For The Love Of Port

What categories of Port would you be willing to buy in screw cap?

Ruby, Reserve Ruby, Tawny, Reserve Tawny, LBV, Crusted, Tawny Ports with an indication of age (10/20/30/40/60+), Colheita, White Port, White Colheita, Vintage Port?

Any tawny, colheita, or any port that is ready to drink of the retailer's shelf.

Roy Hersh wrote:What categories of Port would you be willing to buy in screw cap?

None. Absolutely none.

Not a big fan of plastic touching my food/drink for an extended period so side towards none. However, I could see the basic wines sold that way, even ruby reserves. After that, no way.

Christian Gollnick wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:What categories of Port would you be willing to buy in screw cap?

None. Absolutely none.

I started to go along with Moses, but then realized that I'm really more in line with you.

Which is to say that if they want to put tawnies, reserve tawnies, rubies, and reserve rubies under screw cap that's fine because I basically don't drink those. But leave the rest under cork (or t-stoppers), thanks.

Moses Botbol wrote:Any tawny, colheita, or any port that is ready to drink of the retailer's shelf.

Generally this. In reality, this makes the product far more viable for more people. Especially for bars and restaurants that don't have to deal with corks of any type.

As for the argument about not wanting plastic to touch your wine. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but plastic bins are used to collect the grapes, they go down a rubber conveyor belt, are often then put into a large plastic bin and transported somewhere else where they are then crushed. And that isn't super sanitized food certified stuff like what is used in screw caps. Just saying.

Andy Velebil wrote:And that isn't super sanitized food certified stuff like what is used in screw caps. Just saying.

What are you saying, that your feet weren't super sanitized while you were tromping around in the vats???

For standard ports with formats of less than 37.5cL, screw caps are the only practical closure.

However..

I feel that packaging standard Port in bottles that look too much like affordable wine bottles will only serve to draw adverse attention to the higher alcohol content. There needs to be a clear difference in perceived identity between 'Port' and 'Wine'. Using T stoppers places Port in a favourable light as a low alcohol 'Liquor' rather than a high alcohol 'Wine'

I therefore think the use of screw caps on standard bottles would be a significant mistake.

I could see it being used for basic rubies. I wouldn't buy those, not because of the screw cap, but because I can't remember the last time I bought a basic ruby.

I'm in the "anything ready to drink" camp. Sure, aesthetically, a nice wood T-Stopper on an expensive tawny is a nice addition, but there's 0 question that screwcap is the most consistent and high performing closure in the shorter term, and I'm happy to skimp on the looks if it improves consistency of quality.


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Personally, I wouldn't mind any Port, including Vintage, in screw cap. They just have to be the correct screwcap. It actually might be beneficial to have different screwcaps with differing amounts of air egress to vary the rate of aging.

I'd prefer screw caps for everything.
That's probably not a surprise to anybody who has looked at my location. I don't have a particularly old collection of wine (cellar tracker says the average Vintage is 2007)
so I'd estimate that about 2/3 of my wine is under screw cap and I am starting to get a fair few bottles that are hitting that decade + mark and I am pretty happy with what I am seeing. The majority of local fortifieds have been under screw cap for over a decade too and I haven't seen any issues there, but I am yet to see something in a Vintage Port style at 20 + years, so that is the last frontier for me. Given what I have seen though I am confident it won't be an issue

My only complaint for screw caps in Vintage Ports is the long term storage....and it isn't about what most think. There is one major drawback to screw caps, the metal cap itself. If it gets dinged on the corner it can compromise the seal. We all know VP's hang around and get passed around a fair amount of the course of several decades or more. The odds that that cap will get damaged from handling over such a long period goes up a lot. While no closure is perfect, I still prefer corks for long term aging. The rest of the stuff I don't care what is used.

The opinion north of the 49th parallel is shared by Andy (I think)

definitely any pop n pour, though it would negate that fun name. and i would miss the "pop" sound when it's initially opened.
i rarely finish a bottle in a night, and my budget is limited such that i ration my Port so i tend to not even finish a bottle in a week so whatever closure keeps my Port drinkable after being open for several weeks gets my vote.

are screw caps significantly cheaper to produce than t stoppers?

I once bought three bottles of Graham's "Emperor" Finest Old Tawny at an auction. They came as part of a mixed lot that included a bottle of Calem 1963 I really, really wanted.

I drank them. They were OK. I guess they were bottled in the late '60s or early '70s. They were UK bottled (by Luis Gordon & Sons Ltd). I've no idea how much of an impact the seal had had on the contents, and the bottles were a bit of a chore to drink, but the experience didn't put me off screw caps being used for port.