there (first round) at $19 per btl. Over the years I still buy from them when they have their aggressive clearance sales in which you can find half price offerings, so get on their mailing list. Arrowine was also an excellent source in NoVa for me and I loved listening to the owner (I think she has sold though ... Ann). Schneider's is a small, tightly packed and somewhat dumpy place in what used to be a low class neighborhood, but they had some awesome Port stocks and occasionally great prices.

Oh man, I wish I'd stumbled across Arrowine sooner... Just read their December newsletter and they had an "annual port extravaganza" where they tasted over 20 ports and madeiras. !!

Will keep an eye out and see if I can get on the WWW distro. Thanks for the info!

Mike.