The worst port in the world....

[tastingnote]

I needed milk on sunday and I walked to my nearest open shop (called Lidl - think of a cheap Wal-Mart that mainly sells rubbish German products that they have imported en masse to the UK and are selling off at a very low price) and whilst walking past the booze I noticed a rather horrid looking Port.

It cost £4.76 and I resisted the urge (!) at the time, but it did get me thinking that maybe I should try some wines that I would normally just walk past, so I am off back to the shop tonight to spend £4.76 of my hard earned cash on this.

Anyway, the point of this post was to ask 'what is the worst port you have tried?' as I fear I may have a new one tomorrow! (no corked/oxidised wines etc are allowed!)

Peter

[Michael M.]

Peter, what kind of quality do you expect for about 7 EUR?

Here in Germany, I do not look for a good Port in shops where they sell rubbish german products. But thank you very much for sharing your impressions and your informations about german products.

[tastingnote]

Michael, apologies for any offence caused. It was not intended. I've had many many great german foods in my life, indeed I worked in a store that specialised in german products, unfortunately though the stuf they sell in this particular shop is very dubious.

There was absolutely no offense meant towards Germany, it's people or it's products!

Peter

[Johannes Stadler]

Buying Wine in Aldi Lidl or other Discounters is like playing the Lottery - with a little bit better odds.
What I want to say is that you can get a great deal there if you find a good wine (htey usually go for <5€ and taste better than some wines i tried for 10€. But the bigger part just isn't worth half of the money you pay for it.

And as I hate to buy something i regrett afterwards I usually go to my local winedealer where I get some more advice than "The wine stands over there - thats all I can tell you", and can eventually also taste some new stuff.

Good luck

[tastingnote]

Thanks for the advice, but I should let everyone know that I actually am a manager of a wine and whisky shop, that has a wonderous array of ports, wines and whiskies (a product range of about 8000 items), and I have an obscene cellar of fine wines and ports that nobody of my age (and meagre salary) should have! I've also tried a huge amount of wonderful old wines as I co-formed a fine wine dining company in 2002.

The reason I do try very cheap wines (on occasion) is because in my job it is very easy to overlook cheaper wines in supermarkets, as I am in a very fortunate position of trying great wines on nearly a daily basis. Occasionally I am surprised by these cheapies and while I expect this Lidl port to be totally rubbish, it will make me appreciate the merits of the likes of Taylors and Grahams LBV that I normally wouldn't touch.

What I wanted to do was start a discussion about what the worst port people had tried was, and may have started an international incident.

Definately not my intention.....

Peter

[Michael M.]

Peter, thank you for your reply and clarification. I am with Xaverin. It isn't worth the time and the money trying to find a good wine in a dicounter shop as Aldi or Lidl, pp. But here in Germany they do not sell only rubbish products. For exemple, and I state this as a cook and a gardener in advocation: fruits and vegetables are sometimes at a really good quality. The same applies to some other foods or cosmetics. As it is allwayls in life: one has to make a differentiation. To make it clear. I am not in love with discounter shops. But I do buy there, if the quality is given.

Cheers
Michael

[Derek T.]

Peter,

In an attempt to bring some UN style peace keeping intervention and avoid further international conflict I hereby declare this thread back on topic:

The worst port I have ever tasted was Cruz Ruby - purchased from a small grocers shop in the south of France (no insult intended to the French, their shops or their food) for around 5 Euro. It was awful - hotter than paint-stripper - The second worst port I have ever tasted was a Cruz Vintage 199? - almost exactly the same as the Ruby only 4 times the price.

Derek

PS: Can all Americans please tell GWB that this particular Northern European conflict is now under control and no "Shock and Awe" style assistance is required

[simon Lisle]

Vintage wise a Messias 85 (could have been a bad bottle but I doubt it)closely followed by a Cruz 89.Then maybe a Krohns 85 Colheita.Ronnieroots gave me a slating for thinking the Krohns 91 vintage was ok but I'll have another go at that one because I'd had quite a few glasses of wine before I cracked that one open.

[Andy Velebil]

I had a Royal Oporto VP from the mid 80's can't remember the exact vintage, do to the trauma of drinking it :!: It was just awful, like someone put my grandmothers nail polish remover in a Port bottle.


Ohh, and just recently...Jonsey (that impostor from the land down under)...Funny becuase a couple years ago I liked the stuff, but a friend had a bottle a couple weeks ago and he gave me a glass...poured it down the sink!

[Frederick Blais]

I did have some horrible experience in Canada with Cruz '89 and Messias '84 but THE worst port I ever had was in Portugal.

On a Sunday during an holliday week-end in Portugal(normally everything should be closed) there was only the Residential's restaurant in Pinhao that was open. So we had no other choice to eat there for lunch and dinner. Well I decided to try the free glass of Port that they were serving during the meal, I'd say why not try the peasant's Port. Just by seeing the waiter serving it from a 5 liters plastic jug, my stomach was already burning. It was just horrible and the headache was noticeble after only one sip

[Julian D. A. Wiseman]

Taylor 1851! Stank of rotten perfume — and so was used to make a sauce for a duck. I suspect that, in its prime, it was far better.

Second worst was in Germany, in the mid-1990s. Visiting a young lady I was then wooing, soon after my arrival — lunchtime — she looked at the clock and said "I usually have a glass of port about now. Would you like one?" If I wasn't smitten before such a comment, I surely was after. But the lunch port, its details having been lost in the mists of time, was truly terrible. Something like a vintage character, though I have forgotten whose. Next time I visited her with a Graham's of her birth year, 1970. Halfway through that splendid bottle I suggested that we compare it to the lunch port — after which the mystery lunch port was never seen again. Maybe that was a bad idea: it deprived her of a daily pleasure.

[Kurt Wieneke]

I'd have to say the worst for me was a Smith Woodhouse Lodge Reserve, bitter and tannic, utterly dreadful. A couple of buddy's in my wine club loved it though. To each his own. . .

[Tom Archer]

Without doubt, Australian Rovalley 'Vintage' port 1975

Totally undrinkable - I couldn't even cook with it..

Tom

[John Danza]

Taylor 1851! Stank of rotten perfume — and so was used to make a sauce for a duck. I suspect that, in its prime, it was far better.

How unfortunate, because the 1851 vintage was one of the best of the 19th century. Many are still ok, so yours was a bad bottle. I guess bad storage conditions can happen over a 150 year span!

[Julian D. A. Wiseman]

Agreed. But a Taylor 1900, from the same source and served next to the 1851, was fantastic. For ports over a century old one out of two isn’t so bad.

[Jay Powers]

PS: Can all Americans please tell GWB that this particular Northern European conflict is now under control and no "Shock and Awe" style assistance is required

Well Derek, I have a better plan. The failure of GWB's plots are very clear. But I have a new plan. Instead of a poorly concieved adventure in the middle east, I woul propose a strategic takeover of the UK.

Not too invasive, but I feel that we need to send several divisions over to England to ensure a strategic supply of port, despite our very freindly relations. Your guy Blair needs to "free" the UK port supplies to the open market. Although man for man the SAS or SBS may have the Airborne or Rangers trumped, numbers may tell, and with a few modifications our supply ships could be modified with some temperature control to ensure the timely delivery of fine old vintage port to the west coast of the US.

Clearly, given the current price of port in the US, (or price + shipping), this should be a primary goal of the US armed forces instead of oil. Let the free market (or something like that) rule!

Jay

[Derek T.]

Jay,

In the words of William Wallace (almost) "You can take our lands, but you'll never take our VP "

Derek

PS: Obviously this is (almost) from the words of the Mel Gibson Hollywood version of William Wallace rather than the real one :?

PPS: The US strategic takeover of the UK began 20 years ago when you sent us the Big Mac 'n' Fries

[Al B.]

My worst ever port was a half bottle of Port from the Tanzanian Wine Company, brought back for me by a couple of friends who were working there.

The sediment comprised of undissolved sugar and the mummified remains of a dead moth.

My second worst sounds like its going to be the bottle of Cruz 1989 port I just bought at Morrisons. Oh well, it was cheap and I am nearly out of Ruby for rinsing my decanter.....

Alex

[Gizzyeq]

A friend of mine is bringing over a bottle of port that he got as a gift from his friend who went to Peru...and bought it near machu picchu..haven't tasted it yet and I'm kinda scared but I'll let you guys know hehe

[Derek T.]

If the bottle looks 500 years old and has a label marked Quinta do Cortez 1519 don't open it - it could contain mummified remains of the last Aztec Emperor :?