For The Love Of Port

The old standard has given way over the years to different designs. Some shorter and fat, like Kopke. Some really tall with a bulbous neck, like Taylor's. Some with more squared off shoulders, such as Niepoort. Some that come in tin cans. I pondered this as I was reorganizing some things in the home cellar and had the frustration of getting near the end of putting things back and was left trying to stick the proverbial "Square peg into a round hole" problem. That is a few bottles didn't want to play nice and fit into the racking.

It was Kopke. I love their Ports but their slightly shorter and fatter bottles (especially at the top) drive me nuts. They just don't fit into standard racking very well. It is an eye catching design no question about that. I just wish companies would stick to a more storage friendly design for us consumers.

What are your current favorite and not so favorite Port bottle shapes?

The squat Ferreira bottles can be hard to fit on many wine racks. I have enough Ferreira OWC's to consolidate all of them into one area. I am not going to rack any port I have in OWC, just single bottles and cardboard boxed port. Too bad as my 1970 Dow came in cardboard and didn't want to rack those... Oh well.

The issue with OWC is that many aren't very space friendly, as at this point they've taken on more of a presentation aspect rather than a practical shipping role. As much/all of my storage has been in wine fridges, funny shapes and OWC are especially tough to deal with.

That said, I do really like the squat Ferreira bottles as the squared off shoulder makes decanting off the sediment a cinch!

If you're looking for my favorite shape strictly on aesthetics, it would be the Royal Oporto 10y Tawny bottle, which is essentially a smallish older style decanter. Very attractive, especially considering it's not an expensive wine.


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My favorite semi modern bottle are the green textured Niepoort Garrafeira bottles.

I really understand making entry level ports in odd shaped bottles to induce someone to buy--or those odd and rare port like the San Leonardo 60 or 100. But a VP or other expensive Port should be in a standard size and shape to facilitate storage IMHO. To hard to rack the odd balls.

John M. wrote:I really understand making entry level ports in odd shaped bottles to induce someone to buy--or those odd and rare port like the San Leonardo 60 or 100. But a VP or other expensive Port should be in a standard size and shape to facilitate storage IMHO. To hard to rack the odd balls.

I'm basically in line with you. I don't care about the inexpensive stuff (they are not made to cellar), the rare stuff (as it's usually only one or two bottles I own), but the everyday agers that I buy a lot of that now takes up a ton of room due to odd/oversized bottles.

That has nothing to do with the fact some of those odd bottles are pretty cool looking. Like the Rocha Three Centuries. Cool bottle shape, but try sticking that thing into cellar racking and it will drive you nuts.

i like the Sandeman Founder's Reserve bottle. i miss it being green, ti was really pretty, and a total surprise when i poured my first glass. Fonseca bin 27 is a little too tall for the shelf i want to keep it on.