For The Love Of Port

I don't care if you choose filtered, unfiltered or mention neither. I am very interested to see which are your three favorite producers of LBV overall. Please list them in the order of preference. We'll compile stats on this if we obtain enough responses to make it worthwhile!

Thanks.


Oh by the way, please keep it to just three.

To be honest I'm not a great fan but one I had a few months back I had to keep hold of my socks on tasting.The thing is I threw the bottle out and can't remember who made it.1994 unfiltered bottled 2000 and it began with an L and it was quite a long word ?It's the portzheimers again.It's came to me Quinta de Ventozelo Port Wine LBV 1994.

That's easy for me:

1. Ramos Pinto

2. Warre

3. Noval

1. Quinta do Noval. I like young and old ones

2. Niepoort. especially older ones such as the 1995 which is superb

3. Croft. I have chosen this as I have had several old bottles
going back to 1984 and they have all been delightful
I wish I could source a few more.



Paul.

1) Ramos Pinto ('98 LBV a new top favorite)

2) Noval

3) ?????? (Drawing a blank)

1. Churchill

2. Ramos-Pinto

3. Warre

1. Warre's (unfiltered)

2. Noval

3. Niepoort

Niepoort
Warre
Smith Woodhouse

1. Warre
2. Ramos-Pinto
3. Smith Woodhouse

Niepoort
Warre
Poças (older ones)

!. Quinta do Crasto
2. Niepoort
3. Quinta do Noval

1. Warres (unfiltered )
2. Niepoort
3. Smith Woodhouse

1. Niepoort
2. Warre's
3. Noval

1. Noval (unfiltered )
2. Niepoort
3. Dow & Graham's (a tie)

Niepoort
Warre
Quinta do Vale Donna Maria

Jay

Although I'd like to add my own 3 LBV names, I'll probably wait a few more days for others to have the chance to add their favorites. So far we have a very solid sampling. Keep it up!

Niepoort
Noval
Warre

Tie for 1st: Niepoort & Noval - they both approach SQVP quality
3rd: S-W (not far behind).

Warre's is right there w/ S-W but I like S-W a bit more (personal preference to the beefier style of S-W.

BC

While I cannot claim to have had a terribly high number of bottles of the unfiltered LBVs, as I am able to source and try more and more, I like them head and shoulders above anything filtered.

That being said, here are my top three:

Warre (unfiltered)
Noval (unfiltered)
and now I'm going to throw a knuckleball out: Taylor (filtered)

Why Taylor? Despite being filtered, despite being a touch acidic or at times a touchy spirit-y, these do not seem to detract overall from what is year-after-year a solid LBV. I know what to expect when I open a bottle of Taylor's LBV. I will admit it is not one of my top three "Best of the LBV" category... but it is one of the top three LBVs I buy... consistency has a lot to do with this.

And Roy may hate me for adding a 4th, but having recently tried 3 bottles of 2x different years, I have to say Smith-Woodhouse comes a VERY close runner up to the Noval in terms of unfiltered LBVs. VERY close... as my Dad would say: "by a whisker" only!
Sorry Roy!

Todd

It has been great reading this thread and interesting to see how several producers names are in a majority of peoples top three. I do hope more people chime in with their favorites. Here are mine, in no particular order...

Niepoort
Smith Woodhouse
Grahams (Yes it's a filtered LBV, but its always a no brainer for a really good LBV that has more stuffing than most other filtered, and some unfiltered, LBV's out there. I really wish they would do an unfiltered version)