Lots of new faces ... please introduce yourself

[Eric Menchen]

Thanks for the welcome.

Perhaps I overstated things at Kopke. We didn't dislike what we tasted, but compared to other places, we didn't find anything that we moved us to bring some home. I ordered their 10 yr tawny. My wife was typically ordering older tawnies and some LBVs, and a VP if possible, but I think when we went to Kopke she might have been in the mood for a white. While we had a least six different things at Calem, and lost count at Vinologia, our two or three samples at Kopke didn't impress so we moved on.

When we had friends over for food and port last weekend I bought some tonic to go with the Chip Dry, but we ended up just drinking it as is with some spiced almonds and cheeses. I'll post elsewhere about the desserts I made to go with the after-dinner ports.

-Eric Menchen

[Luc Gauthier]

Salut Eric et bienvenue !!
You must give Kopke colheitas another go .
I enjoy colheitas when they are 30+ yrs .

[Andy Velebil]

Eric,
Luc is right, don't write them off just yet. They make some top notch tawny's, but Luc is also right on the age he likes them and so am I. While I like colheita's on the younger side (7-20 years) from time to time, at that age they still have too much fruit in them for my tastes. 25+ years old is when they just start hitting that point where the nuts, carmel, toffee, and wood takes over the fruit allowing the acidity to really show. That's the point where I think colheitas start giving the most please for what they are. That is just my preference and everyone is different, so don't worry about it. Find something you like and drink up...we can help you with the last one. Pretty soon you'll have a cellar full of bottles and you'll wonder where they all came from so fast

[Glenn E.]

Hi Eric, welcome to FTLOP!

I also just returned from a week in Portugal, but I don't think we overlapped because only our last 4 days were in Porto.

I'll also toss in my 2 cents regarding Kopke - don't write them off yet! I like their older tawnies more than their younger ones. Their 20-yr old is very good, and they've had some exceptional Colheitas in the last century. I have also had their 2005 VP which I found quite pleasing and fruity, though I'm not as fond of some of their tweens and teenagers.

[Michael Whitehead]

damn, my first post and i already managed to post it in the wrong forum. d'oh!
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/forum.html

anyways, hello. :hello:

[Roy Hersh]

Tbird,

Welcome to the most comprehensive Port website on the web. We hope you will continue to post here but I must ask you to please change your user profile to include your real name and location, as you see everyone else here has done.

We look forward to having you share and learn along with the rest of us and hope you will come back early and often.

Cheers!

[Rich N.]

My name is Rich Nigro and I'm a long time aficionado of port, but light on knowledge. To alleviate that, I recently attended the Fall Harvest Tour and it was everything I had hoped it would be, plus some! The biggest eye-opener for me was the increasing quality (and emphasis) on Douro wines.

I live in San Francisco, am recently out of a relationship with my girlfriend, so I have disposable income and time to spend on port! I do have 2 children and on the trip, I heard a great idea from Stewart to start collecting bottles of port from your child's birth year. My kids were born in 1995 (son) and 2003 (daughter). If anyone has any suggestions on wines/ports in those years, that'd be most appreciated. Otherwise, I think I'll be spending a lot of "catch up" time on this forum reading as well as doing some tastings to hopefully make a meaningful contribution to the community.

Thanks!

Rich N.

[Moses Botbol]

Rich, welcome.

As for suggestions on 1995 and 2003, take your pick! Both are big years for port, so just about any brand is going to be good. Since you went on the Harvest Tour, you should be familiar with all the big names in port.

[Andy Velebil]

Rich and Michael,

Welcome guys great to have you here.

Rich,
Hope you have recovered from the trip? I just got home and its time to lose some weight I put on during it

[Roy Hersh]

Rich,

It was a great pleasure to have you on the trip with us this year! I hope you learned a ton and enjoyed many firsts, as did many of us, even the folks who have been on the trip 2 and 3 times before!

Start a new topic in the Port Forum area about birth year Vintage Ports and mention your children's years and you will get a ton of great help with suggestions. Good to have you here and I am sure you'll recognize many of us from the trip who post here with some regularity.

I have a week left of my trip, after a week in the UK, I am now in NY to finish off my work and play time.

[Eric Menchen]

Hope you have recovered from the trip? I just got home and its time to lose some weight I put on during it

I hear that. I came back thinking, "Well, we ate pretty healthy, and we walked all over the place. So what did it?" Then I figured it out.

[Andy Velebil]

Hope you have recovered from the trip? I just got home and its time to lose some weight I put on during it

I hear that. I came back thinking, "Well, we ate pretty healthy, and we walked all over the place. So what did it?" Then I figured it out.

I hear ya on that one

[Roy Hersh]

Eric,

Sorry for not seeing you here earlier. Welcome to FTLOP. Glad you enjoyed your visit to Portugal and Vinologia. Did you happen to make your way up to the Douro?

As to Javali, they do not yet have an importer in the USA. So your only chance to purchase it is while visiting Portugal.

I used to own a restaurant in Gunbarrel, not too far from Longmont and get back there about once a year to see my brother who lives in the Coal Creek Canyon area between Boulder/Golden. You are living in a great place and I hope that on one of my CO trips, we get to share some fine Port.

Thanks for stopping in here to and we hope you will share more when you are ready!

[Eric Menchen]

Thanks for the welcome Roy.

My wife and I took a day trip on a boat up the Douro, so we got to see some of the vineyards, but we didn't manage to actually visit any of them. This was a short, but still very enjoyable, vacation for us.

It would be nice to share some fine port when you're in Colorado. I don't know if anything in my collection yet qualifies, but I'm working on it. Failing that, I can try to come up with some good food and other beverages.

-Eric

[Roy Hersh]

Eric,

Thanks for your offer of hospitality ... I'll gladly bring the Port to share! You need not worry about that. I'll let you know when I will be in CO next!

Roy

[Rich N.]

Rich,
Hope you have recovered from the trip? I just got home and its time to lose some weight I put on during it

Andy,

I don't know if "recovered" is quite the right word - more like dealing with being spoiled by good food and great wine! The good thing (for me) on this trip was that I only gained a few pounds, so next year I'll make sure to use that gym at Porto Palacio more than once!

Thanks for the welcome and all your tips and insights on the trip!

Cheers,
Rich N.

[Rich N.]

Roy,

Thanks for the welcome and for all the knowledge you shared on the trip. I feel like I did learn a ton and know I have so much more to learn, but that's the fun part!

Cheers,
Rich N.

[Roy Hersh]

Come up here and join us in January for a wild and wooly weekend of amazing Port flowing freely.

[Megan B]

Hello all,
My name is Megan, I live in Tacoma (recently moved south from Seattle). I'm interested in learnign more about Port ever since I opened a bottle of 1977 Barros Colheita for my 30th a year ago. Delicious!

Dont' know much, though I do know that so far, I prefer tawnies to rubies. Never had a madeira - it's on my list!

Looking forward to reading more about it, and chiming in here and there on the boards...thanks Roy, for the invitation to join in the fun!

[Roy Hersh]

Megan,

It is a true pleasure to have you reading here at and FINALLY having a chance to share some wine the other day. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will learn a ton about Port, Madeira and Douro wine here.


Best regards,

Roy