For The Love Of Port

... that you actually appreciate, when it comes to Vintage Port and/or LBV and/or Colheita? I am not asking if you like your Colheitas or VP's etc., with 20-30 years of bottle age ... I am looking for a specific vintage bottling for the three aforementioned Port categories.

While I've only had this producer a small handful of times in the past, I really enjoyed the 2009 Romariz VP and could easily drink it now with a nice steak. The others from this vintage are still a bit too young and rough around the edges (in a good way for later) so I'll pass on this vintage overall.

As a vintage overall, The 2000's and 2003's seem to be in a slight phase (being general of course) and I don't think they're all showing their best, but will again once this phase passes. That being said, I'll pick 2007 at the moment as they all seem to be drinking quite well still.

I received my first bottle of Port in 2004 but didn't really start drinking it until early 2007 around the time I joined FTLOP. Back then, the 2003 Noval was absolutely splendid and rapidly became one of my favorite VPs. It helped that I was able to find it pretty regularly for less than $40/bottle.

It seems to have started into some sort of phase now, though, so I don't enjoy drinking it as much now. I'll keep my remaining stash until it matures in... oh, probably 30+ years.

I haven't really found a go-to young VP to replace it. There were several 2007s that could have taken its place, but the ones I liked best I couldn't find and the ones I could find were too expensive to be drinking young. Perhaps the 2008 Quevedo? But that's one I can't find readily. I haven't had the chance to sample many 2009s yet.

As far as LBV goes, I don't think that my long-time favorite the 2003 Taylor really counts for this thread as that's not exactly a young LBV anymore. Nothing that I've tasted that's younger has really impressed me, at least not enough to pick up as a cellar defender. I still have a couple of bottles of 2003 Taylor serving that purpose.

I really enjoy new release port. I've just finished a half bottle of Skeffington 2009 and that's typical of what I enjoy in young VP - loads of sweet fruit, with a long aftertaste from the tannins and modest levels of acidity. Really young stuff is delicious provided it's not too brutally tannic. I've also recently enjoyed a few 2003s, that were still full of primary fruit with gentle structure and was delicious. But I'm finding the 2000-1992 range of vintages a bit closed and a bit unbalanced so I am avoiding drinking many of those for a few years. My current drinking vintage window seems to be 2009-2003 or 1991 and older.

Oddly enough, I don't enjoy really young LBV as much as I do really young VP. Newly released LBV seems to miss out on the lush, ripe fruitiness that new VP can offer. Instead, I prefer my LBV to have a little more age to soften the structure - 2004-1991 is perfect for non-Traditional bottled LBV. Traditional bottled LBV seems to retain its structure for longer than non-Traditional but still misses out on the fruit-bomb style of new VP. I prefer to leave Traditional LBV for much longer, with the early '90s now being drinkable to my taste, back through to the early '80s.

Sadly (or perhaps not sadly) I don't drink enough colheita to be able to comment on how young is too young for my taste for this style of wine.

1994 Dow is top notch right now considering how young it is.