Half bottles - should I buy this lot

[Jay Hack]

My wife hates Port. She give the cough syrup speech. Makes it hard to justify opening a bottle except when I bring it to a dinner with other wineaux. So I see on the Acker Merral auction list tomorrow a case of 24 1997 Niepoort half bottles with a presale estimate starting at $700. Add 19.5% premium and that's still only about $36 per bottle and WS gave it a 98. RMP has not reviewed it. It's very temping, but then again I'm 55 years old and a 1997 Port might be ready when I'm 80. Any thoughts?

[Richard Henderson]

I have not researched this much but my first blush is that is a very high auction estimate.

[Marc J.]

That does seem a bit high. Typically half-bottles are going for about $40.00 at retail and the 750's are $60-70. If you're purchasing 24 bottles and paying close to full retail, I'd say that you're in all likelyhood overpaying.

[Raj Patil]

Looks a little high if you check previous prices on wine-searcher.com

[Robert O.]

I paid $40 a piece for the half bottles I bought. I have a similar situation to yours: my wife has no interest in port except occationally during the winter. So even though this isn't the same value of buying it in the 750ml denomination, it is worth it to me, especially since this is an excellent port. It's very young, but is already drinking well (in my fairly inexperienced opinion) and will only get better.

The only other issue is that many people have reported seepage issues with this port and I have noticed seepage problems with a significant number of the bottles I have bought. So, long term storage may be an issue.

Bob

[Jay Powers]

For my taste, this was the Port of the vintage, and a pretty nice vintage at that. 750 mL bottles are hard to come by in the US in my experience. The 375's might be a good course of action, especially if you may drink them a little young. My guess is that this one will go 50 years without too much problem.

I think that Uncle Tom has posted a TN somewhere on the site, and Roy as well.

Jay

[Roy Hersh]

The 1997 is a fabulous Niepoort and along with the Quinta do Noval (Nacional is in another realm entirely) regular bottling ... these two are both vying for Port of the vintage. We are talking very different styles though and only a point or two difference.

Some have worried about leaking bottles of the 1997 Niepoort's but only some had that issue. If you search this site, you'll find that topic which is fascinating. Anyway, at the auction price you found ... I'd take a pass and buy it at retail!

[Richard Beeken]

Tasted recently (from 375) - superb in every respect. At the price you're looking at, this has got to be a no brainer. "24" . . . get's me dreaming . . .

[nicos neocleous]

Anyway, at the auction price you found ... I'd take a pass and buy it at retail!

I agree 100% with Roy. No rush to buy it.

[Al B.]

I'd also offer a slightly different approach to the basic problem - that only one person in the family drinks port.

Assuming that your drinking volumes are about the same as mine, here is my solution. I open a bottle for myself and decant the contents into a handy decanter. A previously emptied and rinsed half bottle gets filled right to the base of where a T-cork would fit and a T-cork gets shoved in right to the top of the fill. I wrap a bit of cling film around where the cork meets the bottle and then stand this half bottle in the fridge.

I then drink the remaining half bottle that is sitting in the decanter over a two day period. My personal experience is that although the port is different on the second day to the first, I still enjoy it as much on day 2 as I did on day 1.

Come day 3, I take the half-bottle out of the fridge and refill the decanter and then drink the remaining half bottle over the next 2 days, when it tastes pretty much as good as it did on dys 1 and 2.

This leaves my other half free to enjoy the wine of her choice over the four days.

The only thing I would do different, if I could, is use a "half-bottle" sized decanter if I could find one.

Alex

[Shawn Denkler]

Al B. had a great point. Half bottles are rare; no matter what you drink there is not enough choice of half bottles. Al B. described the process well. If you decant any full bottle into a half and fill it up to the top, little air gets in and it will keep well in the fridge for a while. You do not have to hurry it will hold well for a while. With port the saved half bottle is often better than the first

I have worked in Napa Valley for over thirty years and always recomend this method to anybody that asks about how to save wine. It certainly is not an original thought of mine, but I am suprised this method of saving wine is not better knowm, it works well.