Real Companhia Velha Vintage Port 1982

[s clancy]

New member looking to sell 1 - 4 bottles of unopened/sealed port from Real Companhia. Note that these bottles were part of a private reserve collection/bottling for executives of Crown Cork & Seal company. They have been passively stored between 60-70 degrees since acquired in the late '90s and not moved at all until recently. Bring all offers.

[Andy Velebil]

What are you asking for the bottles?

1982 was a sorta-declared vintage that is rarely talked about these days outside of true Port nerds who know of the rather large amount of companies that declared it and now generally don't talk about declaring it. Two problems that you should be aware of and that will drastically affect the price you get. The best of this vintage is already peaked and not what is considered in the top flight of VP, hence my earlier comment. This producer has a pretty poor reputation during this time period for their VP's. Read into that as you may, but don't expect to retire off the sale of these bottles. Just wanted to give you some background so you are a little more informed from someone that is not interested in personally buying them.

A better bet may be to find a friend that likes Port and give them to him, with the warning that it may not be all that good.

[Eric Menchen]

And while I have little interest in buying these, someone that is probably would like to know where you are located. Importing could be an issue, and shipping probably needs to be considered.

[Andy Velebil]

Yes, where are you exactly. Your profile says one location (D.C.) but your location listed on TPF website is different. Are you making one up? As that will not be tolerated on this Forum and I will lock your account. Please clarify ASAP. Thank you

[Julian D. A. Wiseman]

It might be that the bottles are in one place and the poster in another.

[s clancy]

Yes, where are you exactly. Your profile says one location (D.C.) but your location listed on TPF website is different. Are you making one up? As that will not be tolerated on this Forum and I will lock your account. Please clarify ASAP. Thank you

Sorry Mod....just a minor mistake on my part .....I live in Richmond,VA and work in Washington DC - we are talking about a distance of less than 100miles.

So to be crystal clear, the bottles could be in either place for a FTF sale. If shipping, they would be coming from Richmond, VA.

I guess I am willing to ship out of CONUS.

thx!

[s clancy]

What are you asking for the bottles?

1982 was a sorta-declared vintage that is rarely talked about these days outside of true Port nerds who know of the rather large amount of companies that declared it and now generally don't talk about declaring it. Two problems that you should be aware of and that will drastically affect the price you get. The best of this vintage is already peaked and not what is considered in the top flight of VP, hence my earlier comment. This producer has a pretty poor reputation during this time period for their VP's. Read into that as you may, but don't expect to retire off the sale of these bottles. Just wanted to give you some background so you are a little more informed from someone that is not interested in personally buying them.

A better bet may be to find a friend that likes Port and give them to him, with the warning that it may not be all that good.

Andy, thank you for the bit of background. I know zero about port. I have read a little. I did find some prices on overseas websites for this vintage suggesting a price of $100-125 US per bottle (I certainly have not seen anything suggesting that I can get rich off of these.... ).

I don't have an asking price for these. Hoping that one or more folks will be interested and make an offer for 1 or more bottles....I would crack one open to see how they are but I would have nothing to compare them to.....Any respected port drinkers in the Wash DC area? I would be willing to crack a bottle with him/her in order to learn something and determine the worth of these bottles....

[Andy Velebil]

Yes, where are you exactly. Your profile says one location (D.C.) but your location listed on TPF website is different. Are you making one up? As that will not be tolerated on this Forum and I will lock your account. Please clarify ASAP. Thank you

Sorry Mod....just a minor mistake on my part .....I live in Richmond,VA and work in Washington DC - we are talking about a distance of less than 100miles.

So to be crystal clear, the bottles could be in either place for a FTF sale. If shipping, they would be coming from Richmond, VA.

I guess I am willing to ship out of CONUS.

thx!

Thanks for the quick clarification.

[Glenn E.]

I did find some prices on overseas websites for this vintage suggesting a price of $100-125 US per bottle (I certainly have not seen anything suggesting that I can get rich off of these.... ).

Just to give you some further reference...

1980, 1983, and 1985 were all generally declared years. 1985 is usually considered the best of the three, but all three years contain a handful of very good Ports. Those very good Ports are in a nice place right now - the very best still need a few years to reach their peak, but all are excellent bottles suitable for use to impress guests whether they are Port fanatics or not.

The rest of the Ports from those three vintages range from "mature now, possibly starting to fade" to "clearly fading but still very nice" to "drink soon." That is to say that there's very little reason to save anything but the best Ports from those vintages unless you have some other reason such as a birthday or anniversary. In fact it is probably safe to say that most of the Ports from those vintages are past their prime, though in many cases still very pleasant to drink.

So... where am I going with this? The very best Port from those three vintages is probably the 1985 Fonseca, though one or two others might earn support as well. If you check http://www.winesearcher.com, you can probably find 1985 Fonseca for $80-$85 bottle. And it's a wine that you can enjoy now, even more in 5 years, or give to your children to enjoy in 30 years. It's a beautiful wine with decades to go and an insanely good value.

Why is 1982 RCV worth more? Only for a collector or someone who wants that particular year for some reason (birthday, anniversary, etc). As Andy already said, RCV wasn't having a particularly good couple of decades right about that time, so it isn't likely to be great Port. We just recently did a horizontal of the 1985 Ports and managed to obtain 31 of the 44 Ports produced. More were available, but at prices that we didn't feel warranted the likely quality we'd get and so we didn't feel compelled to fill out the horizontal just for completeness. Royal Oporto (aka RCV) was one of those bottles.

So the person you're looking for has some non-Port reason for wanting a bottle of wine from 1982. For them it will be worth buying just to have something to commemorate that association with the year.

FWIW your bottles look like they are in excellent condition. That should help you find a collector/buyer!

btw...

[s clancy]

Thank you Glen. Again, most helpful. Looks like I may just start cracking these open and see how they taste.....