For The Love Of Port

I was at a Total Wine in VA last month and for $30 found Taylor Fladgate Select Reserve.

What is this? Is it a Tawny Reserve?

It's a Ruby Reserve Port that is above their regular Ruby Port ("Fine Ruby") and below their other Ruby Reserve ("First Estate Reserve"). The Select Reserve is keep in wood for approx. 2 years. The First Estate Reserve is kept in wood for 3-4 years.

Thanks! I wasn't sure what the "aged in oak for two years" on the label meant. I didn't know First Estate is aged that long in wood. I haven't been able to find it yet to try.

The Taylor Select Reserve is a reasonably competent reserve port without rough edges, but there's no great body to it.

Dow's Midnight trades at roughly the same price, but is a much bigger (and IMO better) beast.

I never heard of Dow's Midnight Port until you mentioned it. I looked it up and it looks like it can't be bought here in the U.S. At least not according to Wine-Searcher.

The Symington's distribution policy is sometimes a bit mysterious..

I don't recall seeing Warre 2002 LBV on sale in the UK - we seemed to move quickly from 2001 to 2003, then 2004 and now 2007

But on Wine Searcher I can see many US merchants stocking the 2002 LBV and several now stocking the 2008, which so far isn't listed in any other country..

Tom Archer wrote:The Symington's distribution policy is sometimes a bit mysterious..

I don't recall seeing Warre 2002 LBV on sale in the UK - we seemed to move quickly from 2001 to 2003, then 2004 and now 2007

But on Wine Searcher I can see many US merchants stocking the 2002 LBV and several now stocking the 2008, which so far isn't listed in any other country..

Nothing mysterious about it. SFE knows their markets well. Almost all international wine shipping producers have products with different labels for different countries (often same product just a different label). Niepoort is a great example of this with their dry wines.

Nothing mysterious about it. SFE knows their markets well. Almost all international wine shipping producers have products with different labels for different countries (often same product just a different label). Niepoort is a great example of this with their dry wines.

Sure, there's a good reason why they don't label their late released bottles until just before they ship them - different markets have different labelling rules, rules that also change from time to time. Having to add slip labels to every bottle (often by hand) is a pain they try to avoid.

But.. where is the logic with the distribution of the vintage dates on the LBVs? It doesn't look as though the Warre 2007 LBV has been shipped at all to the US, and so far the 2008 has been shipped nowhere else. It is possible that the 2002 LBV was considered unready for distribution and passed over in favour of the 2003 and 2004 (although given the 2002 harvest, that would be surprising..) - but why now ship it to the US and nowhere else?

The distribution feels more scattergun than strategic..

Tom Archer wrote:

Nothing mysterious about it. SFE knows their markets well. Almost all international wine shipping producers have products with different labels for different countries (often same product just a different label). Niepoort is a great example of this with their dry wines.

Sure, there's a good reason why they don't label their late released bottles until just before they ship them - different markets have different labelling rules, rules that also change from time to time. Having to add slip labels to every bottle (often by hand) is a pain they try to avoid.

But.. where is the logic with the distribution of the vintage dates on the LBVs? It doesn't look as though the Warre 2007 LBV has been shipped at all to the US, and so far the 2008 has been shipped nowhere else. It is possible that the 2002 LBV was considered unready for distribution and passed over in favour of the 2003 and 2004 (although given the 2002 harvest, that would be surprising..) - but why now ship it to the US and nowhere else?

The distribution feels more scattergun than strategic..

It depends on supple and demand. The latter varies greatly over time. If country-A still has the previous unsold vintage may make no sense to send the current one. Or if one country is buying a ton of current vintage and another country isn’t buying/selling much it makes more sense to send more to the country buying it and not to a country who isn’t buying.