For The Love Of Port

Let's head in another direction for the moment. Do you think that Warre's get's the respect and attention it deserves?

That said, your opinion on which is your favorite vintage of Warre's VP may have changed. Please feel free to change your mind, as many people have now probably had a much broader spectrum since this thread first came to light.

Thanks!

As much as I would like to, I am going to let others chime in first on this one.

Roy Hersh wrote:Do you think that Warre's get's the respect and attention it deserves?

No. I say that, because I have thought the same question. Certainly their product lives up to being talked among the best. Warre is on an even playing field with Taylor and Fonseca on any post war vintage. Warre’s style may not come off as intense. The Warre is more graceful and velvet compared to the power of T&F, but Warre is not lacking in backbone to keep aging.

Seems to me Warre is just more distributed & popular in UK. From an American consumer point of view, the pre 70’s vintages are not as common as T&F.

Disclaimer: Newbie perspective :)

We tasted four Warre VPs at the first FTLOP Gala, 1963, 1977, 1985, and 1994. Of those, only one, the 1977 made the "like to buy" list of my wife and me. So to answer the original question, our favorite would be the 1977. To answer Roy's new question, I must say that from our perspective, it doesn't really deserve as much respect as some of the other players. Two out four Taylors made our "buy" list, and Fonseca did just as well, two out of four. Our surprise standout was Smith Woodhouse, with three out of three making our list. I'd suggest it deserves more respect, but that's probably another thread.

Eric Menchen wrote:Disclaimer: Newbie perspective :)

We tasted four Warre VPs at the first FTLOP Gala, 1963, 1977, 1985, and 1994. Of those, only one, the 1977 made the "like to buy" list of my wife and me.

Interesting; I like all of those vintages from Warre. Were others in the same mind set as you? Then again, I went to a Grahams vertical a few weeks ago with not one bottle I would consider a good example from Graham of that vintage... All 9 bottles were off in one respect or another.

Moses,
None of these were bad, but compared to the competition, they didn't stack up. For 1963, my wife and I picked one out of four that we might seek out to buy, and the Warres wasn't it. For 1977, 1985, and 1994, we picked about 10 out of 24 to buy, and just one Warre made the cut. I don't recall how well this matched the group sentiment, but I don't remember anyone raving about the Warres or picking them as the WOTF or WOTN. Perhaps some other Gala attendees can add their thoughts here?

I have drunk only the 1985 from Warre, so cannot offer much on the VP side. My favorite vintage of Warre's is the Non-Vintage, the Nimrod tawny. This has always been a top of the heap tawny.

Not to stray from the topic of VPs too far, but I have really enjoyed the Warre's 20 year old Otima Tawny Port. Warre's also produces a regular bottling of 20 year old Tawny.

Considering the various tastings I've done over the past year I'd probably now rank the 1977 as my favorite Warre vintage followed closely by the 1970 - although I still have a fondness for the 1070 :) Recently I picked a bottle of WWI era Warre's and I'm very interested to see how this bottle compares with the more recent vintages.

Marc