For The Love Of Port

Andy,

Not to sound trite or pompous, but how many times can one have a 1985 Graham's? 20, 30, 40? At some point, drinking the same VP's over and over again becomes less interesting than exploring TWAIOA or Colheitas that I've not had before or at least just a couple of times. Variety is the rationale for me. I don't have the resources to be opening pre-1950 Vintage Ports more than a couple of times per year, and they're becoming more and more scarce, so I'm likely to have them on my road trips, or while in Portugal or during a gathering with other FTLOP'ers.

Roy Hersh wrote:Andy,

Not to sound trite or pompous, but how many times can one have a 1985 Graham's? 20, 30, 40? At some point, drinking the same VP's over and over again becomes less interesting than exploring TWAIOA or Colheitas that I've not had before or at least just a couple of times. Variety is the rationale for me. I don't have the resources to be opening pre-1950 Vintage Ports more than a couple of times per year, and they're becoming more and more scarce, so I'm likely to have them on my road trips, or while in Portugal or during a gathering with other FTLOP'ers.

Everyday for those good VP's I do enjoy variety and until this year when I've slowed buying due to the cellar getting a bit too full I was buying and drinking a fair amount of off vintages, lower tier or less heard about producers, and things other than the "big boys." Not only for variety but for the educational value as well. But like I said, this past year or so that has tapered off only because I cut back buying. Most likely once the cellar gets drained a bit I'll start picking up more different things again. The one thing which has helped is it's been so darn hot and muggy here in LA this summer. The first time where I've really cut back Port drinking just because of how muggy it has been here. Would rather have a cold gin and tonic or crisp beer, or even a cold white wine, than Port. Hopefully our weather changes soon so I can get back to my regular Port

Glenn E. wrote:Now that you mention it, I still have some 1986 Noval Colheita on the counter downstairs...

How about if I define rarity by what Glenn has most of open on his sideboard? Clearly VP is much rarer than anything aged in barrel - you only have to look at Glenn's empties bin to know that.

I've been looking for this thread for a while. I thought it was in Port Conversations and it took me ages to find. I wanted to look for it because I think I drink more wood aged Ports today than I did in 2014.

So, in 2013 I drank 41 wood aged Ports (by which I mean Tawny or Colheita including aged Whites or White Colheita) of which 1 came out of my own cellar. By contrast I drank 455 bottle aged Ports (by which I mean ruby, crusted, LBV, SQVP or VP), 91 of which came out of my cellar. So 8.3% of what I drank in 2013 was aged in barrel for more than 6 years before being bottled and 1% of what I opened was barrel aged.

By contrast in 2017 (I'm way behind on my 2018 tasting notes) 432 of the bottles of Port I drank were bottle aged; 82 of those came out of my cellar. 84 bottles were wood aged with 1 coming out of my cellar.

So it seems that these days I am drinking twice as much Tawny as I used to — but it's only because my "friends" are forcing me to and not through choice. I tend to open wood aged ports as soon as I get them to make space for a proper bottle of Port that can be allowed to slumber undisturbed by the impatient nature of wood aged Port that needs to be opened and drunk as soon as it's been bottled.

Al B. wrote:So it seems that these days I am drinking twice as much Tawny as I used to — but it's only because my "friends" are forcing me to and not through choice.

It sounds like you underappreciate these "friends," who it also sounds like I'd like to meet.

Al B. wrote:So, in 2013 I drank 41 wood aged Ports (by which I mean Tawny or Colheita including aged Whites or White Colheita) of which 1 came out of my own cellar. By contrast I drank 455 bottle aged Ports (by which I mean ruby, crusted, LBV, SQVP or VP), 91 of which came out of my cellar. So 8.3% of what I drank in 2013 was aged in barrel for more than 6 years before being bottled and 1% of what I opened was barrel aged.

By contrast in 2017 (I'm way behind on my 2018 tasting notes) 432 of the bottles of Port I drank were bottle aged; 82 of those came out of my cellar. 84 bottles were wood aged with 1 coming out of my cellar.

So it seems that these days I am drinking twice as much Tawny as I used to — but it's only because my "friends" are forcing me to and not through choice. I tend to open wood aged ports as soon as I get them to make space for a proper bottle of Port that can be allowed to slumber undisturbed by the impatient nature of wood aged Port that needs to be opened and drunk as soon as it's been bottled.

Don't confuse consumption with storage!

Even I admit that tawnies are intended to be consumed as soon as they are bottled. Some can age in bottle, but most are not intended to do so. My cellar has always been weird in that I do store tawnies, often for a decade or more. But that's not the normal way to do things.

So it is perfectly normal for you to not consume much tawny Port from your cellar, because a normal person wouldn't have much tawny Port in their cellar to consume. You buy it, you drink it.

So what I'm seeing from your data is that tawny Port consumption roughly doubled from 8% to 16%. Bravo! I am happy to have perhaps been responsible for some small part of that increase.

The vast majority of port I drink is wood-aged. Total opposite of how I was. I am lucky to drink one bottle of vintage port a month at best. I keep buying vintage port here and there, but colheita and tawny is so much easier for just a glass or three. Vintage port is for when guests come over or port binge drinking with the like-minded.

Drinking more lbv's
Main reason is the 20 $ price range in the Québec market
20 yr old tawnies are overly priced at the SAQ

Henri Pierre wrote:Drinking more lbv's
Main reason is the 20 $ price range in the Québec market
20 yr old tawnies are overly priced at the SAQ

First, to the Forum.

That's a bummer to hear, but at least there are some really good LBV's out there. It is too bad the SAQ has such high prices.

Henri Pierre wrote:Drinking more lbv's
Main reason is the 20 $ price range in the Québec market
20 yr old tawnies are overly priced at the SAQ

Do you ever go to NH? NH Liquor Store has some of the lowest prices on tawny port in world.

Glenn E. wrote:So what I'm seeing from your data is that tawny Port consumption roughly doubled from 8% to 16%. Bravo! I am happy to have perhaps been responsible for some small part of that increase.

You sure are at least partly responsible for the increase. You've introduced me to terrible things like Dalva '52 Golden White and São Leonardo 60YO. I try not to admit it to anyone, but some of these Vintage Ports which people forget to bottle on time are actually quite nice. I even own some bottles of barrel aged Port these days, although I do try to cook something with them nearly as soon as I can after people give them to me.