For The Love Of Port

Anyone encountered this beast before? K&L had an odd, old looking bottle for sale this weekend, and I couldn't resist. I'm guessing it's a white port, but it could be a very dry tawny. I've looked through all my Port books and searched online and can't find a reference to this bottling anywhere.

Here's my TN:
11/8/2011 rated 92 points: From 739.34 ml (1 pint, 9 fl oz.) - medium orange with 1.5 millimeter clear meniscus and golden and orange lights; baked orange, VA, orange cream, light almond nose; very smooth, silky textured, mature, mellow, baked orange, almond, lightly honeyed, orange marmalade palate; long finish

And here's a picture:

Very cool! I does sound an awful lot like a white Port based on your note. My guess would be a basic white or reserve white, as that's the same (or a similar) style of bottle they use for the red/white/gold (10yr tawny) Ports.

Typical style bottle for Rozes port. Quite popular in my parts, especially in the lower end liquor stores.

Looks like that bottle has been around for a while (not by Port standards, but in general). Was there any sort of bottling date to be found on the label?

Eric,
This bottle has definitely been around for awhile. There's quite a bit of black sediment at the bottom of the bottle, it appears to be a minimum of 30 years old, but more likely 40 or more. Unfortunately nothing in the way of a date anywhere. The best clue is the label indicating it was a Stuart Imports Ltd. import (sole agents Western U.S.A.). Stuart seems to have gone out of business sometime after 1979. I can find them in SF phone books from 1968 to 1978, and there are mentions on auctioned wines, going back to the '30s, that they were the importers. As best I can tell, they went out of business by the early '80s, meaning this bottle is at least 30 years old--probably older.

The best part of the story is that you actually went home and DRANK it! A refreshing change from the buy-then-wait-for-an-occasion syndrome we all suffer from too often. Nice job.

Tom D. wrote:The best part of the story is that you actually went home and DRANK it! A refreshing change from the buy-then-wait-for-an-occasion syndrome we all suffer from too often. Nice job.

Haha, very true. I believe the port should create the occasion, not the other way around.