What have you opened this week?

[Jasper A.]

a 20 year old Ramos Pinto Tawny Port. Realy nice 20 year old port

[Glenn E.]

a 20 year old Ramos Pinto Tawny Port. Realy nice 20 year old port

This was my "house Port" for many years before the label changed. It's a very nice Port!

[Tom Archer]

Andresen '97 LBV

First of ten heavily bin soiled and mud spattered bottles acquired cheaply at auction. From their appearance I assume they suffered a cellar flood somewhere..

..but there's nothing wrong with the contents!

For an LBV, a really good wine with the spiciness I normally associate with a classic Fonseca. Loads of life left yet, and certainly one to look out for..

[Mike J. W.]

Andresen '97 LBV

First of ten heavily bin soiled and mud spattered bottles acquired cheaply at auction. From their appearance I assume they suffered a cellar flood somewhere..

..but there's nothing wrong with the contents!

For an LBV, a really good wine with the spiciness I normally associate with a classic Fonseca. Loads of life left yet, and certainly one to look out for..

I just picked up an Andresen 1992 LBV. I'm planning to try it soon. If it's good like your '97, I know where I can pick up a few more bottles of it at a still cheap price.

[Andy Velebil]

2015 Offley LBV (unfiltered)

[Bram C]

I want to a Taylors 1992 next weekend. What do you guys recommend for the decanting time? I was thinking about 12 hours.

Ten years might be better!

Seriously though, this is a young wine that I tried earlier this year, and found to be in a really awkward phase - I'd wait awhile..

I drank it yesterday and think you were right. It's too powerfull right now and maybe i should wait longer then 10 years for the next bottle.

[Olivier V]

Nothing so far, we're only Monday! I did open a bottle of Georgian Kindzmarauli Saturday evening with my wife, but that doesn't really matter there, does it?
But it may change: the only thing I'm opening today are articles about the real estate market because I'm to write predictions for this Budapest real estate, and since I'm not doing that for free, I may well order my first port picked by my own hands (or, at least, my own Internet browser) next week!

[Moses Botbol]

More 10 & 20 Maynards Tawny. Had a '70 Offley Boa Vista just over a week ago.

[Gary Richardson]

1997 Maynard's Colheita, bottled 2016

[Tom Archer]

Vilanova 1987 VP

Stencilled bottle with a back label that says it was made by an outfit called The Douro Wine Growers and Shippers Assoc., which appears to be a defunct scion of Barros.

As Barros VPs are hardly ever seen, it seems strange that they should have felt the need for an alter ego.

Second bottle from a case bought ten years ago, the first, drunk soon after purchase, not wowing me greatly.

Intense wine with very noticeable sugar concentration. There's no bottling date on the bottle, but I can't help but feel this must have been kept in small pipes and bottled at the last possible moment - it is a very tawny style for a VP.

But this is a sugar concentration that is going to pickle this wine and make it last for ages. Quite an agreeable, if different quaff, score 3-4

[Glenn E.]

DR L70 bottle 63 of 200 to celebrate some friends' anniversary.

[Andy Velebil]

2015 Offley LBV. A very good unfiltered LBV.

[Tom Archer]

2015 Offley LBV. A very good unfiltered LBV.

Not yet available from my usual source. I've just ordered a case of the Sandeman '15 LBV which was very impressive when shown at the BFT last year.

[Andy Velebil]

2015 Offley LBV. A very good unfiltered LBV.

Not yet available from my usual source. I've just ordered a case of the Sandeman '15 LBV which was very impressive when shown at the BFT last year.

Good to know will keep eye out for it here. Thanks

[Mike J. W.]

1997 Niepoort VP. Thankfully this one had no VA issues although the cork was completely saturated and the bottle had slightly leaked. The Port itself is delicious unlike the first bottle of this I had a few years ago that tasted like raw vegetables. I'm 1 for 2 for this Producer and year. I have one more of the '97 in my cellar that looks like it's in great shape. I'll wait a few more years to try it.

[Andy Velebil]

1997 Niepoort VP. Thankfully this one had no VA issues although the cork was completely saturated and the bottle had slightly leaked. The Port itself is delicious unlike the first bottle of this I had a few years ago that tasted like raw vegetables. I'm 1 for 2 for this Producer and year. I have one more of the '97 in my cellar that looks like it's in great shape. I'll wait a few more years to try it.

Good luck on the last one. Lol.

[Tom Archer]

1997 Niepoort VP. Thankfully this one had no VA issues although the cork was completely saturated and the bottle had slightly leaked.

Very interesting. From my observations, around 80% of these showed some signs of seepage due to internal gas pressure in the years following bottling, but now no longer appear to. There are also occasional reports of good bottles being decanted.

What wasn't clear was whether the good bottles were confined to the 20% that had not leaked, but your experience indicates that all is not lost for those that have.

The question that now remains is whether the spoilage elements are chemically durable and will continue to taint the bad bottles for ever and a day, or whether they will degrade and disappear over time.

I have established that cork taint (TCA) is only durable in the cork and not the wine, and vanishes once the cork becomes saturated. VA seems to morph from it's initial characteristic into a persistent (and no less unpleasant) varnish note.

I'm not quite clear what the unpleasant vegetal products of the Ni97 secondary fermentation are - or whether they will endure.

[Eric Menchen]

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Last week I opened this 1991 Croft VP. It is my third or fourth bottle from a case of 12. The bottles all look beautiful, and the previous bottles have been tasty good. But upon removing the capsule of this one, I saw what first looked like embossed wax underneath. But that would be unexpected. Further inspection and removal showed that this bottle was a leaker, and that red stuff was an organic growth of some kind. It looks interesting, but doesn't bode well. I removed it and cleaned up the top of the bottle, then decanted. Wine smelled fine and tasted nice hours later.

[Eric Menchen]

This week, 2004 Quinta da Romaneira VP. A producer less well known for their VPs, and a less well known year for good bottles, I thought I might give one a try as a I have a couple more.

[Mike J. W.]

1997 Niepoort VP. Thankfully this one had no VA issues although the cork was completely saturated and the bottle had slightly leaked. The Port itself is delicious unlike the first bottle of this I had a few years ago that tasted like raw vegetables. I'm 1 for 2 for this Producer and year. I have one more of the '97 in my cellar that looks like it's in great shape. I'll wait a few more years to try it.

Good luck on the last one. Lol.

Yeah, it's definitely a crapshoot.