For The Love Of Port

How bad would the wine have to be before you think you could "improve" it by using this product?

The bottle says it is a blend of Touriga Nacional, Alfrocheiro, and Tinta Roriz. 13% abv Some cassis and eucalypt on the nose, but also some savoury overtones. This has opened up in the glass over a couple of hours. It's really quite gentle on the front palate. There is no big fruit here, and it is ...

For most part, we pay an enormous premium for Port in Australia, but the scarcity hasn't really been a problem for the 2011s. The 2011 Vintage created enough demand for our local importers to chase it down, so as a result, we've probably never had a greater range of Vintage Ports available here than...

I think on the 2011 tour we had a fairly old Niepoort white as well. It was either from the 30s or 40s but I wasn't taking good notes at that stage of the day. I remember it being pretty dark in the glass. I don't get a lot of joy out of 10 yr old tawny ports, so on balance I prefer the white 10 yr ...

375ml bottle, 8 hr decant White pepper and cinnamon on the nose. Cocoa, cardamom cinnamon on the front palate, with cocoa being really overt. The flavours were really quite lovely but overall this lacks complexity and finishes a little short. A day later, the nose had changed somewhat and there was ...

Anything Roy thinks is 100 points would be a good starting point There are a few that I'm at peace with never trying - like the 31 Nacional and the 45 Taylor More realistic goals would be 85 Fonseca and a bunch of stuff from the 60s. If I knew more about Colheitas, I'd have bunch of them on the list...

Yep, I'm enjoying reading along as well. I do keep an eye out for wine from regions other than the Douro, and of the Portuguese table wine I own, I probably have a bit from a few different regions, so it is great to read about some of these.

Wine, and red wine in particular is usually the last thing I get back onto. If I've got a sore throat, I'll often have whisky, either neat, on ice or in a hot toddy as it comes on. As I'm getting past it, I might test drive with a beer to see how things are going but I find that I'm not too keen in ...

Roy,
I certainly want to hear about where you are visiting. It distracts me from winter I am now in I think the "Other discussions" section would work fine.

cheers

Paul

I'm not averse to buying SQVPs and would own more Taylors Quinta de Vargellas than anything else. I'm rather limited in what I have access to though so I tend to take what I can get, providing the price isn't too outrageous. It is a fair bit easier to find VPs than SQVPs in my market

This had about 6 hours in the decanter before first try and came across as quite sweet with some earthy spices. It had excellent body and mouthfeel but came across as a little one dimensional. It also finished a little short, but still provided a good amount of drinking pleasure. A day later it had ...

From Taylors: The Quinta de Vargellas 2013 will not be offered for sale now but will be cellared for release at a later date to help satisfy market demand for mature single quinta Vintage Port. I personally think that the last few SQ vintage port are not sold out yet. Then why not do the same for t...

On opening this smelt a little earthy with some sweet spices coming through. Tasted sweet, with black tea ribena being evident. A little simple at this stage, with a bit of heat and some strong tannins. After 8 hrs in the decanter, it had settled down a bit. The black tea was less evident at this st...

The Symingtons do own a lot of brands, which they have acquired over the years - the most recent being Cockburn's just a few years ago. They are all quite different styles that have a particular house style (ie Dow is a little drier, Grahams a little sweeter, Warres more feminine). For the higher en...

I've got no experience with Malaga, but I don't mind an Olorosso or Pedro Ximenes. My preferred local fortified comes from Stanton & Killeen and is a vintage port style. I've never opened a bottle next to a proper VP or LBV (something that I really ought to do) but I think it is the closest we h...

That's a win Rune!
If you come down to Melbourne give me a yell.
I do know an importer was bringing some of that into Australia

I like Glenn's suggestions. Personally I'm not a fan of chocolate with port. It isn't necessarily a flavour mismatch, but more an issue of the chocolate coating the mouth that doesn't allow you to fully taste the port. I tend to go to whisky with chocolate as the higher alcohol content allows the wh...

I always like to go to the Kopke lodge. Tastings aren't free, and you are effectively buying a glass, but I enjoy the space and the wide range of ports and table wines available, including some excellent colheitas. There are always a wide range of years to buy as well. If you are doing tours, be awa...

The 85s got my attention at auction so I thought I should see if I could fill up a case... 1 x 1977 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port 2x 1985 Grahams Vintage Port 3x 1985 Warres Vintage Port 2 x 2003 Quinta do Vale Dona Maria Vintage Port 3 x 2003 Warres Vintage Port I just got outbid at the end on anoth...

He does come out with some classic stuff.

This was my favorite bit

Everyone with a self-published wine blog now claims to be a wine writer. This might be semantically true, but is the equivalent of saying that because you know how to type, you’re therefore a typewriter.