For The Love Of Port

You may characterize this in any way you would like. The #1 of your year. Top by category of Port. Your Top 10 or however else you would like to display your greatest hits of this year ... to this point in time.

We have done this every year since 2005. It matters not if your top Port is a Warre's LBV, or a Fonseca Bin 27. Whatever you liked best!

VP: 1992 Taylor Vintage Port

Tawny:
#1: NV Brunheda 40 Year Old Tawny Port
#2: 1966 Krohn Colheita

Hard to think of the ports I have since I don't keep records normally of them, but a few notable ones were:

1887 Croft
1963 Warre
1960 Taylor
1966 Smith Woodhouse

Well I managed to attend two tastings before COVID set in, one of them very high-end, so my list for the full year is pretty great. Because of that, I'll separate out the Ports from that tasting to give the rest of the year a chance!

My cutoff for the list from the Decades Vintage Port tasting is 97 points - if it isn't magnificent, it isn't worthy! There were many more that scored 95-96. It was a truly spectacular event.

Decades Vintage Port tasting, in order of tasting

1851 Warre - 98 points
1887 unknown shipper - 97 points
1927 Niepoort - 98 points
2000 Quinta do Noval Nacional - 97 points
1987 Niepoort Garrafeira - 97 points
2017 Niepoort - 97 points
1863 Niepoort Garrafeira - 98 points
-- This was served last as a mystery port, and while technically a Garrafeira (bottled 1972, decanted 1995) it tasted like a very old Tawny Port due to having 109 years in wood. Mind-blowing.

Remarkably, neither the 1931 Noval nor the 2011 Noval Nacional make this list. They were both outstanding, but not magnificent. Close but no cigar.

Graham's The Stone Terraces tasting

I wrote an article about this tasting for the FTLOP Newsletter, so you can read all about it in there! [/shamelessplug]

Port during COVID, in order of tasting, all 95 points unless otherwise noted
ok technically the first 3 are pre-COVID

1963 Graham VP
1967 Taylor Single Harvest Tawny
1957 Kopke Colheita
1985 Graham VP
1985 Fonseca VP
NV Brunheda 40 Year Old Tawny (b. 2019)
1998 Quinta do Vesuvio VP
2018 Quinta do Vesuvio VP -- 97 points
1976 Krohn Colheita (b. 2015)
NV DR L70 -- 98 points
1970 Graham VP
2018 Quinta do Noval VP
1985 Graham VP
NV Bulas 20 Year Old Tawny (b. 2012) -- 96 points! For a 20 year old!
1966 Kopke Colheita -- 96 points
1970 Taylor VP
1957 S. Leonardo Colheita -- 97 points
1992 Infantado VP -- 96 points
1994 Vesuvio VP
NV Vista Alegre 40 Year Old Tawny
2015 Graham LBV

Without a doubt for me, it's the 1966 Fonseca. The 1992 Taylor Fladgate would be second, but the Fonseca was just out of this world.

[ Note to self: Get invited to Glenn's house. ]

i haven't had many ports at all. there is still some time in 2020 though
best so far was Niepoort 1992 LBV.

i'm thinking either 2005 noval silval or 1995 Fonseca Guimaraens could be next to open. or maybe 2004 kopke.

I didn't take any notes on the S. Leonardo TWIOAges that I've tasted this year, but they were certainly the best in that category. For colheita and VP, here are my winners:

• 1980 Gould Campbell Vintage Port (95-96 points)
• 1967 Taylor Single Harvest Colheita Port (96 points)

I didn't attend that epic tasting that Glenn went to. But I'm glad I made it to LA for Andy's organized tasting before Covid hit. That's where I tasted the above two wines, along with many other good ones.

1963 Grahams
1966 Kopke Colheita
DR L70

Eric Ifune wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 3:31 pm 1966 Kopke Colheita

That one was excellent as well, just slightly edged out by '67 Taylor in my opinion. As I scanned my notes, I saw that I tasted some colheitas this year from the '30s, '40s, and '50s, but my favorites were from 1966 and 1967.

All from my personal stash:

In no order of preference, here are my top Ports of 2020 thus far...

-1966 Kopke Colheita (Bottled in 2017)

-1977 Warre's VP
-1992 Fonseca VP
-1994 Warre's VP
-2000 Fonseca VP
-2016 Vesuvio VP (I know it's young, but I find it to be quite approachable; I'm sipping on some right now, in fact.)

And... the winner is...

1994 Warre's VP - It was so perfectly balanced, and I lost myself in it on numerous occasions! I'm thrilled to have nine more bottles of this on hand.

P.S. -- I will be opening a 1985 Fonseca on Christmas Eve. We shall see if it dethrones the 1994 Warre's.

My Port consumption was pretty low this year. I didn't have very many bottles at home and the pandemic resulted in a pretty hard lockdown here in Melbourne where we weren't allowed to be going further than about 5km from our homes. My storage locker is on the other side of town, so the end result was that I couldn't get to my port during the prime Port drinking months of the southern hemisphere winter. At least I had plenty of Muscat at home.

The best one for me was probably the 98 Grahams Quinta dos Malvados, which was the best showing I have had for this port.

1985 Grahams VP, Close 2nd tied 1983 Ferreira Quinta do Seixo and 1970 Dows

Best Tawny was Royal Oporto 30 Year

Continually blown away with any White WAIOA

Ended up opening less wine this year, as there were many fewer people coming by to share it with. Still managed some very tasty bottles though (and small silver lining, less guests meant my wife and I drank most of them, haha)

Top tawny: S Leonardo “60”

Top VP: Dow 1985


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Strange year indeed. A lot of tastings cancelled or postponed. Else I am pretty sure 1970 Taylor's would have run with best VP and 1992 Taylor's the promising category. So haven't drunk nearly as much older port as I would normally, since most have been consumed alone. Alas here are my take.

Best VP 1983 Graham's
Best young promising VP 2017 Graham's


Best Tawny: 1966 Wiese & Krohn Colheita
Best young promising Tawny 1997 Dalva Colheita

Niepoort VV, old bottling
Quevedo Old white 1970 Colheita
Warre's 1980 Vintage

Did not drink much in the way of port or champagne in 2020, also fewer of the better wines that might have come out for dinners and tastings with friends. The best port I had was earlier in the year when I opened a 1988 Fonseca Guimaraens. Another candidate was supposed to be a 40 year old colheita opened on New Years Eve but we opened a few too many wines (including my sparkling of the year) and thought it wise not to "waste" it and instead opened a 10 year old tawny.

Cheers ................... Mahmoud.

The 3 best were:
98 pts DR 50 years old white port
97 pts 1977 Taylor's vintage
96 pts 1963 Presidential (Dalva) Golden White

So, two of them were white ports!!

Due to the pandemic, I definitely hid in the cellar a little more than usual, and I’ve been lucky to be able to enjoy some fantastic Port- and remarkably- no weak or lackluster bottles. So that’s good.

1977 Taylor VP, which was significantly better than when I last tried it about 5 years ago. It almost tasted younger, with more explosive berries and white raisins.

Was offered a glass of the Taylor Fladgate 1863 release which was both wonderful and different from anything I’ve had before. More viscous and dense. Must be sipped very slowly. Lots of oak, toffee, prunes, orange rind, coffee. Was excited as much for the ‘event’ of drinking it as for the Port itself.

A little late to the table, but Vic and I drank more port in 2020 than any previous year, and that was without the usual Port Harvest 2 tour in fall. This list is chronological. Only ports that scored 94 or above are listed. There are too many in the 91-93 point range to post. Most of these were served blind, so no label bias.

Fonseca VP 1985 - 94
Churchills VP 1985 - 94
Dow VP 1985 - 94+
Grahams VP 1985 - 96+
Gould Campbell VP 1985 - 95
Taylor VP 1966 - 95
Brunheda 40 yro Tawny btl 2019 - 94
Vista Allegre 40 yro Tawny btl. 2016 - 94
Graham VP 2017 - 95
Graham VP 2016 - 95
Graham VP 2011 - 94
Graham Stone Terraces VP 2017 - 96
Graham Stone Terraces VP 2016 - 95+
Graham Stone Terraces VP 2015 - 94+
Graham Stone Terraces VP 2011 - 95
S. Leonardo 40 yro Tawny btl. 2017 - 95
Barao de Vilar 1974 Colheita btl. 2014 0 94
Quevedo 40 yro Tawny btl. 2012 - 94
Barros 1974 Colheita btl. 2019 - 94
Brunheda Codecais Lodge Tonel 1 bottled 2019 - 94
Graham VP 1983 - 94
Krohn 1976 Colheita btl. 2015 - 95
Casa Ste. Euphemia 30 yro Tawny btl. 2019, 95
Cockburn VP 1963 - 95
DR 40 yro Tawny btl. 2015 - 95
S. Leonardo 40 yro Tawny btl. 2015 - 94
Bulas 20 yro Tawny btl. 2012 - 96!
Krohn 30 yro Tawny btl. 2013 - 95
Grahams VP 1985 - 95
Kopke 1966 Colheita btl. 2019 - 96
Taylor VP 1970 - 95
S. Leonardo 1958 Colheita btl. 2017 - 96
Ramos Pinto VP 1983 - 94
Quinta do Infantado VP 1992 - 94
Quinta do Vesuvio VP 1994 - 95
Quinta do Vesuvio VP 1995 - 94
Quinta do Vesuvio VP 1996 - 95
Quinta do Vesuvio VP 1997 - 96
Kopke 1965 Colheita btl. 2017 - 95
Quevedo 40 yro Tawny btl. 2015 - 94
Vista Allegra 40 yro White btl. 2017 - 94
Vista Allegra 40 yro Tawny btl. 2017 - 96

Not a bad year considering COVID and all of that.

-Lisa

In order of preference, my TOP DOZEN:

1945 Croft was the best Vintage Port I had last year.
1945 Graham's Vintage Port
1927 Niepoort Vintage Port
1948 Fonseca Vintage Port
2017 Niepoort Vintage Port
1994 Taylor's Vintage Port
2011 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port
1863 Niepoort Garrafeira
DR L70
2011 Graham's The Stone Terraces VP
2017 Graham's The Stone Terraces VP
1997 Vesuvio VP

A remarkable year of Port tastings!