For The Love Of Port

I still have one bottle left from my very first case purchase, a 1986 Dow's Bomfim. I keep talking about opening it, given the right circumstances but don't know if I'll ever open that last bottle. Other than this, I don't really have an super "special" bottles. Yet I still don't know why it's so hard to open this last bottle even though I know it's pretty much peaked and not likely to get any better than it is now.

2 bottles of BBR own-label 2002 crusted (reputed Dow).

I don't have any particular sentimental attachment to them, but i will have to open them at the same time since i left one in the car over an entire summer by mistake...and can't remember which.

Sandy Becker wrote: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.

I had this last November with Alex B. and it was outstanding - if it has been well stored, there should hopefully be no need to worry that it should have been sunk years ago!

I cellared a Quinta do Noval 1970 VP from 1981 until 2008. It was quite good.

I still have one or two bottles of home-made wine that I made myself as a teenager in about 1976. Aside from that, I was very bad at keeping records until about seven years ago, and really don't know which bottle of port I've had the longest.

Thread update: my half bottles of 1992 Taylor and 1992 Fonseca have now been cellared for about 18 years.

1963 Quinta do Noval purchased in London 1994.

Eric I.,

I hope you might check back on this thread. Just curious, what price did you pay for the Warre's 1977 back in 1981?

If I remember correctly, it was something like $10-12/bottle in Chicago.

As I just started on this slippery slope in the last year my cellaring in Ports is small. My goal is simple:

• Drink good Port on a regular bases
  Expand my Port pallet
  Cellar enough to have a 5 centurys of Port of Noval tawny vertical in 2014

In my cellar

• 2x 1937 Noval Colheita
  2x 19XX Noval Colheita
  2x 1964 Noval Colheita
  2003 Noval VP
  and a few others

I think the longest cellared ports we have are some 1983 Gould Campbells bought in 1985 on release. Later on our holding of 1983's increased, since it is our daughter's birth year, but the GCs have the longest 'hangtime' in our cellar.

Janet, I love the 1983 Gould Campbell. Did you get it when it was either $19 or later at $29? I've written this before, but I remember being so dismayed when this finally hit $39 and I swore I'd never buy more but still grabbed another case less than a year later (in 1997 or so).

Phyllis D wrote: 2x 19XX Noval Colheita

Phyllis,

You're holding out on us...not fair

Andy Velebil wrote:

Phyllis D wrote: 2x 19XX Noval Colheita

Phyllis,

You're holding out on us...not fair

The answer can be found on the main FTLOP site if you look in the right place...

I thought I'd nudge an update to this thread. Since I last posted in 2012 I've drunk one of the bottles of Nacional 1987 (for our 25th wedding anniversary in August 2012) and the bottle of Niepoort 1991. The claret is untouched so those 5 bottles are the ones which have been in my cellar for the longest time - 25 years on 1st March this year.

The port with the longest hang time is now a lone bottle of Vesuvio 1991 bought in July 1994.

Nice resurrection of a thread, as I was not here the first time around. Oldest current "port like" wine are domestics from the 70's. Since Dad had the cellar (and moved it to Oregon) all my cellared wines were only opened on occasion. The first VP I bought was a Dow's 1983 for my twin sons birth year sometime in 85/86. It kept until their 21st birthday in 2004(no one raved about it). I still have a few bottles of mostly Cal Cab that I've held for 30+ years. Every holiday another one is consumed, some are long gone, but many surprise as did the recently opened 1980 Caymus which belied it's 36 years of age.

Fun thread....for me I purchased a 2003 Grahams on 3/1/2010 and on the same day a 2004 Quinta do Crasto LBV. Sure I'll drink the Crasto long before the Grahams as the latter needs another 21 years at least.

I have had a cellar since 1979, when I bought 24 btls of Martinez 1970. This was the last vintage to be imported to Norway in pipes. Long corks and clear wax covering, no foil. They cost me 112 NOK a bottle, and I have 2 left. They have moved cellar twice, but have been settled now since 1990.
The last one I opened at Christmas 2015 was a very nice, if not spectacular, mature drink.

Svein CE wrote:I have had a cellar since 1979, when I bought 24 btls of Martinez 1970. This was the last vintage to be imported to Norway in pipes. Long corks and clear wax covering, no foil. They cost me 112 NOK a bottle, and I have 2 left. They have moved cellar twice, but have been settled now since 1990.
The last one I opened at Christmas 2015 was a very nice, if not spectacular, mature drink.

Would love to see some pictures. Does the label say bottled in Norway? Are there any port labels in Norway that are printed 100% in Norwegian?

Moses Botbol wrote:

Svein CE wrote:I have had a cellar since 1979, when I bought 24 btls of Martinez 1970. This was the last vintage to be imported to Norway in pipes. Long corks and clear wax covering, no foil. They cost me 112 NOK a bottle, and I have 2 left. They have moved cellar twice, but have been settled now since 1990.
The last one I opened at Christmas 2015 was a very nice, if not spectacular, mature drink.

Would love to see some pictures. Does the label say bottled in Norway? Are there any port labels in Norway that are printed 100% in Norwegian?

Perhaps I should have written "apparently". I was told about the bottling from the customer service and never questioned it. When looking at the bottle now, it is very like thish: ttp://www.hallarn.com/vpid/vpid_display.php?q ... eyear=2011
The 1985 vintage only with 1970 on the label.
I'm a clumsyclot with camera and uploading so sorry.
There is a couple of norwegian labels: Fiin Gammel Portviin and Fiin Gammel Portviin LBV.
They are in norwegian and been sold here since the 1920s I think. I did try to get information on the producer, but so far no reply.