FTLOP Issue #85

[Roy Hersh]

In a perfect world, it will be sent out on Monday night.

If I still have minor setbacks with the Canadian market for the buying op ... in a worst case scenario ... the newsletter will go out 2 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, so that it reaches all of Europe, while at the last moments in March.

The buying op will go from April 5th to 11th, to provide everyone a chance to digest the contents and make sound decisions.

Anyway, the rest of the content of this issue is so focused, that I will call this the Tawny Port edition.

There is some really fantastic features in this one and I am very proud of how it has turned out.

Soon!

Thanks for your patience.

[Jeff Terk]

Are there any ratings for the three vintage ports 2000,2007 and 2009?

[Allan Engelsted Laurents]

Are there any ratings for the three vintage ports 2000,2007 and 2009?

If You look in the tasting note database, You will find 250 notes made by Roy from the three years in question, and about 500 notes from other good Portfolks!

So around 750 notes. Would that be enough for You

[Andy Velebil]

Are there any ratings for the three vintage ports 2000,2007 and 2009?

If You look in the tasting note database, You will find 250 notes made by Roy from the three years in question, and about 500 notes from other good Portfolks!

So around 750 notes. Would that be enough for You

I think he's referring to the VP's listed in the FTLOP Buying Op.

[Allan Engelsted Laurents]

Are there any ratings for the three vintage ports 2000,2007 and 2009?

If You look in the tasting note database, You will find 250 notes made by Roy from the three years in question, and about 500 notes from other good Portfolks!

So around 750 notes. Would that be enough for You

I think he's referring to the VP's listed in the FTLOP Buying Op.

Sorry Jeff. My mistake!
Allan

[Mark L]

Duplicating post from the marketplace that as it might be as relevant here:

Hey Glenn and Roy,

I echo all the comments here. This is an awesome opPORTunity!!! Though, admittedly I keep changing my philosophies as to how to approach my order (er, or my checkbook). It'll all be settled by April 5th, I'm sure, but man... talk about paradox of choice!

Question for the two of you, and anyone else who has tasted these tawnies: You mentioned a good amount of acid, sometimes comparing to madeira ... In your estimation would it be enough acid to warrant storing in an UPRIGHT position (like madeira) ? or would it be OK to lay these down like other ports?

I suppose perhaps you might also address how long these tawnies (especially the older ones: 60 and 100) might hold up in a cellar in the long run. I understand that a general rule of thumb that Tawnies with 10, 20, 30 yr tend to be better close to bottling date. But then again, I also know that general rules of thumb can often be just that... general. The 60 and 100 seem special (understatment of the year) and I wonder how their life span shall differ from other tawnies and/or be similar to madeira considering the amount of time already exposed to oxygen/air/etc.

Thanks! Looking forward to placing my order,
Cheers,
Mark

[Andy Velebil]

Duplicating post from the marketplace that as it might be as relevant here:

Hey Glenn and Roy,

I echo all the comments here. This is an awesome opPORTunity!!! Though, admittedly I keep changing my philosophies as to how to approach my order (er, or my checkbook). It'll all be settled by April 5th, I'm sure, but man... talk about paradox of choice!

Question for the two of you, and anyone else who has tasted these tawnies: You mentioned a good amount of acid, sometimes comparing to madeira ... In your estimation would it be enough acid to warrant storing in an UPRIGHT position (like madeira) ? or would it be OK to lay these down like other ports?

I suppose perhaps you might also address how long these tawnies (especially the older ones: 60 and 100) might hold up in a cellar in the long run. I understand that a general rule of thumb that Tawnies with 10, 20, 30 yr tend to be better close to bottling date. But then again, I also know that general rules of thumb can often be just that... general. The 60 and 100 seem special (understatment of the year) and I wonder how their life span shall differ from other tawnies and/or be similar to madeira considering the amount of time already exposed to oxygen/air/etc.

Thanks! Looking forward to placing my order,
Cheers,
Mark

My current bottles from this producer, like almost all my Port, is lying down. No worries in doing so.

I have a couple older bottlings of these left (from 2006 or 08 IIRC) and they are doing fine. So a few years of cellaring should be no biggie for this producers TWAIOA

[Steve Pollack]

I was thinking the same thing, Mark. Does anyone know if San Leonardo uses driven corks or T corks for their wood-aged Ports?

[Andy Velebil]

I was thinking the same thing, Mark. Does anyone know if San Leonardo uses driven corks or T corks for their wood-aged Ports?

T-corks


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[Roy Hersh]

As mentioned in the newsletter, I was really sick there for a while and did not get to include tasting of the 3 VPs. Sorry, there are times where I'd rather err on the side of too little information as I refuse to speculate on Ports I've not had in ages or at all. I would have liked to do the VPs too, but that was unfortunately not in the cards. Miraculously the day the newsletter was mailed out, I had a wonderful thing happen where my nose and palate worked for the first time in over a week and it was my priority to taste 3 Douro wines that day, over a several hour period so that I could do them justice. I figured people would have the ability to find the VP tasting notes from other sources if need be.

[Roy Hersh]

By the way thanks to Bradley Bogdan for his question in AQFTPT and also to Glenn for his fine article on his visit to Mourao!

[Glenn E.]

I was thinking the same thing, Mark. Does anyone know if San Leonardo uses driven corks or T corks for their wood-aged Ports?

T-corks

This is purely me speculating, so it's in no way based on reality, but I wonder if the "100" might end up with a full cork? It's a smaller bottle and a much more expensive Port... even if I bottled everything else with t-stoppers I might use a full cork on something like that. And the volume is likely to be low enough that you could hand cork them if you didn't have a machine to do it.

But yes, as Andy said their 10-40 lineup uses t-stoppers. The "50" and "60" that we were able to bring back with us also used t-stoppers, but those were hand bottled so not necessarily indicative of what a final product might use.

Mine would all be lying down if I had room in my fridges. But I don't, so 3 x S. Leonardo 30 and 3 x S. Leonardo 40 are currently standing up in a styro shipper on the floor. I have bottles from other producers with t-stoppers that are ~10 years old and they're still doing fine lying down.