For The Love Of Port

I'm not big on New Year's Resolutions, but this year I came up with one that works for me. Some will laugh at it, but for me it's actually already a struggle.

My resolution is to open more bottles of Port from my cellar this year. Specifically, 2 per month.

I know, I know... that's not a lot. My problem with my cellar is that I rarely pull anything out of it to drink unless there's a big tasting going on. But I keep buying more Port, so my cellar is overflowing and filling my den. So in order to at last make some progress, I've resolved to pull 2 bottles per month out of my cellar and open them. And I'm not allowed to average - I must open at least 2 bottles every month out of my cellar.

January was easy... Sammamish Port Club provided the opportunity to open 6 bottles. Yay! We even drank them all, so there weren't any leftovers.

February was harder. The first bottle went pretty quickly, but the second wasn't opened until the last week and I'm still drinking it. But I got it open in time!

March... I'm worried about March. I have BBQ events on 2 weekends and a Sammamish Port Club meeting on a 3rd. Plus I'm still drinking February #2 so don't really feel the need to open another bottle yet. *sigh*

I'll soldier on.

Did anyone else make a Port-related New Year's Resolution? If so, how's it going?

No....but I like yours. I'm in the same predicament somewhat---my other issue is most of my bottles are "hold"....need to get some ready drinkers like the Souzas. I was on the fence about opening something....guess I'll have to now.

Not a resolution but at 76yrs I had about 172 port bottles at12/31/16 am making an effort to work on that.I have used 8 btls so far with some help; but I better hurry up.

Jeff T.

Jeff,

You will realistically need to open 15-24 bottles of Port per year. Like Glenn, a solid plan would be to open a bottle every two weeks, year round. You can't take 'em with you, but maybe you do have heirs who you'd like to inherit your bottles? But in the meantime, start popping corks more often and be generous with good friends. They also make great gifts!

John M. wrote:No....but I like yours. I'm in the same predicament somewhat---my other issue is most of my bottles are "hold"....need to get some ready drinkers like the Souzas. I was on the fence about opening something....guess I'll have to now.

In self defense, I also have that problem - most of my ruby Port is "too young" to drink yet, so needs to be held until mature. But my cellar is still probably around 33% tawny Port, so that excuse only goes so far for me.

I'll be opening March #1 (S. Leonardo 40 year old) tonight to share with some friends, so maybe March won't be difficult after all.

i resolve to graciously accept any and all Port you don't want or can't drink.

My port resolution is to consolidate port to one cellar. So far, so good, Expect to be done by year end.

Scheiny S wrote:i resolve to graciously accept any and all Port you don't want or can't drink.

that's what i was drin.. thinking






i'll just add i don't care for tawnies. you can have those Scheiny S

It's a good resolution, I've been trying to do the same. Since shipping is tough in Texas, I found myself basically buying a lot of cellar defending LBV, but then continuing to buy more total Port than I was drinking despite my firm space constraints. I guess the only solution is to sign on to a plan like Glenn's! Because buying less isn't a realistic goal for me, haha.


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Glenn E. wrote:So in order to at last make some progress, I've resolved to pull 2 bottles per month out of my cellar and open them. And I'm not allowed to average - I must open at least 2 bottles every month out of my cellar.

Have you also stopped buying more port? Or have you factored that into your equation?

Thomas V wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:So in order to at last make some progress, I've resolved to pull 2 bottles per month out of my cellar and open them. And I'm not allowed to average - I must open at least 2 bottles every month out of my cellar.

Have you also stopped buying more port? Or have you factored that into your equation?

Baby steps! Baby steps!

Significantly cut back buying, drink down to make room in cellar this year, and start over buying more again next year. I've sorta done good so far....the buying op's don't help, LOL.

Two years ago I resolved to only by replacement bottles, not direct replacements, but for every bottle I drank I could buy a new bottle of something. I ended the year with one bottle less, so I kept that. Then last year, with no such resolution, the cellar grew a fair bit. This year I'm not buying any wine for the cellar except when I go to Portugal. I've kept that so far. (And while this might not sound very fun, if I keep the resolution for the whole year I have some ideas on what to buy in 2018 to celebrate .)

Eric Menchen wrote: I've kept that so far. (And while this might not sound very fun, if I keep the resolution for the whole year I have some ideas on what to buy in 2018 to celebrate .)

Don't tease us like that Eric. Do tell us what you are dreaming about for 2018?

My New Year's Resolution was the same as it has been for the last 3 years - to have fewer bottles in my collection than I had at the start of the year.

I'm really, really bad at keeping resolutions.

In 2014 my bottle collection grew by only 7 bottles. I was proud of my achievement.

In 2015 my bottle collection grew by 78 bottles. I promised myself that I would do better in 2016.

In 2016 my bottle collection grew by 46 bottles. I promised myself that I would do better in 2017.

So far this year, my bottle collection has REDUCED by 13 bottles. Way to go me!

Al B. wrote:
So far this year, my bottle collection has REDUCED by 13 bottles. Way to go me!

The year is still young

Andy Velebil wrote:

Al B. wrote:
So far this year, my bottle collection has REDUCED by 13 bottles. Way to go me!

The year is still young

LOL... that it is!

Here's why my resolution is so difficult for me - I'm sitting here sipping on a glass of 1997 Souza, which was March #1. IT'S NOT GONE YET. Some guy wearing a long trenchcoat and dark sunglasses dropped off a couple of bottles much earlier in the month, and tomorrow night is the 2nd meeting of the Sammamish Port Club. I'm still thinking there's a chance that I might actually finish both March bottles before the end of March! (That's not part of the resolution, though, they just have to be opened on time!)

My resolution is similar to Alex's, but I have six years of age on him and look at my cellar and it tells me, 'you have more wine than you will ever drink, so why buy any more?'

While that sounds easy, when I see empty spaces in my racking, I have this sense that I am failing.

So I keep replenishing the empty spaces and still have an additional eight cases that don't even fit in my racks and are sitting in the middle of the room on the floor. Then there are the 18 full cases that sit atop my racks. I am fine with my daughter inheriting lots of Ports, but I especially do want to drink down my table wines.

Resisting the urge to splurge when I see a great buy is the hard part. The onslaught of online offers that reach and tempt me daily have created this buying addiction with wine, that I never have found with any other hobby or product. But being a freak for drinking wines when they are mature is something that I must learn to change and tell myself, with table wines, that it is ok to enjoy the young ones instead of only devouring the oldies and letting the young ones become older.

Sounds like a personal problem.

Roy Hersh wrote:The onslaught of online offers that reach and tempt me daily have created this buying addiction with wine, that I never have found with any other hobby or product.

I set up a filter on my e-mail so all the wine buying e-mails are going into a folder, which I generally just delete every now and then, but I can still look at if I want. But they aren't showing up in my inbox now.

Some of you are obviously suffering with a luxury problem.