For The Love Of Port

After our recent FTLOP buying op, which included some great Colheitas, i was having a discussion with someone who mentioned sorting Colheitas upright.

I honestly had never heard that before, but here is the theory:

Ports that have a plastic stoppers (T corks) like most Colheitas, need to be stored upright, as the cork is not long enough to hold the wine if laying down for a long period. Ports that have long vintage-like corks in their Colheitas can be kept lying down.

I wondered, though, if T corked bottles are stored upright for a long time, wouldn't they also risk drying out and shrinking since they aren't in contact with the wine?

Thoughts? How do you store your t cork wines?

The Kopke's are waxed sealed to further muddy the waters on this discussion. I know the Dow LBV's with T-corks are shipped upright FWIW... I have bee storing the Kopke's from the offer (all in 375's) upright, but I don't expect to have them for many years...

Stewart T. wrote:Ports that have a plastic stoppers (T corks) like most Colheitas, need to be stored upright, as the cork is not long enough to hold the wine if laying down for a long period. Ports that have long vintage-like corks in their Colheitas can be kept lying down.

I think it's more that oxidized wines are okay to store upright because they won't be ruined (as quickly) by a little extra air getting in as the cork dries out. Madeira can be stored upright, too.

As far as needing to be stored upright... I call B.S. unless by "a long period" they mean several decades. Modern t-stoppers seal very well and I have bottles that have been lying down for 10 years with no signs of any problems.

All my wine bottles, including those with T-stoppers, are stored horizontally because that's what my racking is configured to do. I haven't had any problems, but I also haven't tried to store a T-stopper bottle for many many years.

Beyond what's already been mentioned, there's certainly the question of whether you plan to keep your current stash of Colheitas for just a few years, a decade or are considering even longer storage?

That would certainly come into play for us to provide good advice.

As already mentioned...plus, if a producer used a T-cork then they obviously do not want the bottle to be stored for a long period. The use of T-corks is used for bottles to be opened sometime close to the bottling date and not used for long term aging. So in that respect, it really shouldn't matter if you store up right because you shouldn't be holding onto them for any period of time that would make a difference.

I guess the exception would be if you were holding onto it as a birth year wine or to mark some special occasion. For my birth year, the ONLY Port of any style I can find is a Noval Colheita and the more recent 1971 White Port by da Silva. Granted, those both have driven corks, but if they DID have t-corks I could see purchasing some and putting them down for 45th, 50th, etc. At that point it might be worth waxing the t-cork to make sure it would survive.

Stewart T. wrote:... At that point it might be worth waxing the t-cork to make sure it would survive.

Another option at that point would be removing the t-cork and replacing it with a driven cork entirely (and wax on top if you want), if one is that serious about preserving something for later personal consumption. A floor standing hand corker can be purchased for less than the price of a couple of VPs, and if it just a bottle or two, you can use a cheaper ($20-40) benchtop model.

Moses Botbol wrote:The Kopke's are waxed sealed to further muddy the waters on this discussion. I know the Dow LBV's with T-corks are shipped upright FWIW... I have bee storing the Kopke's from the offer (all in 375's) upright, but I don't expect to have them for many years...

Have you tried to open one of those wax sealed Kopke's? Gotta say, it looks cool, but what a PITA to get open. At least there was a capsule underneath with made it a little bit easier to remove.

Andy Velebil wrote:

Moses Botbol wrote:The Kopke's are waxed sealed to further muddy the waters on this discussion. I know the Dow LBV's with T-corks are shipped upright FWIW... I have bee storing the Kopke's from the offer (all in 375's) upright, but I don't expect to have them for many years...

Have you tried to open one of those wax sealed Kopke's? Gotta say, it looks cool, but what a PITA to get open. At least there was a capsule underneath with made it a little bit easier to remove.

+1!