For The Love Of Port

Gould Campbell 1977 from magnum. What can I say? I didn't want to run out over the weekend.

Alex, if you can still find the 2008 or 2003 Kopke White Colheita, they are very good. I especially like the 2008. I'm not a huge fan of Kopke's WWAIOA. To me, they seem to be lacking. Their White Colheitas on the other hand are pretty good. Of course we all like what we like, so go figure. I agree...

A bottle of Graham 2011 for a tasting that we're going to have in London on 23rd April. I have some Graham 2011 in storage - but only halves or magnum / larger formats. No bottles!

Kopke 2010 White Colheita - it’s OK but I’d prefer the 10 or 20YO blend. Poças’s 1996 Colheita - big, young and still very fruit driven. 1965 Quinta de Vargellas - rather nice, mature and very easy drinking (but not as good as the Dow 1963 that was also opened, but not by me). 1963 Quinta do Noval N...

I've had this a few times and discussed it with the former MD of Hedges & Butler, who were the UK bottlers. It's a Crusted Port because it's a blend of different vintages. The highest category of Port that a blend of vintage can achieve (at least in the minds of the owners of Noval at the time) ...

I love Port (...my name's Alex and I'm a Port drinker...) but I'm also really interested in fortified wines in general and in particular where the wine-makers follow Port as their model. South Africa and Australia are great examples, often Portuguese varieties and because of the seasons being revers...

I'm going to follow Glenn's lead and do this by category, but since I am much meaner with my points that he is, my lists are a little shorter. Tawny Graham 80YO Tawny (99, 98) Barros Tawny 102 Special Edition (98) DR L70 (98) DR Roncão (98) Colheita 1972 Quevedo Colheita (99) 1952 Graham Single Harv...

Over the last few days we've opened the F85 I mentioned earlier, G83, a bottle of the Churchill Club Tawny that was a special blend for the short-lived Churchill Port Club and a bottle of Quevedo 40YO (2022 bottling). The F85 was fabulous. The G83 had slightly too much VA to be enjoyable. The Church...

Colheita 100 - 1900 Andresen (b. same day) 100 - 1906 Quinta de Brunheda (2025) 99 - 1885 DR (cask sample, cask #1) 99 - 1885 DR (2023) 98 - 1937 Kopke (2025) 97 - 1941 Kopke (2025) 97 - 1941 Kopke (2025) yes, again, different bottle different day Out of interest, what score did you give the Graham...

Colheita 100 - 1900 Andresen (b. same day) 100 - 1906 Quinta de Brunheda (2025) 99 - 1885 DR (cask sample, cask #1) 99 - 1885 DR (2023) 98 - 1937 Kopke (2025) 97 - 1941 Kopke (2025) 97 - 1941 Kopke (2025) yes, again, different bottle different day Out of interest, what score did you give the Graham...

We had a Fonseca vertical on Tuesday last week, for which I opened a bottle of 1948.

The 1985 at the tasting was a poor bottle, so I opened one of mine at home this weekend. Just the way it should be!

I managed to bribe Glenn over to the UK for a quick visit so we opened a bottle of Niepoort VV (1960s bottling). Glenn opened a bottle of DR Very Old White.

I find '85 Croft has a very high rate of undrinkably high VA. It's the only Port I have ever sent back consecutive bottles in a restaurant. The weekend just gone I found a leaking bottle of Sandeman 1962, which got opened. Sadly it was too badly oxidised to be enjoyable. But the leaking bottle of Wa...

Friends came round for dinner last night so I opened La Rosa Tonel No 12 10YO Tawny, Kopke 20YO Tawny and Churchill 2018 LBV.

The Churchill is so fruity and sweet - tastes like Lingonberry jam!

Has anyone else been following Victor Marques’s posts on FaceBook. I’ve heard about the problems in the Douro (and most wine producing regions) with too many grapes being grown and not enough wine being drunk, but this is the first time I’ve seen anyone actively and publicly lobbying about it. Victo...

Graham Stone Terraces 2011.

It really is as good as Glenn says it is!

Have we created a thread anywhere of people who are producing 80 Year Old Tawnies and Whites? I can't find one...

I’ve eaten at 3 of the restaurants at WoW and I’ve been perfectly happy with the food. As Roy says, the food offering is mid-market and works well on that basis. The big advantage the WoW restaurants offer is that they aren’t busy so if you’re not well organised and need somewhere to eat at short no...

H&H 15YO Bual. I bought it; I opened it.

It’s a very satisfying glass of Madeira, on the drier side for Bual.

H&H 15YO Bual from my local branch of Majestic Wines, a UK national wine store.