For The Love Of Port

as you gain experience?

Most people start out with drinking white wine and eventually move to reds. I am wondering as your palate gains more experience and you learn from reading and great articles etc., do you find that you palate is maturing and if so ... what do you notice has changed?


For me, I'd say the biggest change in recent years is that ... instead of just drinking mature VPs, I drink more young Vintage Port than ever before. Of course part of that is to keep up with the evolution of these as they move away from their debuts (e.g. 2000 and 2003) but also because I enjoy trying them now, where before I could not find the love in young VPs. My palate has changed in that way, maybe the reverse direction of what most others experience. :help:

I think back 10-15 years ago and the port I liked back then... I still enjoy the same kinds of port! If it's port... I like it.

I have not taken a fancy to young VP, I think I could develop an appreciation of it, but I could not see opening my own bottle to enjoy. Guess I am old fashioned in that respect?

As for dry red wines, I enjoy and drink more delicate reds than I did years ago. I think that is because I did not know about them rather than not liking them.

Now that I think of it, I still eat the same styles of food I did years ago... No, I am not Archie Bunker

I'd like to think my palate is changing, gaining experience. I can pretty much figure a VP out within a few sips as to whether I like it and where I think it might be heading. The funny thing is that i have very little clue whether I will be correct in my assumption as to where the VP is heading because I will need to wait several year (or decades in some cases to figure out whether I am correct.

But there are times when I struggle to determine individual flavours, aromas and complexities of Port. Many times, I am left without words for these individual subtleties and I struggle to complete an actual TN. Usually, these Ports are indicative of quality because not a single element jumps out at me... I tend to end up liking these types of VPs very much. However, there is the odd time when I don't like a Port as much but struggle to pick out individual characteristics that cause me to NOT like it as much as others.

Does this make any sense to anyone?

I'm kinda like Popeye in a way: "I yam what I yam" and I Likes what I likes!

Todd

I can't say that I have noticed that my palate has changed over the past few years but it has certainly gained a just little experience since I hooked up with you guys.

If anything has eveloved it is my ability to appreciate quality in styles of port that I do not particularly enjoy quaffing. Like Moses, I do not find young ports particularly enjoyable for everyday drinking but I do like to appreciate and compare them in a tasting environment. Tawny and Colheita wines would rarely if ever be my choice to open at home but I am now able to appreciate them for what they are and hopefully tell a good one from a dud.

Last but not least, thing that has changed the most since I got into Port in a serious way is my bank balance

Derek T. wrote:If anything has eveloved it is my ability to appreciate quality in styles of port that I do not particularly enjoy quaffing. Like Moses, I do not find young ports particularly enjoyable for everyday drinking but I do like to appreciate and compare them in a tasting environment. Tawny and Colheita wines would rarely if ever be my choice to open at home but I am now able to appreciate them for what they are and hopefully tell a good one from a dud.

I'm not sure I believe I am reading this!!! Derek, are you okay man??

I'll put together a young gun tasting line up... all 2003 VPs and 2005/06 SQVPs!

Derek T. wrote:Last but not least, thing that has changed the most since I got into Port in a serious way is my bank balance

I hear ya on this one brother... I am with you there.

Todd

Todd Pettinger wrote:

Derek T. wrote:I do not find young ports particularly enjoyable for everyday drinking but I do like to appreciate and compare them in a tasting environment.

I'm not sure I believe I am reading this!!! Derek, are you okay man??

I'll put together a young gun tasting line up... all 2003 VPs and 2005/06 SQVPs!

But I only ever do this in Tasting Rooms in VNG and the Douro :devil:

Derek T. wrote: Last but not least, thing that has changed the most since I got into Port in a serious way is my bank balance

Derek:

You're preaching to the choir on that one. No more port purchases for the rest of the year is like President G. Bush senior saying "no more new taxes". Seriously, port has dwindled my accounts, but I have a nice basement of port for the future. :help:

Moses Botbol wrote: I have a nice basement of port for the future.

Agreed. But there are not many forms of investment that one can make that can be uncorked at a moments notice and produce a 100% loss of capital investment inside 2 hours

As soon as the 80's vintages become like the 60's in price, I will be smiling. The brunt of my cellar is 80's stuff with a few 70's and 94/95's mixed in.

Moses Botbol wrote:As soon as the 80's vintages become like the 60's in price, I will be smiling. The brunt of my cellar is 80's stuff with a few 70's and 94/95's mixed in.

But will you be letting GO of any of those? Or just smiling that you paid less for them 20 years ago than they are at "today's prices"?

Like Derek said - 100% loss of investment within seconds of opening!

Todd Pettinger wrote:But will you be letting GO of any of those? Or just smiling that you paid less for them 20 years ago than they are at "today's prices"?

This Jew never pays full price, lol...

In all seriousness, any case purchase has be at a good price and good quality or it not worth laying down the cash to just sit on like that.

Most 80's stuff is about the price of 2000+ stuff, so I just keep going back to the 80's to purchase. My wardrobe is still the 80's too, so like to keep it consistent. :help:

I don't think that my port palate has changed in the last 5 years, or so, but I do think that Ihave had the chance to taste a wider range of ports than I would otherwise have done so and now have a much better idea of exactly what style of port I like - I really enjoy the delicate, elderly, and elegant style that Ferreira (and others) really delivers in middle and old age.

But, I do still enjoy very young port and have developed the habit over the last 7 years of celebrating Christmas with a bottle of Vesuvio's latest release! Is that a change of palate - heck yes!

I would have to say it has changed over the years. When I first started drinking Port I prefered the younger more fruit driven ones. They were much easier to understand, more straight forward I guess. As I've drank more and more older stuff I have really learned to appreciate them more than their younger counterpart. I love the subtle changes and delicateness of the older ones. It often seems like every glass is a tad different than the last.