For The Love Of Port

Ramos Pinto Quinta do Bom Retiro 20 years old Tawny. We were in Southern California and drove to Hi-Time cellars in Costa Mesa from a conference in Cerritos to pick up a bottle which we enjoyed over the next 4 nights in our hotel room. Yummy. Gets better every day for at least two weeks, to my tastes anyway. As I type this, I'm sipping the last remnants of another bottle of the same wine that we first opened a couple weeks ago. No doubt it's my favorite 20 year old.

Rocha over 40 year old.

Warre 1994 LBV (bottle matured) - really, really good but needs another 10+ years to be at its peak.

1987 Niepoort VP

1983 Cockburn's ... sans TCA.

Later today for the SB, 2001 Warre's LBV.

Roy Hersh wrote:1983 Cockburn's ... sans TCA.

So far...

Pingo Doce 10 Year Tawny - a supermarket chain, made by SFE, less than 9 euros. nothing special, but drinkable!

52 Moriera Colheita for the Superbowl.

Eric Ifune wrote:52 Moriera Colheita for the Superbowl.

Shouldn't you have opened it last week?

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Villar d' Allen 20 Year Tawny Port
and
1983 Gould Campbell VP

Opened a bottle of Dow '94 a week ago. Truly enjoyed it. Was at its best aprox 12 hours after decanting. Live red color, alcohol integrated beautifully.

Opened a bottle of '94 Martinez two weeks back. Was v nice. Alcohol never integrated to perfection, except for a glass that i left out overnight, that was its best showing. Calls for v long decanting.

Also tasted a couple of ports at a cigar bar this past weekend:
- Vargellas 2008 VP: showing plenty of alcohol, not particularly deep. would not have it again unless under $10 a glass...
- Fonseca 40yr tawny: v smooth, nutty flavors, alcohol had fully integrated. this was my first tasting of a 40yr tawny and i came away impressed. Significantly better than the 30 yr Graham I tasted back in 2010 (the only other tawny on the older side that i have tasted).

Also got a bottle of Sandeman Ruby Founders Reserve a week ago for the wife to cook onion jam with (to go w bone marrow). The jam came out fantastic and the wine itself is drinking v v nicely. Great QPR.

1976 Krohn Colheita

A half bottle of Croft 2004 LBV - very tasty

2001 Warre's LBV.

1980 Smith Woodhouse VP

1991 Smith Woodhouse VP

I am relatively new to port wines, but have come to really like the tawny ports. I have recently tried the Porto Rocha Colheita 1966, 1975, and 1977. The 1975 is my favorite, but I cannot find anything about this particular wine anywhere. Porto rocha does not come up on this site. Any thoughts?

Hi Rex,

Porto Rocha is a brand name, it is not a producer and does not have a quinta associated with it. It is owned by Sogevinus and it is closely tied with Kopke historically, and is mostly seen in the US market. As you live in Texas, it is a huge seller there through SPECK's as you likely know. They are the number one account of that product in the USA due to the quantity of stores in your state and the fact that the importer (5 mins away from me ... in a burb of Seattle) really likes working with that chain. Therefore you have great access and very solid prices on Kopke and Rocha in particular. As the current importer is likely not bringing much more Rocha into the USA at this point, stocks are likely to disappear soon and you will have to go with Kopke instead. The blends are not too dissimilar, so you will likely prefer Kopke which imo, is the stronger Port brand and is a Port shipper in its own right, with its own Quinta too.

Here are ALL of the vintages of Rocha currently being sold in the USA:

1929
1950
1965
1978
1994
1997
2001

Good luck and welcome to FTLOP. We hope you will learn lots.

1985 Fonseca

Rocha 50th anniversary tawny port