Optimum bottles of port to have?

[Roy Hersh]

While in Atlanta in January, I was in the cellar of a wealthy gentleman who had well over 20,000 bottles in his cellar. I saw stuff like numerous 5 liter bottles of '83 Yquem, about 20 unopened cases of DRC ... just to give you an idea. He holds regular tastings of bottles he thinks have gone over the hill and that section of his cellar took up a good amount of a pallet (not to be confused with a palate).

So everything is just in proportion to one's own sense of insanity. 8)

[lightning]

My word...I've got a LOT of catching up to do compared to some of you! 700 bottles, 1500-2500 bottles...wow. That's a LOT of money tied up in there.

From someone who's quite new to port, I would estimate that 100-150 bottles would be optimum - I don't drink wine every night, and when I do drink wine, I don't drink port exclusively. Anyway, I hope to have my port collection up to about 10-20 bottles by the end of the year - port prices are ridiculous in Australia (probably close to double what most of you are paying), and there's very little of it around.

But I find australian port to be both cheap and of very high quality - at least the colheita-styled ones (especially Sepplt).

I'm referring more towards Portuguese port - as opposed to "port-style" wines - being a lot more expensive. Australian-made ports tend more towards the tawny style, I'm looking to try more VPs and LBVs.

An example of our prices:

Graham 30 years Tawny - $US 160 in Aust, on a random US website - $US 88 (excluding postage - factor in $12 postage = $100). Difference of 60%.

Fonseca 2003 VP - $US 81 for 375mL in Aust (so roughly 150-160 bucks for 750mL), US website - $US97 + 12 = $109. Difference of 40-50%.

Anyway, sorry for going off topic!