For The Love Of Port

Hello all, I'm in the midst of planning the wines for my 50th birthday dinner in 2009, and starting to acquire them now. I would like to work in a Madeira from 1959 for one of the courses, either a Sercial in an early course or maybe a Bual for a cheese course. However, I don't know anything about t...

Brown Derby says they have 1 bottle left, at $349. I'm not going to buy it, so I thought I would post it in case someone else is interested.

John

It's time to check in again. The wine had been in the decanter 24 hours at the time of the next tasting. It's getting better! The acid, tannins, and sweetness are coming together into a decent harmony. The grape jam taste has gone away and been replaces by a grape sweetness that you expect from a se...

Well, it's been 12 hours in the decanter and it's developing. The acid and tannin is coming on, which gives it more stuffing than it showed last night. The sweetness is still very evident and rather simplistic, a little reminiscent of liquified grape jelly. I'm glad it's getting better. I'll post mo...

I received a bottle of the 1994 Borges as a gift, so I opened it tonight. After 30 minutes in the decanter, there's not much here. The color is already starting to show some age. The nose is slightly jammy, but it's light. The acidity is fairly light as are the tannins. The taste is pretty much just...

Did try '77 Taylors a couple of nights ago. Stunning stuff, if a little boozy and spice. Got a wee bit in the bottom of the decanter which I will polish off tonight.... The '77 Taylor is fabulous. My last notes are from a double magnum in late 2003. Very deep, still too young by 20 years (at least ...

When drinking with others less knowledgeable than me, I have learned to let them lead the way as to wether they like it or not. If I don't like it or am very critical of it, and others love it, I just keep my mouth shut and let them enjoy it. You never know, that may be their epiphany into the Port...

Hi Tom and Roy,

Alfred Brooks bought the firm of Justerini's in 1830 and added his name at that time. That's according to the history on their website. Given this, it's unlikely that this bottling has anything to do with them.

http://www.justerinis.com/Info/OurRoyalWarrants.aspx

John Danza

One of the greatest stories I've picked up in some of these old wine books was about the 1869 Croft Port. According to Andre Simon in the 1945 "Vintagewise" book, the wine is actually 1868. Here's the story. The summer of 1868 was extremely hot and dry in the Alto Douro, and the grapes wer...

I usually use the air pressure pneumatic pump. It's worked for me every time on vintages as old as 1908. Because I'm always concerned about a bottle shattering, I usually pump a few times to get the pressure in the bottle up a bit and then I start to wiggle the needle a bit. This tends to break the ...

I collect old English wine books because they are great references for old wines like this. Andre Simon, in his 1945 book "Vintage-wise", notes that 1851 was a very fine vintage, but the wines tended to be a bit on the dry side. By the 1930s many of them were very tired, although the Kopke...