First experience of VP with Warre 1991 - Questions first...

[Johannes Stadler]

Hi,

my former experiences with port are up untill now limited to drinking some cheaper (SUpermarket) Tawnys, and a few medium priced bottles like
Oporto 10, Dows LBV 1998 or a Barao de Vilar Vintage Charactere.

Now i went to a local dealer and purchased a Bottle of Warre's Vintage 1991 to celebrate with three good friends of mine.

We plan to drink the port after a good meal (we'll see what there will be) and have some tasty Red Wine with dinner. Afterwards the port.

For the preparations i have the standard question of decanting. I now found in the Board two opinions where this bottle was decanted once 5 once 19 hours beforehand. Now i'm not sure about how long to open it beforehand. As I dont have the experience of tastting how it should be perfectly i dont think i'll be able to decide when to stop the decanting if decantet too long as i will only recognize it when it has been much too long .

For the decanting itself - do you usually decant free hand or through some kind of Muselin (or cheese) cloth / Metal sieve?

I planned to use my standard 1,5l decanter from Eisch and decant either directly or through some cloth. Im also not sure if i will just keep a part of the port stored in small 100ml flasks filled up to the top (1 or 2) or if I should just decant all and force me to drink it all within 2-3 days.

If you could answer some of these questions or if you have some additional advice i'd apreciate it.

Thanks, Xaverin

[Andy Velebil]

First, Welcome to the site, glad you've joined us.

For the decanting itself - do you usually decant free hand or through some kind of Muselin (or cheese) cloth / Metal sieve?

I use a regular decanting funnel and a piece of unbleached cheesecloth to filter it through. This stops all the sediment and allows a clean decanting.

I planned to use my standard 1,5l decanter from Eisch and decant either directly or through some cloth. Im also not sure if i will just keep a part of the port stored in small 100ml flasks filled up to the top (1 or 2) or if I should just decant all and force me to drink it all within 2-3 days.

Drink it all within 2-3 days. If you're not going to drink it all on one night, decant 1/2 of the bottle into a 375ml bottle, recork, and put into fridge for the next night.

I can't help you on the decanting on this one, but I know someone here can

P.S. Could you please put your last name and general location of where you're at in your profile. It's required and helps a lot in answering certain questions. Thanks

[Jay Powers]

Xaverin

If the bottle has had time to settle, I almost always decant freehand. If you want to get every last drop, you can decant through unbleached cheescloth as Andy suggests.

I would decant in the morning, or no later than noon, to enjoy that night. With three people It's likely you will finish the bottle that night if it's good! I think it would still be fine the next day as well.

Enjoy, and post a note after you have tasted it!

Jay

[Roy Hersh]

Xaverin,

Welcome to FOR THE LOVE OF PORT and I hope you have fun here. Please add your first and last name and location to your profile so that you can become a vital member of our community. We'll be happy to share ideas and suggestions with you, but this is made much easier when we know where you are and at least your full name.

Thank you in advance, for your cooperation!

[Al B.]

Xaverin,

From my experience, I have found that different people prefre their wines with different decanting times - its really hard to tell what you prefer compared to the taste of other people until you have had chance to experiment for yourself.

What I would say, though, is that you've chosen a great wine to drink as your first Vintage Port. I think that the Warre's '91 is perfect at the moment.

The last one that I had I decanted 19 hours before I drank it. It probably didn't need that long, but it was delicious. I would say that you should aim to give it at least 6 hours, and preferably more.

Decanting is also a personal thing. I don;t like decanting through a filter of any kind as I find that even the tiny pieces of sediment that get through the filter tend to give the wine a musty or earthy flavour. I will stand my bottles for 2-3 days before I open them and let the sediment settle. I then decant freehand until the sediment starts to come out of the bottle and then the rest goes through a filter into a seperate glass.

But you have the right idea for getting the most out of a special bottle of port - share it with friends, its always much better that way. Enjoy it and let us know how it turns out.

Alex

[Derek T.]

Xaverin,

I always decant my VP through a Screwpull stainless steel port funnel/filter. I always stand the bottle up for 24 hours before decanting (apart from emergency situations :? ) and pour the wine as though I was decanting freehand. If it is a relatively young wine (less than 15 years) I will usually just tip everything into the filter but then lift it out of the decanter when the liquid stops running freely through the funnel. The remainder I allow to filter slowly into a separate glass. For older wines I decant in mush the same way as Alex describes above but I have the filter in place as a safety net to catch any cork particles and the first grains of crust that come through the neck.

In terms of decanting times, I have adopted the approach of tasting my VP regularly (every 2 to 4 hours) after decanting and updating my tasting note. I have been doing this for a while now and it is starting to serve me well as I can read through previous notes to find my optimum decanting time for any of the ports I have previously tasted. It really is a case of experimenting and learning what is best for you. As an example, Alex and I recnetly tasted the same bottle of Cockburns 1967. Alex loved it after 48 hours - I prefered it atfer 1 hour from decanting. It is all about personal taste 8)

Derek

[Andy Velebil]

Xaverin,

Derek gave some really good advice, and something I try to do as much as possible on Ports I have not had before. A taste when i first open the bottle, then every 2-3 hours. It is neat to note the changes that take place.