Looking for ports to age.

Tim Swaback · Post by **Tim Swaback** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:46 am

Hello all. Im new here today and Ive been looking around a bit for some ports to buy now and save/age for many years. Im only 23, but have enjoyed some australian ports very much. My grandma is 91 and still drinks a small glass of port every night before going to bed. I didnt find this out untill after i started drinking the stuff, so i figured thats where i got it from. To the point though. Im looking at getting some inexpensive port and aging it 20-30-40-50 years for special occations. Luckily im still young and so i can do this. Is there anything out at this time that is reletivly cheap, but will greatly improve with age? I know this is true of a lot of ports, im just curious if there is one that sticks out.

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 11:51 am

Hi Tim,

Great to have you here and it seems we are having a fabulous influx of new people to the FORUM lately. Finally, the hard work is paying off. Thanks for your intriguing post and I am sure that there will be other warm welcomes to follow as well as insightful Vintage Ports (we bandy about the acronym VP) for you to stock up on. If you let us, we'll break your bank account so be thrifty!

If I were to pick just one from each of the past decades where the wines are still under $100 per bottle:

1985 Fonseca

1997 Niepoort

2003 Quinta do Portal - still way under the radar and great for a case buy!

Again, your participation is appreciated and we look forward to having you around here for years to come.

Best regards,

Roy

Tim Swaback · Post by **Tim Swaback** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 12:18 pm

I know this is going to sound cheap, but that is what i am. $100 is quite a bit for me. What i was looking for was something cheap(er) that would end up being a $100-$200 bottle in the years to come. I am by no stretch of the imagination a connoisseur. I looked up the 2003 Quinta do Portal, but i found about 20 different varieties. Ive read up and know some of the differences between them, but which one were you suggesting, or just the whole 2003 line in general. Thanks for the help, i really appreciate it.

Tim

Tim Swaback · Post by **Tim Swaback** » Tue Jan 23, 2007 3:18 pm

So I just picked up a bottle of Wiskers Blake tawny. I remember having this stuff a few years ago and i remember liking it. I think it was the reason i started trying ports. Anyway, It says "aged for 8 years" on the bottle, but i was wondering how you could tell the actual year it was bottles, after 8 years, if you grasp my meaning. Also, is there any reason to let this sit 10 years?

Russ K · Post by **Russ K** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:15 am

I suggest you surf around this website a bit and get some familiarity with terms and different styles of Port and what really constitutes Port. ie Australian Ports, are not really Ports at all.

I know those types of dollars on bottles Roy mentioned seem high, but the high quality Ports are really the only ones to assume the kind of appreciation and value for laying down for years on end. (there are a few other types and longer aged (30 to 40 year tawnyes) that you will see appreciation in value. However, the types of styles it sounds like you are typically buying , 10 years and less tawnys and ruby Ports, would not have significant long term upside other than perhaps keeping with inflation.

You are young, enjoy what you can afford and like now, and try to save up for the stuff to save for special occasions. It will taste that much sweeter twenty years from now when you look back at how you scavenged change over a year for this nice bottle!

Moses Botbol · Post by **Moses Botbol** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 10:19 am

syvmn wrote:So I just picked up a bottle of Wiskers Blake tawny. I remember having this stuff a few years ago and i remember liking it.

I had a roommate years ago the drank Wiskers like it was water- two bottles a week! That stuff, like all Aussie stuff I have had is too sweet for me. If the $100.00 bottles are too much, there's plenty of good LBV's like Ferreira and Noval that around $25 and are excellent and worth stockpiling. The Noval especially. There are plenty of quality VP's well under $100, and you'll discover them as you spend more time on the forum and shopping.

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:00 pm

Tim,

If you are looking for long term agers, as you say 20-50 years, then you are looking at either Vintage Ports (VP) or a colheita Port.

For VP, the recent top declared years (2000 & 2003) from major producers are almost all under $100. There are some great bargains right now (in the $50-70/bottle range) on overstocked 2000's. I suggest using Winesearcher.com to check prices. But you won't go wrong from producers such as Taylor (fladgate), Quinta do Noval, Quinta do Vesuvio, Niepoort, Croft, etc.

For colheita's its a bit trickier. As a great declared year for VP does not always translate to a great colheita. I would suggest if you find a colheita you are interested in buying use the search feature to see if any TN's have been posted. If not, then post a question about it. The wealth of knowledge here is amazing and I'm sure someone has already tried what you may be looking at buying.

BTW, Glad to have you here on the forum, and I do hope you continue to post and share your insight and experiences with the group.

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:32 am

Tell you what Tim, help us out a bit here and give us an idea of how much per bottle you would feel comfortable spending. Once you can give us an idea, we can then tailor our advice to your particular requirements.

While it is true that you (generally) get what you pay for in ports, the difference between a £10 bottle and a £20 bottle is much more than the difference between a £100 bottle and a £200 bottle.

Alex

Tim Swaback · Post by **Tim Swaback** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 10:51 pm

I would say 25-30 or so. Also, where do you buy most of your ports from, ive looked around the local places and they only have crappy stuff that ive had before. Do you get most of your port from online sellers?

Moses Botbol · Post by **Moses Botbol** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:08 am

syvmn wrote:I would say 25-30 or so.

I assume we're talking about USD? There's plenty of port you can buy in that range. I do not use online dealers, except for private parties, as most dealers won't ship to MA.

LBV's for sure are in that range. What metropolitan area are you in?

Al B. · Post by **Al B.** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 7:14 am

Tim,

I don't know the specifics of Minnesota State license laws or the retail network there so can only base my comments below on my experience in the UK and in other states that I occasionally visit.

I have found that quite a few of the specialist but multi-outlet wine shops usually carry a decent range of young vintage port. One that I usually call into when I am in the US would be Bottle King in NY/NJ but there are many others.

In the price range that you are looking at there are a good choice of wines to buy that will easily mature and last 20 years. Many will also go 30 but some will start to fade off after 20-30 years of being shut away in a cool, dark place where the temperature remains nice and stable.

The wines that I would suggest you look at would be Single Quinta Vintage Ports or Second Label Vintage Ports, such as Quinta dos Malvedos or Quinta de Vargellas. These two in particular might be at the top of your price range but they do come from top rate producers and would be expected to have the structure and guts to last 30-40 years in a good vintage.

At the other end of the scale I would suggest the unfiltered or traditional late bottled vintage wines from Warres, Quinta do Noval, Fonseca and many others. These are not often seen on the market with significant bottle age but on the one or two occasions when I have had old (30-40 years), bottle aged LBV wines they have been wonderful.

Your greatest challenge, though, is likely to be having these wines in your "cellar" and being able to leave them unopened. That's not always easy!

Alex

Jay Powers · Post by **Jay Powers** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 10:30 pm

Tim

I agree with Alex, unfiltered LBV may be the way to go from what you are describing you want. Very nice examples which will age are:

Warre 1995
Smith Woodhouse 1992
Niepoort 1999 and 1996

I'm sure others could suggest more. I have had a couple of very old LBV's over the past year which were a revelation. Crusted might be another type to age, and there are a few out there now, I think a Dow 1999 for example.

If you live in Minnesota (I missed that above but it sounds like you be from there), Surdyk's might be the place to look.

Other choices might be Single Quinta Vintage Port (SQVP), from 1995 and 1996, which seem to be fairly cheap right now. As Alex suggets, 1996 Malvedos would be an excellent choice (and it's available at Surdyk's, or was when I was visiting there over X-mas).

Niepoort colheita's would be another choice (91, 94, and 1995 are fairly priced right now), but I'm not so sure on the ageing ability (surely a topic for a new thread!). Good luck and let us know your experiences.

Jay