Thank you, Roy and Andy, for all your kind assistance in getting me engaged properly on the website after I had made a mess of it; I look forward to learning and sharing info here about all things port. By way of introduction, I live in rural Alabama with my wife, Laurie. It's a second marriage for both of us and we've been married for seven years. I've liked port all my life, having been exposed to it early on. My wife has learned the delights of port as well and we love to travel, tasting ports along the way. We also love brewpubs and wine bars! It is difficult to find port, even in the better restaurants, that has not been opened too long to be able to give it a fair assessment, so we are often in the position of buying a bottle and trying it ourselves.
We are fortunate in that the LAST CHILD is due (FINALLY) to graduate from college this Dec., and we plan on spending his tuition/living expense money on travel and port!!!
We have a cellar and have started collecting some things. We started tasting some LBVs and found some we liked more than others (of course, we liked them all!) Having done that, we started collecting some Warre's VP '03 and have told our adult children that while we hope we live long enough to drink at least half of them at maturity, they will probably have to take up the task after we're dust. We're fond of Dow's Crusted Port, sauternes, and Australian stickies. While we're still exploring, we enjoy wine and good food and friends. We're in our 50s and are semi-retired. Portugal is on our short list of places to visit, but we'd like to become a lot more knowledgeable about ports and wine before we visit. Hope this introduces us!
With your youngest finally graduating, I guess you couldn't have picked a better time to dive head first into the Port world. The fun part lays ahead of you and your wife. Portugal is a wonderful place with lots of friendly people, good food, and great vino. In less than two weeks I head back for the third time in as many years. Don't wait to long to get over there. Its the best place to learn a lot in a short amount of time. You also can try a huge amount of Ports in a short time too, finding those you like the best. I do have to put a little plug in for Roy's Harvest Trip (starts in two weeks). They are worth every penny and then some, and its worth looking into when you and your wife decide to head over to the "mother land."
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