For The Love Of Port

I'm very thankful for living in Denmark, when it comes to these kinds of laws. In the other scandinavian countries (Norway, Sweden, not sure about Finland) all alcolol has to be purchased in government shops at (usually) extreme cost and the stuff is rationed (you can't buy 100 bottles of, say Gin)....

Tom, have you tried using a nightsight or a thermal scope/goggles? at least on the thermas scope it may be possible to discern the level on account of difference in temperature between the part of the bottle that's in contact with the wine and the part that isn't.

Sadly, I don't have enough money to justify a grand thing as a "strategy". More likely, it'll be tactical decisions (cash or creditcard) or operational port buys (Online or physical shop). :( I've seen some resonable offers, such as Rozes VP 1999 (decent but nothing spectacular) at just un...

I rarely look at rubies - do they carry a bottling-date?

I suspect unfilteres rubies are a way to fool the VP, LBV and Crusted-systems, making a superiour port without too much hassle, and without promising more than you can keep.

Why would you want to stand it up? What are you, sissies? Just kidding. If I know in advance, I stand it up - but I also (almost) always filter, so I don't really know why I bother. I actually don't have any problems with small amounts of residue - only large "cakes" of sediment, and my wr...

Oh, Andy, I wasn't worried about tawnies as a category, in fact it's my favourite type of port. I was worried about POCAS tawnies. My favourite so far is Burmester, which is in good supply at very fair prices (as long as you stay away from the 1955 and older). Also Niepoort is in decent supply, but ...

The first tawny I tried from Pocas was a 10yo and I hated it. Since, I've bought some colheitas though dreading it a little, as the 10yo was to terrible. However, the Colheita is in a class of its own. Color was classic orange-brown, and the nose was dried fruits and some alcohol. Good but nothing s...

I seem to be missing the dates for the EU/UK short tour. Is it still on? If so, when is the date (I'm sure I've seen it somewhere, but now I can't find it)?

@ Elyas Beria (any relation?) "I wonder how long until other countries (Australia in particular) start producing Vintage Port-style wines to take advantage of the market. Australia already makes some really fantastic Tawny wines that are a great value. Maybe some competition would help keep pri...

That said, oxygen is surely the enemy of OLD wine. I never decant 15+ YO wine. But then again, I don't have any problems with sediments in the last glass. I'm going to disagree with you there Nikolaj, as that is not necesarily the case. This past thursday I had a 1929 Chateauneuf du Pape that got b...

Emile Peynaud famously stated that decanting does not help wine and that oxygen is the ememy of wine If Monsieur Peynaud is in fact right, then the concept of a wine "opening up in the glass" must be utterly false. If oxygen only served to break down wine, and had no positive effect (in t...

I've never decanted a colheita (or any tawny). I must try this - after all, the point about the color is on the money - and you can always place the bottle in the background to show people what they're drinking (showing off - the main feature of serving port :) )

I often have colheitas standing around opened for months and months.

Either my taste is crappy, or these wines don't change much.

This weekend I had the last fifth of a bottle of Burmester 86 that had been open for four months. It was beautiful.

Hmm. But if it's true, that facing a certain way in a truck could make that much of a difference, then all my wines should be crowning by now, as they're not stored in heat- or moisture-controlled rooms plus the temperature fluctuates during seasons. Yet very very few of them do (I can actually only...

I live in a dessert and have seen lots of heat damaged bottles and that picture is what they look like. You live in a dessert!?! Is it something with pancakes? Jokes aside. - No, we rarely see 100 degrees in the summer in Denmark, but I have a crowning Fonseca Guimaraens 1984. Oddly enough (and tha...

Hmm. Doing a bit of studying on the subject, I should stay away from degrees C and stick to Kelvin. So in order to increase the pressure in the bottle from one atmosphere to two, I should heat the air in the bottle from 15 degrees C (actually 288 degrees K) to 2*288 K = 576 degrees K = 303 degrees C...

I was doing a bit of math on this one. If you want to double pressure, you have to double the temperature. The pressure in a bottle of port is 1 atm (approximation) and on a bottle it's the same. How warm is it when a bottle is corked? 20 degrees C? Let's say 15C. In order for it to increase the pre...

Are we sure that this is due to increased heat? It would take a substantial increase in pressure to make a cork crown (unless the bottle is completely full. Then it's actually quite certain that it'll crown). Do we see it on recent bottles? I would suspect that, being produced in shabby Portugal in ...

Hi Kris.

Sounds like your heart's not in it.

My "trick" is drinking VP from half-bottles or simply switching to tawny. That can last for weeks and weeks. However, I'm single, and I don't like drinking port by myself. So my cellar is increasing rather than depleting.

Eric Ifune wrote:Actually, I believe wax is gas permeable, so if the cork fails, the wine will still oxidize.

I've read the opposite several places - that the wax seal is in fact air-tight.