Lots of new faces ... please introduce yourself

[Andy Velebil]

Michelle,

Great story, thanks!

Yes, run ... don't walk and grab that 1985 Fonseca and decant the sediment out and let the wine breathe in the open decanter for 8-12 hours. You are going to see the difference between a great LBV and a mind-blowing Vintage Port; both by Fonseca in this case.

Ever want to try GREAT pancakes in your area: Clinton St. Baking Co. on Clinton, just off the corner of Houston.

+1

[Eric Menchen]

Now I'm wondering if it's worth spending $95 to go back and get that '85 Fonseca VP that we were wrongly steered on... it's still there, the last time we looked 3 weeks ago....

Caveat: We've had good 1985 Fonsecas and great ones. If the storage is questionable, I might look elsewhere given that price. A few places have it for less (e.g. HDH, although I wouldn't be surprised if there is a NY or NJ source too).

[Bart Vannuffelen]

Hello,

My name is Bart and I'm from Belgium, the country with the best beers in the world !
I visited Porto last week where I came in contact with this beautiful drink.
I found this site on the internet and I hope that the experts here can help me with my beginners questions.
I've read a lot on the internet, but some things aren't so clear.

Hope to hear some of you!
Cheers !!

[Andy Velebil]

Hello,

My name is Bart and I'm from Belgium, the country with the best beers in the world !
I visited Porto last week where I came in contact with this beautiful drink.
I found this site on the internet and I hope that the experts here can help me with my beginners questions.
I've read a lot on the internet, but some things aren't so clear.

Hope to hear some of you!
Cheers !!

Hi Bart
to the Forum. Thanks for the introduction and please ask whatever questions you have, no matter how small you think it may be. We love to share our knowledge with others...and we've got some serious beer drinkers on here too

[Matt K]

Welcome Bart - Belgium really does have the best beer in the world!
I've been there a bunch of times starting from when I was a kid as we have family friends in Antwerp & Rebecq.

For those who've not been there Belgium is amazing. It has a world class food scene, amazing beers, great cultural opportunities, both historic & modern, plus amazing beer/frites/sweets, etc. Highly recommended for a visit.

I was looking at this thread the other day and thinking that in the past nine and a half years, I never remember there being a full two month gap between introductions in this particular thread.

Ironically, or actually coincidentally, I joined right around when you posted this and I wrote an intro in the Madeira forum because I didn't see this thread - likely because no one had replied in 2+ months. Ooops! :)

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Bart,

It is nice to have you join us and as Andy mentioned, we'd be happy to assist with any questions you may have. So please do allow us to provide you the full collective Port wisdom of our community in welcoming you to and also responding to any questions you would like to present.

Cheers!

Roy

[Thomas V]

Greetings fellow port lovers.

My name is Thomas I'm 33 years old and I live in Aarhus, Denmark.

During the last couple of years my interest in red (Italian) and port wine has increased substantially and I am making my first baby steps as to acquire some port for my cellar. I find port very intriguing and have been reading up of the different varieties, producers and vintages. I must say that the learning curve is steep. A lot of different producers, vintage years and variety in prices to account for. But as I go along it will probably become part of the fun.

I have started out my port adventure by buying a 2011 Taylors Vintage and my plan is to spend most of my money on 2011, 2007, 2003 and 1994 vintages as the have many years to mature and are reasonably priced for my budget at the moment. Any suggestions on which producers I should include in my VP collection?

However I have also started peaking into Colheita's and decided to purchase a couple of these as well though I find the Colheita's harder than the VP's to figure out which vintages I should invest in. I have set my heart on trying out some Burmester & Niepoort 1994 seems like a good harvest any other vintages within a budget of 60-80 $ a bottle. (I probably wont be buying cases initially).

I look forward to getting to know more of you and learning more about the intricate world of port. This seems like a friendly and knowledgeable forum.

Cheers

Thomas

[Andy Velebil]

Hi Thomas,
to the Forum. I'll chime in more in a bit, as I've got to run at the moment. But at least wanted to say glad you're with us!

[Thomas V]

Hi Thomas,
to the Forum. I'll chime in more in a bit, as I've got to run at the moment. But at least wanted to say glad you're with us!

Thanks Andy. I will look forward to your elaboration.

Cheers

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Thomas,

We are very pleased to have you here. I made my first journey to your country last year and visited three areas and could not believe:
a. how many Port lovers there are for such a small country.
b. if the USA had nearly the per-capita consumption rate for Port as does Denmark, I swear the Douro would be in deep trouble supplying enough Port. Your countrymen amaze me.
c. I had always heard about the bicycle culture in Amsterdam, but what I saw in Copenhagen was more than I could ever imagine.

I have three or four guests from Denmark coming on this year's Port Harvest Tour. They are as experienced as anyone on this Forum. While I've met all of them, I will just say that I can't wait to spend a week with them during the harvest.

Your buying strategy with 2011, 2007, 2003 and 1994 is very sound. But I would also not ignore the 2000 vintage or even 1997. Both have some excellent wines and the 1997 often times at a bargain.

Must run but will be back too.

For now, enjoy the journey and we hope you will be with us for a long time to come. Some of us have been here nearly a decade, (actually the 29th is our actual birthday from 2005).



Roy

[Thomas V]

Hi Roy and thank you for your warm welcome.

Lovely that you had a chance to visit Denmark. I do hope the weather was somewhat decent while you were here and you had some good food and tasted some beer from some of our smaller breweries. Which areas did you visit? I live in Aarhus the 2nd largest town in Denmark which is on the peninsula called Jutland. Roughly 350.000 residents.

We are quite the biking country and Copenhagen is especially flat which makes biking the easiest way to get around the city.

We have a large alcohol consumption in Denmark and port is slowly getting a come back. The average Dane still thinks of it as a grand mom drink. Funny, just recently a paper was published with some details about the wine import statistics in Denmark. I thought I might share and perhaps spark some head shaking or discussion.

Danish population : 5.6 million

2014

Total gross wine import: 182 million litres (down 8% from 2012) which is roughly 42 litres of wine per adult in Denmark per year.

22% Italian wine
13% Chilean wine
13% Spanish wine
13% French wine
12% South African wine
7% Australian wine
5% German wine
4% Argentinian wine
3% US wine
9% Other

According to the paper the financial crisis impacted the Danish port import a lot. In 2006 and 2007 the gross port wine import was 1.6 and 1.5 million litres. During the crisis the consumption fell with 1.0 million litres per year. Now in 2014 we are sitting at 1.5 million litres of port per year. If we deduct everyone in Denmark under the age of 18 we get a figure of 4.4 million Danes who on average will consume 0.350 litres of port each. I am not sure how that places on in the world of port consumption.

I have looked at your tours and I will be trying to sweet talk the girlfriend to join sometime in the future(She does not enjoy port, but are more into reds and champagne). Great initiative and it would be great to listen to knowledgeable port wine experts and tasting some great vintages.

Good to hear that I my buying strategy is somewhat sensible. I could though use some expert advice on which Colheita's to invest in when and if you are any others have some input on the matter.

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Tom,

Heading to bed, just seeing this though. If you send me an email, I have something Port-related to send in return, that I think you will greatly appreciate. roy@fortheloveofport.com or portolover@aol.com

Thanks!

Roy

[Eric Menchen]

Welcome Thomas! There are a lot or Port consuming Danes, and quite a few on this board too. Perhaps some of them will chime in here to offer some advice on what is available and a good buy there. While the learning curve for Port is steep, I don't think it is quite as big of a mountain as some of the other wine styles out there. As for colheitas, I don't think exact vintages are quite as important, as there are a lot of excellent Colheitas from odd years that are quite tasty. Sure, 1937 is great, but so is 1967 Kopke Colheita as well.

[Allan Engelsted Laurents]

Hi Thomas
A fellow Dane is calling.

Just a small comment on VP vs Colheita: I find and drink quite a few Colheitas from various Years of Harvest. And it is easy to find Colheitas from Years, where VP was'nt produced.
On the other hand, it is quite fun to have both a VP and Colheita from the same Porthouse and Harvest.

This summer I have turned my focus on Kopke Colheitas 1984 and 1985. 30$ a pieces ín a Danish grocery store....Thats a Nice Price.

[Edward J]

hi all and greetings. We live in California,at the doorstep to
The Napa Valley. Back in the day (late '70's) my wife and I spent many wonderful days visiting the wineries before it turned into the big commercial deal it is today. So we raised our family and didn't add to our collection which now only contains some very good sweet whites. I'm sad to say the last VP's we enjoyed were a Warre and Dow 1983 that we purchased after the birth of our twin sons. It's been too long until recently my wife said, "you know , I would like to have some good port ". Things have changed a bit with LBV and such but the wine is still scrumptious. Even California has upped it's game and make some very drinkable wines. We are looking forward to learning ever more about what I consider the King of wines.

[Andy Velebil]

hi all and greetings. We live in California,at the doorstep to
The Napa Valley. Back in the day (late '70's) my wife and I spent many wonderful days visiting the wineries before it turned into the big commercial deal it is today. So we raised our family and didn't add to our collection which now only contains some very good sweet whites. I'm sad to say the last VP's we enjoyed were a Warre and Dow 1983 that we purchased after the birth of our twin sons. It's been too long until recently my wife said, "you know , I would like to have some good port ". Things have changed a bit with LBV and such but the wine is still scrumptious. Even California has upped it's game and make some very drinkable wines. We are looking forward to learning ever more about what I consider the King of wines.

Hi Edward,

Thanks for the introduction and welcome to the Forum.

[terrance creighton]

Hello,
Fellow Seattleite here.
Been fascinated by Ports over the past 6 months and keep digging more and more into it, which has landed me here...

Been trolling for a bit, but will now start popping up in the Port Basics threads to begin.

I look forward to hearing about events and such happening in the Seattle area, the previous ones sound incredible!

cheers!

[Andy Velebil]

Hello,
Fellow Seattleite here.
Been fascinated by Ports over the past 6 months and keep digging more and more into it, which has landed me here...

Been trolling for a bit, but will now start popping up in the Port Basics threads to begin.

I look forward to hearing about events and such happening in the Seattle area, the previous ones sound incredible!

cheers!

Hi Terrance,

Welcome to the Forum A number of members here are from your area so I'm sure at some point you could join them for a tasting.

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Terrance,

Welcome to our humble Forum and welcome aboard. We do a few Port tastings in this area and are generally responsible for driving up the annual Port consumption of the USA, er, I mean WA State.

Follow along and better yet, participate here and you too shall have the opPORTunity to enjoy some nice bottles of our favorite beverage.

[Thomas V]

Welcome Thomas! There are a lot or Port consuming Danes, and quite a few on this board too. Perhaps some of them will chime in here to offer some advice on what is available and a good buy there. While the learning curve for Port is steep, I don't think it is quite as big of a mountain as some of the other wine styles out there. As for colheitas, I don't think exact vintages are quite as important, as there are a lot of excellent Colheitas from odd years that are quite tasty. Sure, 1937 is great, but so is 1967 Kopke Colheita as well.

You were right about the other Danes inhere Eric.

I totally agree that red wine production, standards and quality systems are much more difficult to comprehend, as they also very based on the country of origin.

The thing about Colheitas that attracts me is that they seem more approachable in price and also when bottled should be just right to drink. (Most comments about Colheitas seem to suggest they wont take on any new nuances after they have been bottled since they are filtered and without sediment).

After my girlfriend and I have settled into our new house I will be able to start expanding my "cellar" with Colheitas and it will be a fun process the choose which should be my first.

Hi Thomas
A fellow Dane is calling.

Just a small comment on VP vs Colheita: I find and drink quite a few Colheitas from various Years of Harvest. And it is easy to find Colheitas from Years, where VP was'nt produced.
On the other hand, it is quite fun to have both a VP and Colheita from the same Porthouse and Harvest.

This summer I have turned my focus on Kopke Colheitas 1984 and 1985. 30$ a pieces ín a Danish grocery store....Thats a Nice Price.

Hi Allan.

Great point. I have only had the Kopke 10 and 20 year Tawnies but I will be looking into their Colheitas as well.


For all: Which producers do you think are most skilled at creating Colheitas?