Rarest port in the world ?

[Erik Wiechers]

For some time i am wondering what the rarest port in the world would be. Does anyone know what it could be ? And the most expensive ?

[Glenn E.]

Sandeman only has a handful of bottles left of their 1904 VP and they no longer sell it. They have perhaps 20 bottles left of the 1906 which they sell for 3000 Euros.

I suspect, though, that there are many Ports that are down to their last few bottles. So when you ask about "rarest" do you also mean "oldest?"

[Erik Wiechers]

wow !
Nice picture !

No, with the rarest i do mean the rarest, not the oldest. I can get a port from 1851 from an unknow shipper for € 525, pretty rare also i think but the unknown shipper worries me.

[Moses Botbol]

I think Ferriera has a few old ones that down to the last couple of bottles. Maybe someone can shed light on them?

I betcha that Sandeman is pretty darn good!

[Shawn Denkler]

Ferreira kept an amazing cellar of old port dating back to at least 1815. They recorked them periodically and when they were sold they put on new labels.

I had the 1847 once which was extremely good. Ferreira auctioned off a good part of the cellar at Christies about ten years ago, then sold more in sets from the winery in fancy wooden boxes. I think they only have a few bottles left now, but I suspect they kept at least one of each. The 1815 would possibly qualify as the rarest port now.

[Derek T.]

My Avatar is a picture of the label on my one and only Dow's Bomfim 1965 - a birth year port. There were only 2 pipes (around 1400 bottles) of this made, which is an extremely small amout for a commercially released VP.

I am lead to believe that one pipe was shipped and one was retained for use by the family. I am reliably informed that the family have less than 6 bottles left. I have one. I have never seen it for sale anywhere. If you do the maths it would only take a consumption rate of 16 bottles per year to have wiped out the shipped pipe. I doubt there are very many of these in existence but if anyone knows otherwise please let me know

Derek

[Roy Hersh]

Moses,

Ferreira has 6 bottles of the 1815 VP left in their stock today. They are not for sale.


As to the rarest VP ... for me it is the 1927 Fonseca. It is the one bottle of Vintage Port that I am still hoping to try once in my lifetime. That probably would not fit the theme of this thread, but it is my answer nonetheless.

The most expensive bottle of Port was a 1931 Quinta do Noval Nacional that fetched over $9,000 less than 2 years ago.

[Derek T.]

As to the rarest VP ... for me it is the 1927 Fonseca. It is the one bottle of Vintage Port that I am still hoping to try once in my lifetime.

I know a very nice man who has one of those

[Andy Velebil]

As to the rarest VP ... for me it is the 1927 Fonseca. It is the one bottle of Vintage Port that I am still hoping to try once in my lifetime.

I know a very nice man who has one of those

Help out a brother and please tell that very nice man to save me a drop or two

[Derek T.]

I'll see what I can do

[Steven Kooij]

The Taylor 1970 Qta. d. Vargellas VP is pretty rare - only one pipe made.

[Andy Velebil]

1970 Quinta do Crasto Colheita

IIRC, there was only one cask (unrefreshed) and it was bottled in 2002 for family/quinta use. A stunning Colheita that I would love to get my hands on again.

[Alan Gardner]

Back before 1973, when pipes were shipped to the UK for local bottling, there must have been a large number of relatively small bottlings. I recall we once did a tasting of 1970 Fonseca from 6 different bottlers - and there were some significant differences (the Guimaraens bottling ended up in the middle of the pack).
My favourite 'example' (not favourite wine) was a presumed illegal bottling that was 'Vintage' 1970 but bottled in 1973 (NOT 1972) - so not legally a 'Vintage' - neither was it an LBV (min age 4 years) or a tawny of any description (even longer in barrel required). So, in effect it might have technically been a 'vintage dated ruby' (I know - the category doesn't exist).
Spoke to Bruce Guimaraens of Fonseca about this and he figured the cask got lost in the importers cellar and somebody discovered it in 73 and decided to bottle it. He also wondered about the 'anality' of anyone even wanting to do the tasting!
I think that probably qualifies as 'rare' - and no aficionado would have bothered to age this, so it's probably all gone now - except for a possible bottle squirrelled away.

[Steven Kooij]

Alan, according to the IVDP rules it is not illegal to bottle a VP in the 3rd year after the vintage (June 30th in the 3rd year being the cut-off date) - take Niepoort '94 as an example.

[Erik Wiechers]

Great stories, great examples so far.
Thanks everyone, keep them coming.

[Tom Archer]

I know a very nice man who has one of those

I wonder who that is?

Tom

[Al B.]

It's a really difficult question to answer - what is the rarest bottle in the world? The rarity will come either from a very small production run or from extreme age both of which will lead to most of the production having been drunk today.

There must be quite a few ports which were made and have now been completely drunk out of existence.

I would guess that some of the "obscure" vintages from the European War years would also be pretty rare. 1942 has all but vanished from the secondary market, I have only seen one port from that vintage in the last 10 years. The alcohol scandal wines are also very difficult to find (I'd love to try one and see if there is anything that can be detected from the taste).

There are also some years where the weather in the Douro was so poor that no-one made a declared vintage. I only know of one producer in 1993 who made and bottled a vintage port...but there might be other producers who did not make a large enough volume to offer to the public but have kept a few bottles for family use.

And then there are those oddities which crop up from time to time. I have a bottle in my cellar with a label on it called "Garcia 1896 Refreshed Tawny". I have no idea what this tastes like and no idea if there are any others in the world. Perhaps it is unique - which would make it the joint holder of the title of "Rarest Port in the World".

It is rumoured that there were some Nacional vintage ports made before the fabled 1931. If these rumours are true, then any remaining pre-1931 vintages of Nacional would be amongst the rarest and most expensive bottles of port ... but the great thing about this rumour is that it is probably impossible to prove one way or the other following the fire at Noval that destroyed most of the family records.

And my next aspirational port? There are so many that I haven't tasted yet that I would like to, too many to be able to pick just one.

[Alan Gardner]

Alan, according to the IVDP rules it is not illegal to bottle a VP in the 3rd year after the vintage (June 30th in the 3rd year being the cut-off date) - take Niepoort '94 as an example.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I sort of knew that (although not sure when that rule was created). But also my memory suggests a 12-month bottling window (e.g. July 1st year 2-Jun 30 year 3). If indeed it is legal to botle Jan 1st year 2 (i.e. around 14 months in barrel) right through to Jun 30 year 3 (~32 months in barrel) then I would expect huge differences in the wines development at the extreme ends. And would either of these 'bookends' display the character of 'Vintage Port'?

The discussion with Bruce Guimaraens I referred to earlier, revealed that Fonseca 'typically' bottled around May, Year 2. I wonder what would happen if they bottled May, year 3 - presumably a MUCH earlier drinking Port.

I wasn't aware that the Niepoort 94 was botled in 97 - seems as if I now need to find some to open alongside my other 94's to see how they compare.
And when did Niepoort botle their subsequent vintages? Anybody know?

[Richard Henderson]

The port that I would like to try the most is the 1931 Quinto do Noval which was once Roy's Holy Grail. He has conquered that and now seeks the 1927 Fonseca. I have tried one colhieta from 1900 but the Taylor 1955 is the oldest ruby I have tried.

They are all rare when they are 1955 and older to me.

[Derek T.]

The port that I would like to try the most is the 1931 Quinto do Noval

I know a very nice man who has some of this too