For The Love Of Port

I'm killing time at the airport catching up with Port Forum traffic. Boy am I glad I decided to do this as I nearly bought a bottle of the Cavadinha 86 from the duty free shop. I'm now very glad I left it on the shelf. The other wine they had was the Hutcheson 87. I've never tried any wine from Hutc...

I recently drank my way through half a case of Dows 83 in 375 cl format and they were very nice. I also have a few bottles left of the Warre's 83 in 375 format from a case that I bought. Last time I opened one of these (about 2 years ago) it was very good. I am a fan of half bottles. I have never ta...

John,

Good link. Something interesting to listen to when the radio is boring.

Thanks,

Alex

The last pieces of the jigsaw are now in place. All the wines are sorted, as shown below. Please decant your wines on the Sunday morning before travelling to the Crusting Pipe and make a note of the time that you decant your wine so that we can make a note as we taste. Ideally, please double decant ...

Simon, In truth, no-one knows whether the wines will be drinkable or not - until you pull the corks and see. If they have been well looked after (and the lack of ullage would imply that they might have been) then they could be delicious. On the other hand, if they were light ruby blends designed to ...

George Robertson lists A J Da Silva as having declared a 1934 vintage port. I'm not sure whether they bottled under the name of Dalva or whether that was only used by the firm of C Da Silva.

But either way, 1934 was a generally declared vintage and the offer for sale could be genuine.

Alex

OK. I'm convinced. I'll try more young VPs in the future. I have really enjoyed the '96 Malvedos and the '95 Bomfim has been pretty good - much better than I had been expecting. Just to demonstrate that I'm convinced, I have got a bottle of '94 Vesuvio out of the cellar. That will probably get drunk...

Alan,

Thanks for posting these notes. They made interesting reading.

Alex

Andy, The 1995 Bomfim is a decent wine. However, if I saw it for the same price alongside the Malvedos 1996, I would buy the Malvedos. That was the wine that made me realise that drinking VP young could be quite a wonderful experience. Up until that wine, I'd always thought "Why drink this now,...

Tasted again, 28 hours after decanting. Same overwhelming nose of blackcurrant syrup. Still very smooth in the mouth but alcohol beginning to show, but not obtrusively. This time the flavours are more devloped. More like eating blackcurrant flavoured dark, bitter chocolate. Still smooth and sweet, s...

I've decided that I'm not qualified to vote. Believe it or not, I have only ever tasted wines from '95 and '96 out of these last ten years. Although I own plenty of wines, they are all in storage and it will be a while before I get them delivered. :oops: On my limited tasting, I would say that I pre...

Tasted properly at around 8:30pm, 5 hours after decanting. A very dark, opaque shade of deep inky-black red. Thick and with long, glycerine dominated legs. On the nose was still the blackcurrant syrup, with very little else and certainly no VA coming through. In the mouth it had changed surprisingly...

A birthday present bottle, opened just a few days after my birthday. Decanted at about 3:30pm. While decanting, the wine released a beautiful aroma of blackcurrants, which I thought of as the smell of blackcurrant lozenges but which my wife better described as the "smell of blackcurrant syrup&q...

Roy

Good to hear that you arrived safely - and managed to wander innocently into a Port Lodge! May the rest of your trip go as smoothly!

Alex

Fred - are you going on Roy's first trip to the Douro? If so, I really hope you have a fabulous time and hope to hear all about it from you when you return.

(If not, I still hope you have a fabulous time!)

Alex

Derek, I fear that you were right. I was the (single bottle) beneficiary of a Sainsbury pricing error. I went in to Sainsbury again today - just in case they had restocked and had made the same mistake. They had restocked - but had not made the same mistake. This time there were half a dozen Malvedo...

Now that I've been able to get in touch with Christopher, I have been able to finalise the wines for November 6. The final list is as set out below. Alex FONSECA 1963 - Me 1966 - Nick 1970 - Mario (I'll decant and bring this) GRAHAM 1963 - Christopher 1966 - Ian 1970 - Justin SANDEMAN 1963 - Derek a...

Christopher Please can you send me a private message with your email address. I have been trying to send you a private message for some days now but it doesn't seem to be leaving my outbox. If you could private message me we can then continue our discussions about the wine that you can bring on Nove...

Alec, I live in the UK but do travel to NY/NJ three or four times a year. Although where I live makes it impractical for me to be a full part of anything like this, I am interested in the idea. For me, what would be of particular interest, would be whether a co-operative of this sort was able to sou...

Roy, Probably 5 of the views are from me (and I have voted). Every time someone posts a reply I will view the thread again to see what has been said that is new. I would imagine that there are quite a few people who are doing the same as me. If all 14 people who have voted have viewed the thread 5 o...