For The Love Of Port

3 bottles Chateau Suduiraut 1966 Sauternes £195:00 bt Good acidity,lovely colour,rich,classic honeyed,vanilla,delicious.

Vintage Port:
2 cases Fonseca 1966 £1150:00 case
This is still a monster that needs time. Deep ruby, with a ripe, meaty cassis and berry nose, full-bodied, with tons of velvety fruit flavors, full tannins and a very long finish. 97/100 Wine Spectator

2 cases Taylor 1966 Vintage Port £895:00 case Rich, fully evolved,good fleash and flavour.***** Michael Broadbent

2 cases Graham 1966 Vintage Port £895:00 case
Superg bouquet,flavour,and teture.Still remarkably firm and lively.A lovely soft ruby colour,classic nose,liquorice.***** Michael Broadbent

6 cases Croft 1966 Vintage Port £750:00
Very elegant in the classic,understated Croft style.cherry rose,medium-bodied,with firm tannins and an abundance of licorice and barry flavors.90/100 James Suckling.

2 cases Quinta do Noval 1966 Vintage Port £725:00 case
This is the best Noval made in three decades and is still fairly reasonable in price considering the quality. It is powerful, rich and fruity on the palate -- almost raw. Medium ruby, with coffee and plum aromas, full-bodied, with sweet tea, coffee and plum flavors and medium tannins. It will improve with age. 91/100 Wine Spectator

All wines are offered subject unsold and to final confirmation.E&OE

George Rhys/Piers Methuen.



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George D Rhys
Southwick Court Fine Wines
2 Spice Court, Ivory Square
Plantation Wharf
London, SW11 3UE
Tel : +44 (0)20 7801 2432
Fax: +44 (0)20 7228 6677
Web: http://www.es-finewines.com

It's rare, at least in my (limited) experience, to see cases of the Grahams 1966 for sale in the US. All the good old stuff is in the UK! It looks like a reasonable price even with shipping. But what are peoples opinions on shipping port which is that old, all the way from the UK to the US, in particular all the way to California? It seems like the older the port is, the more hesitant I should be. Any opinions?

Jay

True. I purchased some 1966 Graham's in the UK and it was spectacular! The shocking thing was that the wine is clearly still not at peak. I'm also looking for some. I have imported wine to the US several times. And yes - you take a risk. It's not like you can return it if you don't like what you find when it arrives. I usually ask for pictures to minimize the risk. I bought some port from George Rhys (a case of 1977 Dow's) and when it arrived there were 4 horrible leakers in the case. They were below shoulder - so what could I do.? I drank them :twisted: They were excellent! It's too bad that they were leaking, but the price was good ($83 delivered and that includes the taxes) and the remaining bottles were in excellent condition. Those were the only bad bottles out of a shipment of 10 cases. So I look at it as the cost of doing business. I will say that the reason that those bottles were leaking was from failed corks. All of them had a vein running through them and that weak point in the cork failed. It certainly wasn't because of any heat damage or mistreatment. When importing, it pays to do it in large case loads to spread the fixed costs out. PM me and I can give you more info if you are interested.

-Dave-

Thanks for the advice Dave .

I recently recieved a half case of 2003 Quinta do Portal which I ordered from a reputable (I think) seller in the UK. It took over two months for the wine to arrive, and then the package (thin cardboard around a styrofoam packer) was mostly crushed and fell apart into pieces no more than 2" wide when I opened the package . To all appearences the bottles are fine, no leaks and high fill levels. But I wonder where those bottles were during those two months! And how would a 66 fare under whatever conditions those bottles were in for 2 months?

Anybody know where to get some 1966 grahams in California? Preferably that have been in somebodys basement celler for the past 38 years?

Jay

Jay P wrote:Thanks for the advice Dave .

I recently recieved a half case of 2003 Quinta do Portal which I ordered from a reputable (I think) seller in the UK. It took over two months for the wine to arrive, and then the package (thin cardboard around a styrofoam packer) was mostly crushed and fell apart into pieces no more than 2" wide when I opened the package . To all appearences the bottles are fine, no leaks and high fill levels. But I wonder where those bottles were during those two months! And how would a 66 fare under whatever conditions those bottles were in for 2 months?

Anybody know where to get some 1966 grahams in California? Preferably that have been in somebodys basement celler for the past 38 years?

Jay

Wow.. That's too bad. Portal! Nice stuff!

I usually buy in solid cases in original wood. They ship great! Sometimes the wine comes in an "export box" which is a heavy cardboard box. For the two months the wine is likely waiting in a container waiting for the ship to finally depart, and then it takes a while for them to make it to the west coast (a few weeks).

For expensive wines, I pay the extra to have it air freighted (about $3 more per bottle). It gets consolidated in bond (perfect storage) until the air container is filled. Then it comes overnight and only sits in customs for a couple of hours. They call me and I drive to Daly City to pick it up.

-Dave-

Even in winter, the inside of a freight container can get very hot if the sun shines.

Air freight is probably OK for young bottles, but I'd worry about anything that was very old and valuable - they only pressure the plane cabins to the equivalent of 10,000 feet, and I believe most cargo is shipped unpressurised.

Next time you fly somewhere, take a plastic water bottle with you, drink the contents and then put the top back on before you come in to land - watch how the bottle crushes..

The only safe way to ship fine wines is in a temperature controlled freight container. You need to deal with a specialist, but don't ask me who!

Tom

Yes, the freight container must be temperature controlled! I've shipped both ways. The wines seem fine either way. I've only had 7 leaking bottles out of 22 cases of ports and no pushed corks. I understand about the depressurization and I can imagine that for very old wines this would be a concern. Maybe I've just been lucky. The oldest that I've imported were 1977 VPs.

-Dave-