For The Love Of Port

Hey everyone, I bought a variety of wines as part of the FLOP offer, which included several bottles of Kopke Vintage 2011 port. I haven't seen a tasting note in the database, and I was surprised that the price was so low, even with the discount... obviously the house is best known for their tawnies but curious if anyone can comment or give a tasting profile for their vintage (especially given how terrific the 2011 declared year was).

I'm not planning on selling any of my wines--I enjoy drinking them too much--but I was curious if people see the 2011 vintage prices going up over time. I have been surprised how "cheap" (always relative) a lot of vintage ports are on the auction houses and wonder if there is a real value to holding onto these wines as an investment?

Charles

Port is a bit weird in the wine world, as it's prices don't really appreciate much for quite a while. They'll go up eventually, but Port will probably never be a good financial investment.

Just take a look on winesearcher.com for proof - you can still find 1985 Vintage Ports in the $85 range, and that's for top-tier names. Granted, that's a significant increase over their release price, but it's not a dramatic change. It's only about what new releases go for - as I recall the top tier 2011 Vintage Ports were released at $80 - $90. Of course, the prices we see in FTLOP buying opportunities are well below release, so you could see some immediate appreciation simply due to that fact.

So I assume my investments will make 8%. Sometimes they do better, sometimes worse, but that figure has been working pretty well for me. (It is below the CAGR of the S&P 500 for the last 40, 60, 80 years when dividends are reinvested.) Taking Glenn's $85 bottle of 1985 VP, you would have to paid about $8.50 for that in 1987 to match that 8% return, with no storage costs. Anyone know what 1985 VPs were going for upon release? I suspect it was more than $8.50.

Eric Menchen wrote:So I assume my investments will make 8%. Sometimes they do better, sometimes worse, but that figure has been working pretty well for me. (It is below the CAGR of the S&P 500 for the last 40, 60, 80 years when dividends are reinvested.) Taking Glenn's $85 bottle of 1985 VP, you would have to paid about $8.50 for that in 1987 to match that 8% return, with no storage costs. Anyone know what 1985 VPs were going for upon release? I suspect it was more than $8.50.

The 1977s and 1985s, except for the Fonseca anomalously given 100 points by James Suckling, went at the top end for $25-32.50 around Detroit. I bought mostly Grahams and Taylors from those vintages.

The first Vintage Ports I bought by the case upon release was the 1983 vintage in late 1985. All seven producers that I purchased were selling for $19.99 at my fave shop in DC at the time and 1985. For 1985s, I paid between $25 and $35 in late 1987, mostly from Winexchange (was called Liquorexchange back then, till early 1990s) and Tinamou (the latter no longer exists).