For The Love Of Port

Seeing as things are opening up, here are some flexible dates to travel to Lisbon. Full disclosure, I don't make any money off of these deals, and have no association with slickdeals or the airlines, I just happen to follow the slickdeals website often as I use it a lot to save cash on things I buy....

It surprised me to see AAA featuring a cruise down the Douro across both Portugal and Spain. https://westerncentralny.aaa.com/travel/trips/group-tours/cruise/aaa-member-appreciation-river-cruise Here are the details: Travel with President /CEO Tony Spada and Chief Operating Officer Tae Kim of AAA We...

...Oh, and I think vinegar might help the method too... Vinegar IS acid - acetic acid in a 2-5% solution for typical home vinegars. "Distilled White" has the least amount of other compounds - mostly just acetic acid and water. Well yes, but I also keep a couple of gallons of it stocked in...

But why wuss about with methods that require a lot of effort, when a few drops of acid will do the job in seconds? In a pinch I'm more likely to have rice at hand rather than acid. Oh, and I think vinegar might help the method too And to take it further, rice disposal is probably a bit better for t...

1983 Kopke Colheita, for my 30th Birthday celebration this weekend

I'm a bit late to the game here, but I've heard putting uncooked rice into a glass with soap acts as a nice abrasive to remove things from glasses/bpttles you can't reach your hand into. Never had to try it myself though, and I imagine something more granular like salt could work too.

How many here were started on port wannabe's, aka non-Portuguese fortified wine?

I dropped the ball on getting a Ramos Pinto and Graham's VP that would ship in time, so I ended up going with the Kopke Colheita. If anyone is still interested, the Graham's is going for $50+ on winebid. Thanks again for all the help, and I plan on enjoying it this weekend. Oh yeah, what's the decan...

I knew I shouldn't have come here because now I want to drink all of them, haha.

Thanks guys for the recommendations so far.

I've had Graham 83 a couple of times over the last year and enjoyed both. Both times the color had faded closer to your usual tawny color and the taste wasnt particularly ruby like. Sounds like you may appreciate that. Sadly cant help much w 30 Yr tawnies... still getting up the learning curve myse...

I know I'm still young in port years, but I'm looking for suggestions on something from my birth year of 1983 to enjoy at the end of this month. I've most only had Tawnies (and probably prefer them), and I'm guessing most 1983 VP's are still "young," so I was wondering if I should be looki...

Ha, isn't Rainwater considered to be a lower end version of Madeira? I could be mistaken as I've only had 2 bottles of Madeira in my whole tasting experience. Anyways, there was alway a bottle or two in either the Edmonds or Mill Creek central Market.

I haven't had many VP's or colheitas myself, so is what he says about texture relevant to how well someone would gage their future?

Rainwater was all I could find in the Everett area while I lived there, and I didn't find any malmsey until I went down to Bellevue.
I guess we were just a little less sophisticated up there, haha.

I'm all the way up in Syracuse, so a good 4-5 hours from NYC.

My greatest regret with moving back to upstate NY, losing out on all the great food in the Seattle area, especially the sushi, lol.

The facebook IPO would seem to be lucrative

I didn't realize the '85 Fonseca could be found for so low considering the quality I've read about.

It would certainly make it easier on us VP Newbs

I just want to put it out there I'm not being combative with anyone on here, and that I'm actually having fun with this as I learn at the same time. I've always personally felt port is a style because when I pick up either a true port, or a port style, I always taste the characteristics that makes m...

Yes, when I make the blanket statement of tawnies, I mean TWAIOA. Colheitas are just as unique to VP's for me, so I wouldn't want to take away from the wine itself.