For The Love Of Port

I'm curious to know how long you leave half bottles of VP to become 'mature' - is it a judgement you make according to the wine, is there a rule of thumb, do you just open one and see what's cooking?

Hard to say for sure, as it depends on the wine, vintage, producer, type, etc. But for top VP, generally around the 20 year mark they seem to start maturing (again, that's a rough estimate). I'll usually open one at the 10 and 15 year marks to see how they're coming along. Depending on that I'll adjust when I plan to start opening them. Though I don't buy a lot of them, mostly a couple here and there to keep and get an early look at how a given VP may be developing in a larger format bottles.

Which reminds me, I've got a case of 1997 Niepoort VP in 375's. Given they are almost 20 and given the VA issues I need to pull them out and start drinking them. They should make a decent house VP.

Most of us know that half bottles mature earlier, much as we know that magnums last longer, but it's interesting to consider the question in the abstract. I really don't have any formula or standard - as Andy says so much depends on the port in question. For my own part the oldest ½ bottles I have is an LBV - the 1994 Quinta do Noval, a lovely port that is still maturing if you can believe it. Older still is a ½ bottle of Australian "port" by Lindemans.

So, is there any conventional wisdom associated with half bottles? Yes, they mature faster, but it all depends on..........

I opened another of those Niepoorts and it was quite tasty. I may have consumed it before I could be bothered by any VA

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Very interesting replies. I wonder whether halves might sometimes have a completely different maturation curve - not just 'the same but faster'. Perhaps they have a longer plateau. We would need to do a test over several years though..! I think I'll get half my Warre '00 halves out of storage and see how they're doing.