For The Love Of Port

If you could enjoy any vertical of Port (except Nacional) that you have never done in a vertical tasting ... which producer would you choose, and why?

Well, I mentioned this in another post, but I'm thinking about Quinta do Vesuvio. Sure, tasting a lot of different VPs from Fonseca, Taylor, etc. will be wonderful, but there you will be tasting the difference of age with possibly some difference in blends from one to the next. Tasting a 94, 95, 96, etc. of Vesuvio would, IMHO, really show how the different growing conditions of the year can have an effect. In a similar vein, I've considered Taylor Quinta de Vargellas which exists for many years as well.

Older vintages of Sandeman. A producer that I've not had many of their pre-1960's stuff and I think it would be very fun to do an older vertical of VP's from them.

I was thinking more about this last night. Don't want to sound jaded, but I have done verticals of all the majors and quite a few of them on several occasions. That said, one that I think would be great to get into more deeply would be either Gould Campbell and/or Smith Woodhouse. I know that Gould goes back a long ways but I don't see their older bottlings for sale, even at auction.

Ramos Pinto. Always been curious about this brand and have never had any vintages older than 1970.

Dow would be my second pick. Never been able to get a vertical going of Dow.

I'd love to try a decent vertical of Fonseca. Finding old bottles of Fonseca to put together a decent vertical is a heck of a challenge in the UK.

Another one I'd love to do is Quinta do Vesuvio. Pre-Symington you never see any of them come up at auction and I've only had one, the 1863 Vezuvio.

I'd love to do a deep vertical of Warre. I've noticed that older Warres (pre 1963) are fairly hard to come by and I'd be interested to see where the older vintages stand in terms of development.

Marc

Marc J. wrote:I'd love to do a deep vertical of Warre. I've noticed that older Warres (pre 1963) are fairly hard to come by and I'd be interested to see where the older vintages stand in terms of development.

Marc

Marc,

There's a vertical of Warre being organised in London in early October, going back to 1947. Sadly, all the seats round the table are taken but and there is already one person on the waiting list but if you could be in London in early October and were willing to see if a space came up, you could get the chance to try a vertical of Warre.

Also, we had a Warre 1900 at our Christmas Offline in 2008, and it was magnificent, drinking really well.

Alex

I've never had it but have heard that the Warre 1922 VP is supposed to be remarkable. I've never even seen one ... but have heard this touted with reverence.

Late to the party.

Several people have already mentioned Vesuvio... that would likely be one of my picks as well... the number of vintages in teh past two decades alone could very well fill the tasting.

2 or 3 others that I would love:
-Noval (a personal favourite of mine. I don't even mean the Nacional, which to me is a pipe-dream, but the regular Noval offerings.)
-Niepoort (I see almost NO Niepoort in my area... very scarce. Would be great to get to know this producer more.)
-Taylor and Fonseca (I know Roy would be sick of these, but because they are so darned pricey around here, and because I have so few/can afford so few, this would be a treat. Simply from a cost-perspective.)

Dow and Warre also make good, solid Ports on almost all the years I have tasted them. While I can't say I think too many of the ones I have tried could be considered blockbusters, the consistency would be fun to try a deep vertical of.

Okay, I guess I'll just name every producer I can... Graham's would also be a good vertical to have. I have had very few Graham\s VPs and a deep vertical including many of their Malvedos offerings for comparison vs the VPs would be great.

Todd