For The Love Of Port

Just a quick question. I see people talking about opening a port, having a glass and then "putting it in the fridge for later". What does that mean?

Do you decant only half the bottle?
Do you decant at all if its a filtered LBV?
Do you pour it in a glass and let that glass sit for an hour?
Do you put the cork back in the bottle?
Does it need to be in the fridge?

I'm just wondering how I should go about extending the life of a single bottle. Take the Taylor 2003 LBV I will be opening shortly. If I want to have a glass now, then a glass later tonight, then a glass tomorrow after work and one the next day after work whats the best way to do this?

Tim,

For a filtered LBV or Reserve Ruby I tend not to decant, but some others do. If I am opening a bottle to have a glass or two per night over a period of a week or so (stop laughing guys, it does happen sometimes!) I just pop the cork, pour a glass, stick the cork back in and put the bottle in the fridge. An LBV or RR will easily keep for a week or so with this method.

However, If I want to open a Vintage Port, Crusted or Unfiltered LBV and save some for later (Glenn/Andy/Roy/Tom/ANO who knows me: stop sniggering) I decant half of the bottle and then pour what is left into a half bottle, including the sediment. The half bottle should be filled well into the neck to limit air exposure, recorked and then put in the fridge. When you want to drink it, just uncork and decant as normal. I have done this successfully over a two week period but have no idea how long you could go with this if you had the willpower to leave it there.

Derek

Don't filtered LBV's, ruby's and tawny's need time to sit exposed to the air as well though? Is it common practice to pour a glass an hour before you want to drink it even with something like "Six Grapes"?

There are mixed views on that and I'm sure others will chime in with their own thoughts and on what they do themselves.

For anything filtered that has been bottled in the past year or two I just pop and pour, unless I find it to be quite harsh, in which case I would give it some air to see if it pulls itself together.

There is certainly no harm in decanting every bottle of port you open to allow it to breathe. But, IMHO, there is no real benefit in doing so with newly bottled filtered wines.

I pop-and-pour filtered LBVs and reserve rubies. If I want them to last, I put them in the fridge. I use a vacu-vin stopper, with the vacuum. Others say that device doesn't help anything. That's another debate. My point here is that bottle gets a stopper.

Unfiltered LBV (if I know this is the case) and VP I decant, let sit for X number of hours, and drink. If some is left, I pour back into the original bottle (rinsed) or a half bottle I keep around for just such situations. I vacuum stopper the bottle. I've generally left these out because I figure I'm going to drink them up in a day or two, but I suppose I could put them back in the fridge.

Tawnies I usually just pop-and-pour, in particular when it is just me and my wife drinking. These I usually keep around for a while, so stopper and into the fridge. When I want a glass, I pour it ahead of time and let it warm up, as I don't like my tawnies chilled. When I've served tawny or colheita with friends over, and I don't expect the bottle to last, I've usually decanted for a while. If there is some left, back into the bottle and into the fridge.

For LBV, Crusted, or Vintage Ports I like to decant the first half into a half bottle and then the rest into a decanter if I an drinking by myself. Fill the half bottle right up to the cork and put away in fridge. It will last much longer with no air contact. Sherry bottles with a t-cork are my favorite half bottles to use.

As other mentioned, decant via cheesecloth into a decanter and pour back into a the original bottle rinsed out.

Derek T. wrote:However, If I want to open a Vintage Port, Crusted or Unfiltered LBV and save some for later (Glenn/Andy/Roy/Tom/ANO who knows me: stop sniggering)

ROFL... my wife asked what I was giggling about when I got to this point...

Tim Swaback wrote:Don't filtered LBV's, ruby's and tawny's need time to sit exposed to the air as well though? Is it common practice to pour a glass an hour before you want to drink it even with something like "Six Grapes"?

For those types of Ports, what matters most is when it was bottled. If it's been in the bottle for more than 2-3 years, then yeah it's probably worth giving it an hour or two to air out before you plan to drink it. But if it has been freshly bottled, there's no need. All of those Ports are designed to be consumed shortly after bottling, so being in bottle for a year or two doesn't really affect them. Pop 'n' pour works great.

It doesn't hurt to decant them and/or give them a couple of hours, but it really isn't necessary.

Am I the only one using something like this? http://www.privatepreserve.com/uses.htm
Even though i'm using Wine Guard which consists only of carbon dioxide.
I find that it works really well.

This is very simple, if you want a Port bottle to last ... don't pull the cork.

It doesn't taste very good when you do that though...

How to make port last?

Drag your anchor in a sailboat race.

Tim Swaback wrote:It doesn't taste very good when you do that though...

and it's hard to get those chunks from the capsule out from between my teeth

I think that using a small wine cooler with opacity and UV protection to ensure the best quality after opening a LBV, RR or VP...and of course using a vacuum pump immediately after pouring, it will help to keep this Port for a couple of days more...

I brew my own beer and have a kegging system for it with CO2. I wonder how well it would work if I slowly throw some CO2 into the bottle and then re corked it...