For The Love Of Port

Thanks, Glenn. Except for the Taylor '07, I think I will be on track or pretty close to it for all of those decanting times.

By the way, since the question will probably come up: What was the difficulty that Taylor had throughout the 1980's?

So tomorrow's my tasting. I'm going to come home from work early and pop open the bottles and decant them. (Ha! Easier said than done, I know!) I plan to follow Roy's guidelines, as follows: <= 7 years old 10-12hr 8-15 years old 8-10 hr 16-25 years old 6-8 hr 26-35 years old 4-6 hr 36-45 years old 3...

Thanks all. You see what I'm getting at. I haven't particularly noticed that a Reserve port seems "more aged" than a LBV, but I guess I haven't really been thinking about it and have never tasted them side-by-side. Now that you mention it, I wonder if that question could form the basis of ...

Jeff, While I love wine and food pairings as well, this event is focusing on the tastings (items #2 and #4). The two tasting flights will either be double-blind or single-blind, but I'm thinking of the latter. We all take notes and then start to discuss. We'll have the reveal at the end of each flig...

So my agenda is now set, and the wines are all either ordered and on their way or have already arrived at my house. I was able to pick up one from a local store and the others from two different merchants via wine-searcher.com. Here's the tentative plan for the evening (actual food items still being...

Thanks everyone! I've picked up the Broadbent Vinho Verde for the appetizers, and the Qta. do Crasto 2007 Reserva Old Vines to go with dinner. I was surprised I was able to so easily locate these wines at my local wine shops (Wine Exchange and Bev Mo). So I'm all set now. I look forward to trying ea...

Okay, I might be alone here on these boards, but I don't think I've ever had a table wine from Portugal. Can anyone direct me to where to begin? Are there different styles? What grapes are used? Specifically, I'm looking for something to serve with dinner between flights of my Vintage Port tasting. ...

I have a style question here. Ports that were formerly labeled as "Vintage Character" (now called "Reserve" or some-such) are my go-to, affordable, every-day type of port (e.g., Graham's "Six Grapes" and Fonseca's "Bin 27). They are reasonably priced and of good qu...

So I tasted the Graham's '85 again last night after 3.5 hours open. (I had decanted this 375mL bottle into a large (1.5L) decanter, so it's been getting plenty of air.) My wife and I thought it was a bit more expressive. I detected a bit more fruit on the nose as well as on the palate. Strawberries ...

Update: I just opened and sampled a half bottle of Graham's 1985 tonight with my wife and father in law. I decanted it for about an hour. The color was about what I was expecting for the age: Rose with hints of tawny, and a clear white edge; nice legs. On the nose I could detect very little, however...

Thanks, Glenn! Great info. Since ports tend to "close down," for my vertical, which Taylor vintage from last decade would you recommend: 2000, 2003, or 2007. I was leaning toward the 2000, but if its too closed then perhaps one of the other vintages would be better? BTW, I've never experie...

So I have a follow-up question. Specifically as I'm thinking about the vintages for my horizontal flight, I can read all the reviews of the different ports, but they were all made at different dates. What I'm curious is how these wines are drinking now . Specifically, how are the vintages 1977, 1992...

Jeff and Al, that's amazing! My (admittedly limited) experience also confirms what seems to be the usual occurrence of terrible, open-way-too-long vintage ports by the glass at mid-to-high-end restaurants. Frankly, I'm surprised that more sommelier's and restaurant managers are not better prepared i...

Thanks, Eric. They're not complete novices when it comes to port. We've done another tasting where they tried LBV's and Tawnies, etc., where they got a more broad exposure to Port. But I want to make this a Vintage Port tasting (I probably should have made that clear). :) I want to expose them to th...

Port is my favorite style of wine. And since it's now my turn to host the next tasting for my wine tasting group, I'm going to make it a Port tasting. Here's the format I'm planning: Two flights. The first being a horizontal of a given vintage for 3-4 different producers. Then we'll have dinner. Aft...