For The Love Of Port

When you purchase Ports, do you typically buy by the case and if not ... and I can only assume most people here don't from previous threads ... do you prefer buying:

Normally? Hmmm. I've never bought a full case of the same thing, except in the case where I bought one to split with my fellow FTLOPers. I've bought 8 and 9 once. I've bought quite a few six packs now, so I'm tempted to vote for that. But there have also been a lot of single bottles, twos, threes, and fours.

Then again, when it comes to shipping, I often try to fill a case. That might mean a mixed case purchased all at once, or a combination of different purchases. Some of the online merchants will hold purchases for some amount of time, and then ship later. I'll purchase a few bottles here and there, and eventually come spring or fall fill out the case to ship. It might be all Port, or a mix of Port and other wine.

Then there are the FTLOPortunities, in which I'll buy a case or two, but mixed, and again these may include some non-Port. Wish I had bought more of that Kopke white wine--it was nice.

I really don't know! I have bought every option listed in the past and have even purchased full cases before, but I can honestly say that I don't know what my most common purchase size is.

I wonder if I have sufficient information stored in CellarTracker to figure it out...

My purchases of Nimrod, and recently, Ferreira Tawny ports so completely out-shadow the other purchases that I had to answer "1/2 to 1".

The reality, is that I tend (these days) to purchase 2, 3, or 4 bottles of the same kind.

When I first began buying (other than Nimrod), it was almost always single bottles, since I was exploring VPs from the 1960s which tended to be expensive ($200 or so).

EDIT: Actually, I think I still buy more port in whole cases than in smaller amounts. I tend to keep case-amounts of Ferreira 20 and T/F 20 on hand for drinking on Monday nights.

This one was also difficult to answer for me. O have purchased 4-5 six packs. A couple of "9's" and one occasion where I ended up with 18 bottles... by accident and chance (and really, to "hide" such an extravagant purchase... through 4 trips!) I have only ever had the occasion to purchase a full case of 12 bottles of the same variety once in my life. (This is a financial thing as up until the last year or so, if I ever actually bought a CASE of wine, I would have to answer to a higher power who might have just introduced me first hand to my maker... In the last couple of years, the financial situation has stabilized somewhat, the salary has been pretty decent and life has been good to me.)

My answer was for the average of my past purchases: 2. I try not to buy single bottles (although I am often forced to due to availability in Edmonton or worse, price.) Two is a good number when I can't afford more. Sometimes I try one of the two right away. Often though, I have the second bottle so that when I DO decide to open the first, if it is good, I have another in reserve.

I prefer to buy a whole cases or 6 packs if they are packaged that way. I need the OWC's for storage. I don't like buying one off's. I want to enjoy the evolution of the case over the years.

Very different and thoughtful response. I hope to read many more, as this is really interesting to me.

I typically buy in fours these days. One for now, one for a vertical, one for a horizontal and one for the long term. That is the case when purchasing from 1980 and younger. When buying rarities, it might be one at a time, or typically max of two. From 1960-1977 it is typically half cases or full cases. But if I could choose one answer ... it would be four bottles at a time, as the optimum number at my stage of procurement.

tough

I chose 1/2 cases as this is what I normally buy when buying VP, either all the same or mixed. I will do this 2 or 3 times a year. But I buy LBV all the time, and will probably only buy 1 bottle at a time. Same with Colheita, always 1 at a time.

Well this got me curious, so I went through CellarTracker and tallied up all of my purchases that I have recorded there. That should be most of them, but there may be a few that I missed over time. The results:

1 bottle - 78
2 bottles - 43
3 bottles - 14
4 bottles - 9
6 bottles - 13
Full case - 5
Other - 4 (one 9 and three 5s)

More of my bottles come from pair purchases than from anything else (narrowly edging out singles and 6-packs), but apparently I buy a lot of one-offs because I have far more single bottle purchases than anything else! I do like Roy's idea of buying 4-packs though.

Glenn E. wrote: 1 bottle - 78
... 6 bottles - 13
... More of my bottles come from pair purchases than from anything else (narrowly edging out singles and 6-packs) ...

6 x 13 = 78

I like to buy in 6's or 3's at minimum. I really couldn't live with myself if in 15 years I open one bottle of something, decide it was wonderful and not be able to locate another or have to pay 3 times for it...
plus having a few that have lived the same "life" inthe cellar will hopefully lead to more consistency...

Why aren't "Pipes" an option???

Has anyone here ever purchased a pipe--can you still do that? (And for our Canadian FTLOPers could you imagine the duty on that?!!)

Eric Menchen wrote:

Glenn E. wrote: 1 bottle - 78
... 6 bottles - 13
... More of my bottles come from pair purchases than from anything else (narrowly edging out singles and 6-packs) ...

6 x 13 = 78

2 x 43 = 86

D'oh! I misread that Glenn. It is not my math that is flawed, but my reading.

I prefer at least 7-8 bottles min. That allows me one or two when I buy them then the rest get put away for long term storage (if it's a Port that needs more cellar time) or it allows me to slowly drink them at various occasions. For the top VP's in a classic vintage I generally get a full case (12) or more of the ones I really like.

Of course that doesn't apply to most really old stuff as it's pretty hard to find well stored full cases of anything that is super old.

John M. wrote:Why aren't "Pipes" an option???

Has anyone here ever purchased a pipe--can you still do that? (And for our Canadian FTLOPers could you imagine the duty on that?!!)

LOL... "sir, this barrel can only be imported if you give us your first-born..."

Pipes are still an option, you just have to have enough people to share in the cost of the quantity of cases that are bottled.

Roy Hersh wrote:Pipes are still an option, you just have to have enough people to share in the cost of the quantity of cases that are bottled.

I suppose the deposit on the barrel is too high to allow shipping in the original container.

Roy Hersh wrote:Pipes are still an option, you just have to have enough people to share in the cost of the quantity of cases that are bottled.

Really??? I thought that all Port, particularly Vintage had to be bottled in Portugal?

If I won the lottery I might be able to afford a pipe to get shipped overseas, but probably still could not afford the taxes and duties to actually bring it INTo the country!! . I'd have to keep it a your place Roy!

Todd Pettinger wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:Pipes are still an option, you just have to have enough people to share in the cost of the quantity of cases that are bottled.

Really??? I thought that all Port, particularly Vintage had to be bottled in Portugal?

I should probably let Roy clarify, but what I think he is saying is that you can buy a pipe, but they will bottle it and ship you the bottles.