Roy wrote: You should "out" the name of this retailer
Thats the problem, he does not have a business, he sells at http://www.marktplaats.nl. A site where you can bid on items that are put up there. He advertised with a 1890-1900 bottle so i was curious. I made a starting bid of € 100 and after that its history. Now he has put in the add that he wants at least € 750
He claims that he bought it, along with the rest of his collection, from a recommended collector by the port institute. I did not know the port institute did that.
Ray wrote: I can't resist asking: are these prices for 375ml bottles? (ducks)
at this point i'm afraid to ask, i wouldn't be surprised
Do this retailer a favour and post his contact details here. After all, he is in the business of trying to sell these wines he has bought and would benefit from as much publicity as he is able to get.
If he goes to Portugal to buy these bottles, I bet he does so in those lovely little shops where you can find bottles of old vintage and colheita being nurtured in the window.... standing upright in bright sunlight.
The guy is crazy. And he has a beauty of a collection of which it is very unlikely that he will sell a single bottle of it.
But enough about me, what do YOU think of me? -- Johnny Bravo
It is possible that this guy doesn't have any of these bottles. If anyone is dumb enough to offer him the price he has listed he can simply pick-up a bottle of what he needs at market rate, pass it on and pocket the profit.
I can't believe that anyone would make the large investment that would have been necessary to pull that cellar together and then hold it indefinitely without selling anything until the next rich idiot comes along.
Is there any evidence that he actually ownes any bottles of port?
He seems to think that the IVdP has "official" prices.
He seems to think that the IVdP has "recommended" collectors.
He seems to think that his prices are perfectly normal, and that we simply don't understand rare and valuable Port.
It seems to me that he's either a rube who has been scammed and is just trying to recover his money, or he's a scammer himself trying to take advantage of people who really don't know anything about rare Port.