What have you opened this week?

[Glenn E.]

Noval Black and Six Grapes are our my go to's.

Those 2 were the inspiration for the Ruby Reserve Taste-Off back in 2012. There were 6 tastings held around the world during that event. It's been 10+ years now, maybe it's time to do another one?

TL;DR the pretty clear winner worldwide was - surprising everyone - Taylor's First Estate. It won every tasting in which it appeared, and these were all held blind!

Noval Black and Graham's Six Grapes ended up splitting their head-to-head appearances, each winning 2 of them and then tying for a 5th.

[Lucas S]

Interesting. Thanks for the ranking. We don't discuss ruby reserve rankings much.

I've been leaning towards ruby reserve over LBV's recently. Noval Black and Six Grapes are our my go to's. Had 25+ year old Six Grapes that showed terrific. Plenty of bottle aging potential.

I've been tasting LBVs properly, side-by-side and blind, but the ruby reserves I'm drinking one at a time non-blind so do take the rankings with a grain of salt.
GSG is probably the one that can age the most for sure and is solid. I enjoyed the flavor profile of the QVDM and Sandeman a bit more, but they will age a bit less. All of them I would define as enjoyable, even the Bin 27 was better the next day.

Those 2 were the inspiration for the Ruby Reserve Taste-Off back in 2012. There were 6 tastings held around the world during that event. It's been 10+ years now, maybe it's time to do another one?

That sounds fun. That's a long time and one might expect different results.

I had read that thread before looking for recommendations, the First Estate and Warre's Warrior are on my to-try list. Unless I searched winesearcher improperly, it seemed to me that Kopke Reserve Ruby was EU only. I also looked for the Dow Trademark Reserve and it seems a bit hard to come by relative to the others, at least here on the east coast. I am also intrigued by the SW Lodge Reserve and Portal 27 Grapes, which can be found. There are so many solid ports to try. Darn those liver and wallet bottlenecks!

[Mike J. W.]

2003 Offley Boa Vista VP

[David Spriggs]

[Those 2 were the inspiration for the Ruby Reserve Taste-Off back in 2012. There were 6 tastings held around the world during that event. It's been 10+ years now, maybe it's time to do another one?

Fantastic idea!

[John M.]

My Port Club in New Jersey would LOVE another Ruby Reserve taste-off....right in the Club's wheelhouse.

[Moses Botbol]

Opened is one way of putting it... This morning's tragedy. Not sure what to replace it with for tonight...

[Eric Menchen]

Opened is one way of putting it... This morning's tragedy. Not sure what to replace it with for tonight...

[Glenn E.]

Opened is one way of putting it... This morning's tragedy. Not sure what to replace it with for tonight...

Yikes! Yeah that's definitely a tragedy.

[Andy Velebil]

Ugh tragic. How did that happen?

[Frederick Blais]

Perfectly matured for my palate half bottle of Vargellas 2005. Ripe, floral and complex!

[Scott Esterly]

Perfectly matured for my palate half bottle of Vargellas 2005. Ripe, floral and complex!

I just ordered one of these from Benchmark. Very much looking forward to tasting it!

[Moses Botbol]

Ugh tragic. How did that happen?

Knocked it over when it was on the ground moving OWC's around.

[Mike J. W.]

Opened is one way of putting it... This morning's tragedy. Not sure what to replace it with for tonight...

Damn! That is a shame.

[Al B.]

At a port weekend this week I opened bottles of Warre 1963, Graham Malvedos 1965 and a half bottle of Kopke 50yo White.

[Al B.]

Ah yes, and a magnum of Dow 1977 last Monday.

[Moses Botbol]

To replace the broken '48 Graham VP, it was a '58 Martinez VP and '37 Ramos Pinto Colheita. Both were superb.

[Glenn E.]

2015 Graham LBV - a cellar defender doing its duty.

[Eric Ifune]

A bottle of the 1964 Krohn branco for visiting relatives.

[Mike J. W.]

2013 Quinta Da Pacheca LBV.

[Scott Esterly]

1991 Graham's VP. I loved it!

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