Another beginner's question

[Jakob H]

Dear Board

I am planning a entry level newbie port night with two friends. Of course I'm one of the newbies myself so I'll ask for your advice. It's supposed to teach us that there is something to discover in port beyond the 10 EUro price range without being too pricey. Now I want to buy offline, and buy only from one producer to understand differences in quality (rather than style), and one convenient shop here has a lot of Messias. I don't read much about the brand here, has it a bad reputation?

I thought about Messias VP 1997 (or 2003?), Colheita 1994, Tawny 20 yrs.

An alternative would be Taylor's VP Quinta de Vargellas, 1995 (or 96?) (is this a regular vintage port?), Taylors Tawny 10 or 20 yrs, Taylors LBV 2003

or
Noval VP Silval 2000, Noval Tawny 20yrs, Noval LB Fine Reserve.

Does any of these combinations make sense?

Is it possible to describe the main style of these producers in one or two words?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

J

[Moses Botbol]

You may get some varied opinions on this, so I will start off!

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Messias is not very popular in USA. I have had one vintage from the 80’s that was simple, yet proved to be quite popular in the line up on that particular evening. Was very easy drinking and had a pastry dough flavor if I recall. Messias looks like more of a Colheita brand than vintage.

I would go with whatever you can find that is the oldest for vintage port or LBV and then pair that with an equivalent aged tawny or Colheita. For example a Messias 1985 Vintage Port with a Messias 20 year tawny. This will show each style of port with a similar amount of aging.

To enjoy a vintage port now, make sure it is at least 15 years old, ideally 20 years to start. LBV’s can be enjoyed at 10-15 years old to start.

If you really want to see the quality difference, pick Tawny or Colheita and go for different brands of the same age. 20 year Messias vs. 20 Ramos or Sandeman will be a fun one.

Just as important as the port selection is, the glasses and decanting is also very important and should not be overlooked or undervalued.

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Jakob,

Moses has given you some very sound advice.

I have had little in the way of Messias, but it has never had the connotation (at least in terms of Vintage Port) of a high quality producer. They are far more known for their wood-aged Ports and have some good Tawny to offer.

I think that if you want to present a range, it would be good to do a 10 and 20 year old Tawny Port, an LBV and a Vintage Port ... put those four bottles into two flights of two, using the same or even different producers is ok, but I like your idea of comparing one producer. But comparing the 10 to a 20 year old Tawny is very fun and I just did this for a group of Sommeliers here a couple of weeks ago. We had a bottle of current vintage LBV vs a 1985 VP and also vs. a 2007 Vintage. Also a pair of 1968 Colheitas. It was very very educational to say the least.

Producer aside, have a ton of fun and if you have questions about decanting or anything else, like a list of what is needed for doing the tasting well, please just ask. Actually, you can continue right in this thread. We'll keep the lights on for ya!

to

[Eric Menchen]

O.k., since no one else has said it ... I would really be into this with the lineup of just Taylor mentioned above.
Different producers will give you more variation, but you've got enough product variation there to make it interesting, IMHO. O.k., I'll let my tech geek show--buying Taylor is like buying IBM. No one should ever fault you for that

[Jakob H]

Thanks a lot for the great advice!

I think I will go for the Taylor lineup then.

Some more questions...

What would you say is the typical Taylor style?

Is the the Taylor's VP Quinta de Vargellas a real VP? The half bottle at 30 Euro being considerably cheaper than Taylor's VP. I have 95 and 96 to choose from, is there a difference?

As to glasses, I don't have dedicated port glasses and thought decent white wine glasses will do - wrong?

And decanting is only for the VP, right? Will 2 h do?

Jakob

[Moses Botbol]

One can never go wrong with Taylor.

Vargellas is a real vintage port. I do not have any guidance on which vintage is better. I own some 95 Vargellas, but never had one.

I would decant for 6-8 hours through cheesecloth, and if white wine glasses are all you have; use them.

Taylor is usually a powerful port with pepper and spice notes, perhaps tobacco, yet has some purity of fruit behind all that. Their tawny port also shows these traits and is amazing that they can make a distinguishable product year in and year out for the amount of tawny they sell.

[Jakob H]

Thanks a lot Moses. Now I feel like I can get going!

J