For The Love Of Port

What is the longest you've cellared any of your Port bottles and which is it (or ... which are they)?

I haven't had a cellar for all that long, but I have 6 bottles that have been in my cellar as long as I have had it. They are 4 bottles and 2 halves of the 1977 Porto Rocha Colheita, and they're barely 3 years old.

Glenn E. wrote:I haven't had a cellar for all that long, but I have 6 bottles that have been in my cellar as long as I have had it. They are 4 bottles and 2 halves of the 1977 Porto Rocha Colheita, and they're barely 3 years old.

Actually, they are 32 years old

The oldest single bottle I have stored is a '77 Dow, which has been in my cellar about 10 years. I had a few different single bottles of similar cellar time, but there was a robbery at my parents' house a few years ago and local teenage drug addict stole many single bottles from my cellar along with my dad's SS Piecre Gin bottle...

He did not leave tasting notes either. This year, he broke into a house near my parents' house, stole some rare coins and tried to fence them to a coin shop down the street from the house. The store owner knew to expect stolen coins, and this kid was arrested right away. He was in DYS for beating up his father, so after the coin episode, no one is in queue to help bail this loser out. The courts are throwing the book at him; I can sleep at night easier knowing that my cellar is safe again.

I have a few cases port which are maybe 5-7 years in my cellar. Dry wine from late 90's.

Derek T. wrote:

Glenn E. wrote:I haven't had a cellar for all that long, but I have 6 bottles that have been in my cellar as long as I have had it. They are 4 bottles and 2 halves of the 1977 Porto Rocha Colheita, and they're barely 3 years old.

Actually, they are 32 years old

Bah!

Dalva 1994, 11 years.

1977 Taylor - purchased in 1993. I still have quite a few of them.
-Dave-

1994 Kopke VP. Had them since release, 1997 I think?

-Just checked, it was 200 when I got it

-Lars

Burmester 1997, Niepoort LBV 1975 and Niepoort Colheita 1968 - all purchased on a trip to Portugal in 1999.

The longest bottle I've had is the 77 Warre bought about 1981. My father has a single bottle left of 70 Sandeman bought on release.

1994 Warre, bought in 1996. This is making me think about trying one to see how it is.

This is an interesting thread...
My own answer is similar to Glenn's- I have not had a "cellar" for long, but the first bottle of Vintage Port I ever bought is still in it. I think I have had the cellar/bottle for 2½ years? Maybe 3?

The VP is a J.M. Fonseca & van Zeller 2003 VP.

Todd

The longest I've cellared a port are a couple of bottles of 1977s that I picked up many years ago when I started collecting wine. I've had them for well neigh 20 years. One's a Graham and the other's a Warres. I bought them from Hank Gillespie who owned the Wine Cellar here in Edmonton.

In fact I still have some of the wines I bought from his store and wish I had bought more of them, including the ports. The '75 CVNE Vina Real Grande Reserva that I opened recently is better than it's ever been.

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

I bought a half bottle of 1992 Taylor and 1992 Fonseca for my son, who was born in that year. They've been in my cellar for about 14 years now.

Mahmoud,

Hank is a really great guy and I only wish I was able to drink with him more than just 1x per year. I visit that shop on every trip up there and have found some gems, although they are always from Burgundy.

It is fascinating getting a glimpse into the bottles that people have held near and dear in their cellars. I wonder if there is anything to conclude about us as a group. Not only Port lovers, but with serious "collector" instincts.

Considering only bottles which I have bought (rather than ones given to me as presents), I still have 5 bottles of 1983 claret which I bought in early 1992. The longest cellared port bottles are some halves of Warre 1983 that I bought for £2 per half bottle in early 1994 - but there is only one of these left!

Next year, I will be 50 and intend to use that milestone as an excuse to open some of my best wines. I was looking at my cellar list yesterday and wondering when I started to buy wine to store - would the wines I open next year be ones I bought and stored to maturity or ones I bought relatively recently and will be relying on storage by other people.

What I found was that those old halves of Warre 1983 I mention in my previous post have now all been drunk. I do still have a half-case of 1983 claret I bought (from Oddbins) in 1992 but the oldest purchased port I still have was from purchases made in 1994 - when I bought some Niepoort 1991 (for my god-daughter), some Vesuvio 1989 and 1991 and some Noval Nacional 1987. So my patience has been rewarded - I am now starting to see port that I bought on first release reach maturity!

I had in mind that it wasn't until I was in my late 20's that I started to have both the cash and the interest to buy good wine and my cellar records back this up. I blame a guy called Zain Dawoodi for starting me on the slippery slope - I shared an office with him and he was a real claret nut. Combine that with a Dad whose favourite wine was Pontet Canet and grandparents who gave me Taylor 1963 as an 18th birthday present and I was probably a lost cause a long time ago!

So how long have you been holding on to the bottle you bought longest ago?

I have a 1963 Cockburn that I bought in San Francisco in 1976 for $8. I was buying mostly Cali cabs then, but because it wasn't expensive, bought it even though I didn't knwo anything about vintage Port. I put it in the cellar then forgot about it, as I focused on the cabs and Bordeaux wines. I probably should have drunk it years ago, but just never did. Now I'll wait until next year to drink it when it's 50 years old.

One of the first bottles of Port that I ever bought and the first Vintage Port is a 2000 Graham's that I purchased in 2005 (I only started drinking Port in December 2004). This was closely followed by a 1977 Taylor. Both are sitting in my 'cellar'.

-- Gary

The first bottle of Port I ever purchased is a 1963 Mackenzie and it is still in my cellar. In fact I also still have the second bottle Port, a 1960 Noval Nacional, as well. I don't have any plans to open the Mackenzie any time soon and given the sentimental value, I'm probably going to hold onto it for quite a time to come.