Is there a Method to your Madness.

[Mike J. W.]

I have a few bottles on death row because they're leakers (including a '77 Fonseca ). Once I drink those up over the next few weeks, I'll be pulling random bottles to drink based solely on what might look interesting to try or what I'm in the mood for (VP, TWAIOA, LBV etc.). That got me to thinking...do you have an organized plan on what you draw from your cellar for day to day drinking, or are your drinking habits random like mine? If you do have a method as to how you choose, what is it and why?

[John M.]

I have no formal rules to follow but as I sort/play with my bottles I will set aside those i should drink next.

So many are slated for tasting groupings, kid's "years", special person or are just too darn young that it leaves a small minority.

I'm solving the too young issue by buying a lot more tawnies---mostly 20 & 30 TWAIOA and Colheitas.

[Glenn E.]

I don't really have a method... usually when I get the urge to open a bottle, that urge comes with something in mind. So I'll do a very basic check of bottles like what I have in mind and pick one.

"Something in mind" is usually pretty simple... "old ruby" or "young ruby" or "old tawny" or "young tawny" or "old white" or "young white" is about as specific as it gets for me.

When I'm looking to pull a bottle for Sammamish Port Club, I instead just start looking at "what's on top" and easily accessible, and of those bottles try to pick something fun and interesting for the group. Sometimes a bottle that's on top will remind me of something else that's buried, and I'll dig the buried bottle out to open. But it's still all basically, "what do I feel will be fun and interesting to share."

[Moses Botbol]

I like to run my hand underneath all the bottles and pick one that is leaking. If cannot find one at that moment, I'll consider the scenario for the bottle in question. If it's a simple pop and pour, I'll keep it in the 1980's or newer.

[Andy Velebil]

No formal rules. But I do like to pull things as they start reaching 25-30 yrs, for VP, to see how they’re coming along.

Otherwise, it depends on how many bottles of a given port/wine I have and if I feel it may have started to evolve since I last had it. Of course, if it’s good I may open another. Oh dear, on reflection writing this, my system is rather chaotic. Yikes

[Al B.]

A couple of decades ago I was busy building up my cellar when I had a conversation with fellow FTLOP and TPF member Tom Archer. At the time I was busy buying new release Port and any bargains I came across so my Port collection was pretty random.

Tom asked me if I had actually thought about what I enjoyed drinking; mature or young, vintage or LBV, shipper A or shipper B and whether my haphazard cellar would give me what I wanted next year, the year after, in a decade, in two decades.

That conversation made me stop and think. I looked back on what I had been randomly choosing to drink from my haphazard cellar over the previous 5 years and made a little analysis. That told me I took an average of 78 bottles out of my cellar every year with an age distribution that looked a bit like this:
3 bottles aged 10 years or less
2 bottles aged 11-16 years
4 bottles aged 17-21
6 bottles aged 22-29
10 bottles aged 30-39
15 bottles aged 40-49
12 bottles aged 50-59
5 bottles aged 60-69
4 bottles aged 70-79
2 bottles aged 80-99
2 bottles aged 100 years or more
8 bottles from my birth year
5 bottles either NV or unknown vintage

Once I had this as the pattern for what I wanted to come out of the cellar every year, it was fairly simple to build an excel spreadsheet which modelled my existing Port collection and how the bottles in it would age over the next 40 years, how many bottles of each vintage I started with and how many I would have left at the end of each year and eventually at the end of my presumed 40 year drinking lifetime. Any negative balances indicated a vintage which needed to be sought out, bought and added to the cellar.

It took me about 5 years, but I ended up with a structured cellar that was capable of yielding the desired profile of wine ages over the rest of my drinking life. Of course, things have moved on and evolved, but the core of the cellar is still the same, as is the pattern of the age of the wines I take from it.

Around the end of each calendar year I take great pleasure in planning what I'll take out of my cellar in the next year. I know which bottles I have in sufficient numbers to be able to open every year (like Vesuvio 1994) so those get dropped into the drinking list first. Then I look for any wounded soldiers - bottles which have started to seep or where the fill is low - and add them. After that, it's just a matter of looking through my stock list and thinking "Ooh. That would be nice. I haven't had one of those for ages." or "I wonder how the 2011 vintage is coming along. I'll try one next year."

I'll tentatively allocate individual bottles to known events, if I know there's a Taylor vertical planned I might allocate one of my Taylor bottles to that, but these allocations tend to be very fluid and move around a lot. While I'm happy drinking Fonseca 1985 on my own at home, I get more pleasure from sharing a Croft 1945 with friends than I would get drinking it alone on a Friday night with pizza,

I usually end up taking closer to 100 bottles out of the cellar by the end of the year so while the first 78 are pretty structured, the other 20 or so are chosen at random but inevitably end up being NV or Colheita on the basis that it's quick and simple to pull and open a bottle of Tawny or White Port without having to worry too much in advance about decanting times. Inevitably a handful of the original 78 don't get opened and so go back into the general cellar pool possibly to be selected in a future year.

[Moses Botbol]

While I'm happy drinking Fonseca 1985 on my own at home, I get more pleasure from sharing a Croft 1945 with friends than I would get drinking it alone on a Friday night with pizza,

I am the same and the older bottles just languish as no one is really into port around me. Plus, the older bottles don't show as well on a pop and pour.

[Eric Menchen]

Now to go check the cellar to see if I have some 1945 Croft to go with my Pizza this weekend.

[Mike J. W.]

That's a great analysis and a very interesting read, Alex. I'm sure I'll be re-reading that one multiple times as I give more thought to my cellar. I'm going to be purchasing less going forward, because I have more than enough Port; but as my purchases will be somewhat judicious going forward, this will help. Thank you.

And Eric, I do have a 1945 Croft, but it sure as hell won't be going with pizza.