For The Love Of Port

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Part of why I love Port. The great wines are truly great, and for the most part, affordable to those with a median income.


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Really interesting article. I'm just getting started in this hobby and it's nice to know it's a relatively affordable hobby to play with. I'll probably never build a mighty cellar with hundreds of bottles dating back decades, moving every three years makes that highly unlikely, but I'm excited that I can still find a nice bottle of port for a special occasion for under 100 bucks.

Restaurants seem to do well with Madeira; so somebody has to be drinking it? Even if the percent of wine drinkers who regularly drink fortified wines has gone down; the total number of wine drinkers has gone up.

We here in the FTLOP forum know that there are a lot of really fanatic Port Wine friends out there (and we see them every morning when we look in the mirror).
The Port Wine Institute and the shippers should create something like "Port Wine Ambassadors" (which would be people like us - fanatics believing that they have a missionary calling). We get per year 5 "Tasting cases", containing 6 bottles of different ports (White, Reserve Ruby, LBV, maybe a vintage, Tawny, 10 Year old Tawny)... Each of us has to organize 5 tastings to put these tasting-cases to good use... each with 10-15 guests. The tastings are free... afterwards the guests are signed up to an email-distribution list and get monthly a nice, short newsletter from the Institute or a marketing company that gets paid by the Port Trade. Guests should be multiplicators - like bar tenders and waiters. Or visitors of liquor stores. Or maybe even only work-colleagues. If there are only 25 Port Ambassadors world-wide and they each have 5 tastings with 15 guests a year, then we reach nearly 2,000 people a year. And these people will know a lot about Port Wine after the tastings. Allow them after receiving the emails for a year after the tasting to apply to become a Port Ambassador, too - so that they get also the cases, maybe 2 to start with, and to spread the word about Port. Like Tupper-Ware. The Port Wine companies in Gaia do a good job to get customers into their lodges - but I don't think that they convert most of those people to Port lovers... otherwise - looking at the huge crowds in Gaia - the Port Trade wouldn't have any problems... But many of them come to get just a few cheap drinks, and because it's the thing to do when you are in Porto... But the lodges could also try to convert tourists with Port knowledge into Ambassadors... make them take a test... And then, when the Port Ambassador visits Gaia, the lodges give him/her a better treatment. There must be a certain "cool-factor" attached to being a Port Ambassador. Of course it costs some money, the shipping alone of the tasting cases is expensive - but thanks to a snow-ball-principle this could really take on a nice dynamic. Of course these are just thoughts that I wrote while eating a sandwich - and maybe only a tiny drop in an ocean of potential customers... but passionate Port Ambassadors with a little bit financial/marketing-help can be a powerful weapon to raise the awareness of Port.

Christian Gollnick wrote:We here in the FTLOP forum know that there are a lot of really fanatic Port Wine friends out there (and we see them every morning when we look in the mirror).
The Port Wine Institute and the shippers should create something like "Port Wine Ambassadors" (which would be people like us - fanatics believing that they have a missionary calling)...

i'm in!

Christian Gollnick wrote:We here in the FTLOP forum know that there are a lot of really fanatic Port Wine friends out there (and we see them every morning when we look in the mirror).
The Port Wine Institute and the shippers should create something like "Port Wine Ambassadors" (which would be people like us - fanatics believing that they have a missionary calling). We get per year 5 "Tasting cases", containing 6 bottles of different ports (White, Reserve Ruby, LBV, maybe a vintage, Tawny, 10 Year old Tawny)... Each of us has to organize 5 tastings to put these tasting-cases to good use... each with 10-15 guests. The tastings are free... afterwards the guests are signed up to an email-distribution list and get monthly a nice, short newsletter from the Institute or a marketing company that gets paid by the Port Trade. Guests should be multiplicators - like bar tenders and waiters. Or visitors of liquor stores. Or maybe even only work-colleagues. If there are only 25 Port Ambassadors world-wide and they each have 5 tastings with 15 guests a year, then we reach nearly 2,000 people a year. And these people will know a lot about Port Wine after the tastings. Allow them after receiving the emails for a year after the tasting to apply to become a Port Ambassador, too - so that they get also the cases, maybe 2 to start with, and to spread the word about Port. Like Tupper-Ware. The Port Wine companies in Gaia do a good job to get customers into their lodges - but I don't think that they convert most of those people to Port lovers... otherwise - looking at the huge crowds in Gaia - the Port Trade wouldn't have any problems... But many of them come to get just a few cheap drinks, and because it's the thing to do when you are in Porto... But the lodges could also try to convert tourists with Port knowledge into Ambassadors... make them take a test... And then, when the Port Ambassador visits Gaia, the lodges give him/her a better treatment. There must be a certain "cool-factor" attached to being a Port Ambassador. Of course it costs some money, the shipping alone of the tasting cases is expensive - but thanks to a snow-ball-principle this could really take on a nice dynamic. Of course these are just thoughts that I wrote while eating a sandwich - and maybe only a tiny drop in an ocean of potential customers... but passionate Port Ambassadors with a little bit financial/marketing-help can be a powerful weapon to raise the awareness of Port.

That's actually a fantastic idea. I wonder if anyone in the trade ever reads this forum or if anyone here has any contacts. My local grocery store has an excellent wine/beer selection and does tastings several times a week; they've done port once that I know of in the last year and I believe did a brisk business in the bottle they opened (a white port).

Jeremy: Yes and yes. Lots of us here have contacts in the Port trade. And although they only post on rare occasions, YES, the Port trade comes here to lurk and read the Forum.

That being said, I think there is so much mis-information in that article. Although I am one of the oldest people using this Forum, when I am out and paying attention in restaurants, I see mostly under 40 year olds drinking fortified wine AFTER dinner. At wine festivals and trade tastings, Portuguese fortified wines are very popular with a younger crowd than ever. Maybe this is just a North America vs. the UK market type of thing. But I doubt it. That article uses Michelin star restaurants as examples, how many 20-30 somethings are affording to go there to begin with? Other things I found that just seem very odd. Almost no mention of Madeira. Not understanding why the spike for Port in February (Valentines Day), mentioning the Croft Pink by its category not its name and introduced as something that is seemingly new. Maybe the author did not do enough homework?

Am I being overly critical?

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Roy Hersh wrote: Other things I found that just seem very odd. Almost no mention of Madeira. Not understanding why the spike for Port in February (Valentines Day), mentioning the Croft Pink by its category not its name and introduced as something that is seemingly new. Maybe the author did not do enough homework?

Am I being overly critical?

Madeira's popularity I find growing faster than port's. Anyone paying attention to Madeira prices? Madeira just makes a hell lot more sense to serve by the glass in a restaurant than port or sherry. There's a few trendy restaurants in Portland, Maine (big foodie spot actually) and Madeira is like 3-1 on the top shelf bar of the restaurants we went to. In Boston, our favorite haunts are like 50-50 port/madeira.

Roy Hersh wrote:Jeremy: Yes and yes. Lots of us here have contacts in the Port trade. And although they only post on rare occasions, YES, the Port trade comes here to lurk and read the Forum.

That being said, I think there is so much mis-information in that article. Although I am one of the oldest people using this Forum, when I am out and paying attention in restaurants, I see mostly under 40 year olds drinking fortified wine AFTER dinner. At wine festivals and trade tastings, Portuguese fortified wines are very popular with a younger crowd than ever. Maybe this is just a North America vs. the UK market type of thing. But I doubt it. That article uses Michelin star restaurants as examples, how many 20-30 somethings are affording to go there to begin with? Other things I found that just seem very odd. Almost no mention of Madeira. Not understanding why the spike for Port in February (Valentines Day), mentioning the Croft Pink by its category not its name and introduced as something that is seemingly new. Maybe the author did not do enough homework?

Am I being overly critical?

Not over critical at all. Seems the author didn't bother to come to conclusions on WHY this data is the way it is. The analysis is poor. People in my age group, 18-34, are over their heads in student loans. A Michelin-starred restaurant is completely out of the realm of dining options. Seems that the author interviewed the wrong people for observational data.

My age group, 18-34 year olds, are VERY finicky when it comes to spending money. We want prestige and power when buying items. It needs to be cool and sophisticated to spend $20+ on a bottle. It also helps that our peers are doing the same thing.

One recommendation for the Port industry would be to market Port with an emotionally 'cool' story. As a whole, we don't care too much about the history of Port (I do, but I'm just a single person). Rather, showing people who are having a good time, partying, wearing nice clothes etc. will grab attention. It needs to be sleek, instantly attention-grabbing and persuasive enough. Buying ad space in magazines 18-34 year olds read, and ad space in websites we go to.

A dschus wrote:My age group, 18-34 year olds, are VERY finicky when it comes to spending money. We want prestige and power when buying items. It needs to be cool and sophisticated to spend $20+ on a bottle. It also helps that our peers are doing the same thing.

One recommendation for the Port industry would be to market Port with an emotionally 'cool' story. As a whole, we don't care too much about the history of Port (I do, but I'm just a single person). Rather, showing people who are having a good time, partying, wearing nice clothes etc. will grab attention. It needs to be sleek, instantly attention-grabbing and persuasive enough. Buying ad space in magazines 18-34 year olds read, and ad space in websites we go to.

Product placement with taste influencers would be ideal. Sponsorship in events targeted to said age group would be next.