For The Love Of Port

Wow-all the good wines are $500+.

Plenty of 'good' ones < $500

He, he, look at Garrafeira in Lisbon... Bought two bottles there 11 years ago of 1795 T CVM for EUR 810 each, now EUR 3.450...... But most other are hiiigh up...

On the recent Madeirathon where we visited all the exporters (except one, but it was not missed) and the discussion of prices came up several times. If you think about it, many great, great Madeiras are seriously undervalued in the wine world. Some companies have deliberately increased prices to preserve their old stocks of irreplaceable wine. I can see in the near future where all companies do this. Might as well stock up now!

Eric Ifune wrote:On the recent Madeirathon where we visited all the exporters (except one, but it was not missed) and the discussion of prices came up several times. If you think about it, many great, great Madeiras are seriously undervalued in the wine world. Some companies have deliberately increased prices to preserve their old stocks of irreplaceable wine. I can see in the near future where all companies do this. Might as well stock up now!

Bingo, it's not like the stuff is going to go bad!


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Over the years, a lot has been written about ancient Madeiras and their history and that has peaked an interest in something that was pretty much unknown up until then. What was once a very small group of collectors and buyers and aficionados enjoying this exquisite liquid, we see a lot of newbies entering the market and we're paying the price for Madeira's new popularity. It's not unlike the fine, handmade cigar craze that occurred about 20 years ago. Before it happened it was almost impossible to find a good cigar anywhere. Once the younger generation discovered them, however, the market went crazy. As an example, one maker (La Gloria Cubana) made 1million cigars a year but had a demand for 6 million. Needless to say his prices went from an affordable $3 a stick to $10 over about 10 years. The same thing happened with these wines except that there is a finite number of casks. Anyone have a copy of the RWC list from about 20 years ago? I remember buying my first bottle from them. I still have the empty (it's just too pretty to throw out) and I paid $280 for an 1860 Solera. The last bottle I bought from RWC cost me close to $700 and it came out of another collector's cellar through RWC. Along the way the prices had crept up as I went older and deeper into what was available. Now the price has exceeded what I think I'll want to pay. Like the other poster said: the stuff doesn't go bad so they'll just hang onto it until the right buyer arrives at their website. There just aren't as many people out there that wish to swing a grand for a bottle when that same grand would buy a weekend in NY or Boston with a nice dinner. It's really become the wine of the gentry anymore. So, I'll enjoy my small stash of bottles and share them with those special friends who really enjoy the history and the extraordinary and complicated bouquet of each wine. They'll last a while, yet.

Rome