For The Love Of Port

What was your best Port experience so far?

It is always interesting to know what was the Port people enjoyed the most so far, sometimes it has a lot to do with great moments too. It is also interesting so we can build a list of Port recommendations with that!

Being fairly new to VP I have yet to taste VPs from the great older vintages. My favorites to date are 2000 Taylor, 1991 Croft and Taylor Vargellas.

Fred,

I have two favorite experiences with vintage port. One was with Roy in Bellvue, and one was in Nashville. Both with vintages going back to the 19th century. I will have to dig out my notes. Old vintages of Croft, Niepoort, Taylor, Fonseca, Nacional, etc.

Tasting three Vintage Porto in an evening: 1908, 1912 and 1927 Cockburn.

you can't beat trying a wine where it was made, especially when it is in a different country and one with many centuries of history and culture along with it. When I visited Lisbon, I went to the "center" for Port in this very old building, darkly lit where you can sit and experiment with different styles and vintages, and learn about them. The only thing better would probably be going to the wineries themselves...maybe on one of Roy's trips?!

For me, a close runner up would be the port tasting Roy had in Bellevue, WA where we tasted a bunch of different styles blind. I learned a ton, particularly about Colheitas.

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Tim Gruner,
Mill Creek, WA

Tim the building you describe is the Port Wine Institute's "Solar" in Lisboa. They also have branches in Oporto and Regua.


My best Port experience was something that will be duplicated on the first trip I lead to Portugal. It is not a wine, it is a place and NO, it was not when I experienced standing alone in the middle of the Nacional vineyard at Quinta do Noval. This was a more religious experience yet I was outdoors and did not hear a person, a plane, car, boat, train, bug, cell phone and had a view of about 75 miles worth of Douro properties.

If I had to pick one Port of the top 50 I have ever had, I'd pick one that I have had only a handful of times (most recently in Feb. 2005) and it has always left me speechless, the exalted 1931 Quinta do Noval (regular bottling).

My best port experience by far was in April of 2004 when Roy hosted a local tasting featuring 6 decades of ports from his cellar. What an introduction!!!

Heck, I was on my cellphone mid-tasting to buy cases of some of the wines, oh that 1977 Taylor!

May 2005: 1970 Taylor, compliments of our host, with good friends in Atlanta. Far and away the best Port I have ever tasted.

It's difficult to pick one:

1952 Niepoort Garrafeira, by far the rarest and most special port I've tasted. It was during a great offline with friends from the WS forums, and followed by the 1955 Graham's. Indeed a special experience.

1955 Sandeman, again a WS offline. The theme was Cos d'Estournel, and I promised to bring the port... I thought I'd better bring something good. It was sooo delicate and smooth, simply delicious.

1983 Cockburn, with my girlfriend and best friend at the IVDP Solar in Porto. A beautiful location, lovely night and a great glass of port shared with the two people I hold dearest. It will always remain a very fond memory.

In 1998 I was in Sydney for a conference, and several of us went to dinner in the Opera House restaurant. This place is quite modern, and the views out the windows are pretty nice. I spied a 63 Warre's for $A 300, which back then was the equivalent of about US$180. it was a no brainer, they decanted the wine for us early in the dinner, and it drank beautifully. A great way to end a fantastic meal of 'Roo and Ostrich. One of my favorit Port memories!

Cheers,
Alan

I'd have to say my best Port experience was having the 1900 Taylor with the Man himself last month in NYC. Amazingly youthful, this wine just sang from the get-go. It really brought tears to my eyes to know that I was tasting a 105-yr old wine, and realizing that anyone who had ever had anything to do with its production was dead and buried yet their legacy lived on.
Wow.
Cheers! :twisted:

For me so far I lack the experience with old VP, I only had the Taylor 1970 and the Ferreira 1960 older than 1977. Both were excellent, the Ferreira was about finesse and complexity while the Taylor had that extra depth, power, layers of flavour and that never ending finale, my best VP so far.

On the tawny side, I just can't forget my first encounter with Niepoort Colheita, a 1982 bottled in 1991, a fabulous moment.

Roy, I've been in the Douro too and when you are on the top of the hill before going down the road to Pinhao, this is just breath taking. I was like a little child watching the scenery trough the window and boy I was amaze!! But outside the car it was a hot 40 celcius and this was less charming...

Well the best for me is ahead as I've just booked yesterday a tasting with Dirk Niepoort in late october for my next trip to Portugal, more to come!

My best port experience was a Clive Coates tasting of the 63's and 66's which included the Nacional in Dallas, circa 1990. Clive is somewhat controversial but what a tasting! -and memory for a then port neophyte. There was Graham's and Taylor's and Dow's and Cockburn's and Nacional at the Fairmount Hotel in Dallas . We hired a driver so we did not have to drive and we really learned a lot.

Recently the Berry Bros 1963 Graham's and a 1955 Taylor's were close to the top.

My introduction to VP was Dow '63, a case of which I had acquired as my start in collecting port. This was more than fifteen years ago. At this distance in time, I cannot say whether the novel experience, or the inherent quality of the wine predominated, but I can say that I shall remember that Dow till the day I die.

Since then I have had numerous agreeable VPs, but nothing can quite compare with my, now sadly finished, case of Dow '63.

My father allowing me a glass of port at 14 years old Taylors 55 a truly great Christmas

I have two favourite memories of Port - a 1966 Warre's with my family at Christmas in 2003 - exquisite wine - but my most memorable moment was opening and tasting a bottle of port from 1873 bottled by a UK wine merchant, White's of Leicester, with my then 10 year old son Ross.

Both of us were facinated at the prospect of opening a bottle that was already 30 years old on the day my late Grandmother was born! The wine had lost almost all of it's colour, one third of the bottle was sediment, but was still very drinkable. Ross enjoyed his tiny sip of this very rare wine that was 13 times his age and still tells people of the experience today. The best part of this story is that I still have one more bottle of this wine in the cellar so perhaps Ross can share it with someone when he is old and grey and the wine is 200 years old!

My how times have changed ... along with palates that are now far more experienced.


Carly Simon (heck, I've never quoted her before) "These are the good old days."

I admit to having tasted more than a couple of great bottles since then (not to mention about 10 trips to the Doruo)

Roy Hersh wrote:If I had to pick one Port of the top 50 I have ever had, I'd pick one that I have had only a handful of times (most recently in Feb. 2005) and it has always left me speechless, the exalted 1931 Quinta do Noval (regular bottling).

Same here. Does it get any better? Truly a moment!

My experience is very limited, 1977 Grahams Vintage. Had quite a bit of this back in 1999 when I lived in Vegas for 6 weeks!