2014: The BEST Port(s) you have consumed this year?

[Roy Hersh]

It is that time again with just a few weeks left in this year.

I hope that everyone will be willing to participate this year and it can decide between the one singular best bottle, or you can select from each category or however you want to go about it. Most of all, have fun!

[John M.]

1970 Grahams VP easily. Had it twice--both ex-cellars and just lovely and perfect. (97 & 98 points). Wish I had a case of these.

On the Glenn Side (Tawny) my best was a 1984 Kopke Colheita (94 points); paid $61 all in at a B&M shop.

[Eus Wust]

A century-old cask sample at Quinta da Costa de Baixo (Bulas)

[Allan Engelsted Laurents]

I will post in 3 categories:
Colheita: Niepoort 1935 (and not just because of the Company...)
Vintage Port: Real Comp. Velha 1938
Twaioa: Kopke 40 years

Allan

[Glenn E.]

I had a spectacular year, especially the last half. And that was mostly due to the 2014 Port Harvest Tour. Normally I draw the line at > 95 points for this thread, but this year I'm going to have to actually raise the bar or the list would be too long! Yeah, it was that kind of a year. These are listed chronologically within each rating since that's the easiest way to copy them out of my TN book!

100 - Quinta do Mourao "60 Year Old" Tawny Port cask sample (Quinta do Mourao, Harvest Tour)
100 - Quinta do Mourao "100 Year Old" Tawny Port cask sample (Quinta do Mourao, Harvest Tour)
100 - DR Port 1885 Colheita (LBV79, Harvest Tour)
99 - 1952 Kopke Colheita (Burmester Tasting Room, Harvest Tour)
99 - Quinta do Mourao "50 Year Old" Tawny Port cask sample (Quinta do Mourao, Harvest Tour)
98 - 1994 Vesuvio VP (FTLOP 9th Anniversary Tasting)
98 - 1976 Krohn Colheita (FTLOP 9th Anniversary Party)
98 - 1952 Dalva Golden White Colheita (pre-Harvest Tour tasting in London)
98 - 1940 Kopke Colheita (pre-Harvest Tour tasting at Kopke)
98 - 1937 Kopke Colheita (Burmester Tasting Room, Harvest Tour)
98 - 1972 Quinta do Mourao Colheita Tonel #9 (Quinta do Mourao, Harvest Tour)
98 - 1917 Niepoort Colheita Branco (Restaurant D.O.C., Harvest Tour)
98 - 1970 Graham VP (Quinta dos Malvedos, Harvest Tour)
98 - 2011 Dow VP (Quinta dos Malvedos, Harvest Tour)

There were numerous 97s and 96s this year as well... I wish every year could be this good!

[Monique Heinemans.]

As I don't own very old VP's like some of you: 1985 Graham's vintage port and 2000 Fonseca vintage port.
Both stunning!

[Christopher B.]

Graham's 2011 in the VP category, and Taylor's 20 year old Tawny in the tawny category.

[Al B.]

Unlike Glenn, I haven't had any perfect ports this year, but there's still time yet - our Christmas Offline is next week and you never know...

My top 4 and the only ports which I scored at 98 or 99 points this year were:
99 points - Taylor Scion 1855 - drunk at the bar at the Yeatman Hotel and drunk along side:
98 points - Taylor 1863 colheita - what fun to be able to compare the Scion and the 1863 side-by-side

And I am very boring in my choice of vintage ports:
98 points - Quinta do Noval Nacional 1994 - the port chosen to go with dessert and cheese but served blind after lunch at the Quinta. We had to guess what it was and it was so sweet and elegant yet powerful that it was not difficult to guess.
99 points - Quinta do Noval Nacional 2011 - tasted blind as well as sighted a few times in 2013 but only sighted in 2014, this port just astounds me every time I taste it. It is so complete yet so balanced that I find it hard to imagine anything better than this will be in 40-50 years time. I'm convinced this will be better than the 1966 and as good as the 1963, which is the only port which I have ever awarded 100 points.

[Moses Botbol]

1970 Dow and 1963 Grahams; bottles I bought from a local collector that have been in the same cellar from the early 1970's until I picked them up. Both were the best examples of the their respective vintages I have ever had. So youthful still!

Luckily I have several cases from the cellar to enjoy for years to come!

[Roy Hersh]

Glenn, the question remains ... did you enjoy the tour?

Don't bother answering, you've already made a few people jealous with that list.

[Eric Ifune]

1994 Croft.
1970 Fonseca.

[Paul Fountain]

For me it would have to be
2011 Fonseca VP
1985 Grahams VP
1977 Gould Campbell VP
1974 Kopke Colheita

[Roy Hersh]

We have a fairly large community of Port lovers here, so I hoped we'd see a greater number of participants here. No one is judging your selection as what was best for you. This is not a competition for bragging rights. So if you had a bottle of Warre's Warrior, Fonseca Bin 27, Noval Black as your favorite Port, please do feel free to post it without worrying about what anyone will say.

While over 200 people have viewed this thread, less than 10 have been willing to add their own 2014 best. Please do join the conversation, even if you just been lurking here for month, or years.

[John M.]

For my Port Group, the overall WOTY was the 2008 Quinta do Portal LBV (best average score). On an individual basis (14 members) 4 had it as their favorite; 3 had the 1983 Dows VP as their favorite. The rest varied. Only 33 ports tasted this year as we had meetings with other things (Bourbon, Malbecs, Belgian Wheat Beers).

The Dows would have won but four members gave it incredibly low scores.

[Christian Gollnick]

Going through all my notes, I realized that there wasn't any real special wine for me this year... nothing that would have been around before my great-grandfather was born... I can bite myself for missing this years' FTLOP Harvest Tour - because I would have loved all those wines...

Well, but even so there were a few outstanding wines in my glass this year:
Graham's 1952 Tawny - so nice! This is for me the wine of the year... Drinking it at the beautiful 1890 Lodge in Gaia, in the nice English-club like visitor room... together with other Graham's Ports: the 30 and 40 year old Tawnies... plus the 1969 Tawny... oh, that was a good day for me Tawny-lover...
Bulas 20 year old Tawny.... this is for me the surprise of the year and I'm just loving it. I have to get my hand on more of this marvelous wine... This will be my Christmas wine this year...

Sometimes when you drink a wine, everything just comes nicely together... I remember for example drinking the 10 year old Andresen in a very nice little bar in Lisbon - and it was absolutely amazing... Normally I look only at 10 year old Tawnies when I'm out of 20 year old wines - but that one was really good!

It's difficult for me to like young rubies - but the Cockburn 2007 Vintage was also amazing to drink!

This is my list of official Ports. There was one more that a small wine maker gave me, which was the most interesting Port I had all year - but that was a non-registered Port wine...

[Andy Velebil]

99 points - Taylor Scion 1855 - drunk at the bar at the Yeatman Hotel and drunk along side:
98 points - Taylor 1863 colheita - what fun to be able to compare the Scion and the 1863 side-by-side

And I am very boring in my choice of vintage ports:
98 points - Quinta do Noval Nacional 1994 - the port chosen to go with dessert and cheese but served blind after lunch at the Quinta. We had to guess what it was and it was so sweet and elegant yet powerful that it was not difficult to guess.
.

For me, these three were in my top of the marks for the year as well. And I was lucky enough to discuss them with other Port lovers as we tasted them. I gotta sort out the rest, but need to go through all my notes. Will report back in a bit on those.

[Gary Banker]

1991 Croft VP. I wish that I had more.

[David Co]

Way too many bottles to recall but I did have a 1 out of 4 1977 fonsecas show extra wonderfully this past October. I enjoyed tasting all the 2011 ports and I can only hope that the large amount that I purchased of them will show beautifully in about 25 years.
Other ports that stood out would be
dow 70
dow 85
dow 07 (2007)
morgan 63 (friend payed nearly nothing for this and it showed awesome on two seperate wine nights)

[John Danza]

My entry is the 1991 Dow LBV. It may not be my "best" but it was certainly my most surprising. It opened my eyes to the kind of ageing potential the lowly LBV really has, to the point that I'm buying a bunch of them now to see what they'll do in years to come.

[Derek T.]

99 points - Taylor Scion 1855 - drunk at the bar at the Yeatman Hotel and drunk along side:
98 points - Taylor 1863 colheita - what fun to be able to compare the Scion and the 1863 side-by-side

And I am very boring in my choice of vintage ports:
98 points - Quinta do Noval Nacional 1994 - the port chosen to go with dessert and cheese but served blind after lunch at the Quinta. We had to guess what it was and it was so sweet and elegant yet powerful that it was not difficult to guess.
.

For me, these three were in my top of the marks for the year as well.

+1

That was quite a memorable day