For The Love Of Port

Hi All..
I live in Canada and my daughter is currently living in England. Every time she returns home she is able to bring back 2 bottles duty/tax free. We are seeking recommendations as to the best outlets to access some older vintages to bring back. She is currently resident in Otley outside Leeds but if the merchant will ship to her it doesn't matter where they are as long as they are reliable.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Ted Gzebb

Fine and rare wines in London might have what you are looking for. frw.co.uk. I've ordered with them in the past. As long as the wines are located in their London warehouse (you can select that in their webinterface) they should be able to deliver that to her place within a few days.

Roel.

She needs to be very careful about comparing prices. I made a trip back to the UK earlier this month and found the supposed duty free in the airports were more expensive than in shops selling retail. Also, the few LBVs I saw in supermarkets there were close in price to LBVs here in Portugal - slightly more expensive but not much. I was pleased I had decided to carry table wines in preference to Ports. I did not see any VPs there with which I was familiar here so far as price was concerned, but overall they were not too expensive compared with what I would expect to see here.

It is quite a while since I last did it, but some shops in the bigger cities in the UK (and there could be some in Leeds) can sell items duty free. If she is a permanent resident in the UK she may not be allowed to buy duty free in these shops, but it is worth checking out.

Ted

Let us know what sort of bottles (and budget) you're hoping to get and I'll give you some thoughts.

Some of the terminals at Heathrow have branches of Berry Brothers & Rudd. I haven't tried it for a few years but you used to be able to buy anything from their list duty free and have it available to collect from the airport shop before your departure. BBR are not the cheapest but their Ports tend to be of impeccable provenance.

I had heard the BBR shop at Heathrow had closed. Can anyone confirm our deny with current information?

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Al B... There is no real fixed budget but I would be thinking in the range of 70 Pounds Sterling as a relative maximum. I want to fill out my small collection which ranges from the late 1970s. I was thinking about some that are aged and good drinking currently as I have enough for now that my daughter will inherit!
Thank you to all who have helped this novice ...

It could be useful to several posters on here to know how she fares. My experience of browsing duty free shops for wine is that they do not stock much that is aged.

Alan McDonald wrote:It could be useful to several posters on here to know how she fares. My experience of browsing duty free shops for wine is that they do not stock much that is aged.

And storage isn't always the best too. The shop in the Porto airport is horrible, the Ports and wines sit under hot lights for who knows how long.

Ted, I would have a good trawl through Wine Searcher. You can isolate your search to the UK, though if you don't pay for Wine Searcher Pro you won't get all potential results. I have found it incredibly useful when I have been hunting for specific wines in the UK.

Mark Henderson wrote:Ted, I would have a good trawl through Wine Searcher. You can isolate your search to the UK, though if you don't pay for Wine Searcher Pro you won't get all potential results. I have found it incredibly useful when I have been hunting for specific wines in the UK.

Agreed - winesearcher is your friend.

I have the Pro version, but occasionally get logged out and don't even notice. I'd say that at least 80% of the listings are available for free, and that the (at most) 20% that are Pro-only are spread across the entire price range anyway so you're probably only missing 1 or 2 potentially relevant listings on any given search.

I would recommend avoiding duty free shops in the UK. You get better prices and better choice from wine merchants.

Your daughter probably doesn't want the hassle of you buying at auction, although this would be an option for you.

Probably your most practical would be to buy from good retailer. The ones I would recommend would be Fine & Rare, Seckfords and Peter Wylie. Your daughter should also be able to take the VAT receipt with her when she leaves the UK and reclaim the 20% VAT that will have been paid when you purchased. Plus search using www.wine-searcher.com if there is anything specific that you are looking for.

BTW, I think there is a 30 day timeframe for the VAT refund, among other stipulations.

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VAT is a minefield. Do not rely on your daughter reclaiming it if she is UK resident and does the purchasing. I left the UK in 2003, but was considered somewhat of an "expert" on it having had previous responsibility for it in a £1m a week business. Regulations have no doubt altered in that time, but UK residents, as I previously mentioned in an earlier post, could not normally reclaim VAT on purchases for personal use. Given the limitation on the amount involved, I doubt whether VAT will make a difference in your choice anyway. You want a particular bottle, you will buy it.