Lots of new faces ... please introduce yourself

[Roy Hersh]

Lars,

Hopefully you can find a few of the folks here from Norway. There are more than a handful from your country who get the newsletter but only a couple who actually post currently. Over the years there has been a small bunch and we've even had a couple join us last year for the Port Harvest Tour.

USD$ 10 for the 1970 seems crazy and I hope you bought a lot of it!

Hope to see you post some more.

[David Coleman]

Hello.. David Coleman here. I first tried port while in the USAF stationed in Woomera Australia back in the mid to late 1990s. Woomera is in the northern part of the Australian state of "South Australia". Since I was living in Australia the first port that I drank regulary was Penfold's Club Port. I also drank SevenHills Monastery White Port. I've tried a Sandeman's Tawny but always go back to Penfold's.

[Andy Velebil]

David,

to the forum and thanks for the introduction. Hope you enjoy our little band of merry Port drinkers

[Roy Hersh]

Hi David,

Thanks for coming here and sharing some of your Port experience. Nothing wrong with the stickies of Oz, (I enjoy them too) but the Ports of Portugal are in a very different league when you find the really great Tawnies, or Vintage Ports. Glad you've joined us. There are members who post here from Australia so you'll probably run into them when you come back again.

[hugo oliveira]

Hello to you all, my name is Hugo Oliveira, 33 y old and i'm from Portugal... and live 10 km from all the cellars of Port Wine!

I guess this is a brave first post on this forum, a lot of you must be a little bit jealous .

Surprisingly enough, i really started tasting port wine one year ago. Before, i'd just tried the cheap stuff some years ago...

And my first tasting comprised one vintage Barros 1991, a Colheita 1978 (my year of birth) and a mighty Colheita 1960, bottled in 2008. So maybe i started with really the good stuff

I'm learning more about Port each day, and it's an ongoing process... just like the wine, what you prefer today may change or "evolve" in the future.

So, i must confess that for now, i prefer old colheitas to vintages .

[Andy Velebil]

Great to have you with us and many thanks for the introduction. Your lucky to live so close to all that great Port and hopefully you are able to meet up with some of us in the future when we head over there. Of course, we'll have to enjoy some Port when that happens

I'm learning more about Port each day, and it's an ongoing process... just like the wine, what you prefer today may change or "evolve" in the future.

So, i must confess that for now, i prefer old colheitas to vintages .

Don't worry I love old Colheita's and Vintage Port too

[Roy Hersh]

Hugo,

Great to have you join us here. Yes, I'll admit that I am jealous about your location!

Enjoy the learning curve, few things in life are as much fun as the greatness of Port wine.

I hope you will continue to visit us here @ and share your experiences along the way!.
Cheers!

[Victor D.]

Hello to all.

Victor Di Cosola here.

Got introduced to the love of Ports on a cruise to Alaska not too long ago and I was hooked!

I began researching all I could on VP's and the first review I read was Roy's Tennessee Quinta do Noval VP Nacional experience. WoW. It was ironic, because shortly before this, I started going to local wine shops here in Southern California where I walked into a BevMo of all places and spotted a QdN 2003 VP. Still not knowing much a cleark saw me peering into the locked cabinet where the 2003 was being stored. In this day of age with the Wall mart type help, I was pleasantly surprised by his comment that this was his favorite port even though still quite young, that I will not be disappointed. This was my actual first ever purchase of a VP. I have been purchasing many VP's from the 70's and early to mid 90's thus far, and I'm still hooked on the 2003 QdN along with a QdN 40 year Tawny and a California Angelica Port that goes GREAT with my Don Pablo hand rolled cigars on my nightly backyard excursions!

I know it's young, but I cannot wait another 2 decades, I'm drinking and holding the 2003 QdN VP.

GREAT to be here!

Vic

[Andy Velebil]

Victor,
First let me you to the Forum. Glad you've discovered our favorite beverage and of course this website. There is a fantastic bunch of Port lovers here who love to share what they know, so don't be afraid to ask questions. And seeing as your not too far from me, we'll have to try and meet up one day to share some Port!

[Mark Hudson]

,,,

[Victor D.]

Victor,
First let me you to the Forum. Glad you've discovered our favorite beverage and of course this website. There is a fantastic bunch of Port lovers here who love to share what they know, so don't be afraid to ask questions. And seeing as your not too far from me, we'll have to try and meet up one day to share some Port!

Thanks, Andy. Be great to meet up some day and share a port!

[Andy Velebil]

Victor,
First let me you to the Forum. Glad you've discovered our favorite beverage and of course this website. There is a fantastic bunch of Port lovers here who love to share what they know, so don't be afraid to ask questions. And seeing as your not too far from me, we'll have to try and meet up one day to share some Port!

Thanks, Andy. Be great to meet up some day and share a port!

Once this house remodel gets done I'll be back on track for another long overdue Port offline at my place. Will let you know!

[Roy Hersh]

Welcome Victor AND Mark too. Nice to have you both here. I hope you will enjoy what you are reading and participate whenever you'd like. Welcome aboard!

[Josh S.]

Are old faces welcome too?

Figured it would be appropriate to start saying hello over here. The more folks in NY that I know who drink Port, the more frequently we can all drink it.

For those who don't know me, I've been into Port for about 9 years, am an avid collector of Port (95%+ of cellar), and am a coordinator for port tastings in NY area. About a year ago I had an article in Roy's newsletter on insurance for home collectors.

(My old newsletter ID, set up years ago, doesn't seem to let me in, but as I'd never posted in the forum I simply started a fresh acct).

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Josh,

Nice to see you over here. During upgrades to the Forum, some of the unused links/accounts that were set up years ago no longer worked. You're not the first to mention it, although we've also had lots of folks forget the exact "case sensitive" password they initially signed up with.

Glad to hear you are still occasionally putting on Port tastings in NYC. I have Port loving friends on LI and in Westchester that do the same thing and it is fun to read of their exploits and I hope to read yours as well. One of these days I'll get back to my former home town and get to meet you.

For now, I hope you will enjoy your visit to . Since Andy is not here to send you a heads up, please have a look in your PM area as I will send you some info to help acquaint you.

[Glenn E.]

Hi Josh, welcome (back) to FTLOP!

[theodore anderson]

Hello all,
I've haunted most of the online fora for years and am finally becoming active on a few of them, so here goes...While my first memories of Port are sipping off my father's glass around the holidays, I didn't get back into Port or wine as a whole until 5 years ago. Since then, I typically keep a bottle of Rare Wine Bual Madeira or Taylor LBV corked in the fridge for a late night drink. 2001 Taylor Quinta and 2003 Taylor LBV have been standbys for me. I'm a big fan of most dessert wines but, with a wife who doesn't care for sweet things, and an ABV of 20%, it can take a long time for me to finish a bottle and this discourages me from drinking more than I do. I have been adding some 2000 and 2003 VPs to my cellar, though, as I've found some great pricing locally on splits in the last few years of Dow and Croft. This past summer I had the good fortune of meeting Roy and Eric M.(?) at a fun wine dinner hosted by Roy's brother, Mitch. I sat next to Roy and we drank some great Douro reds (specifically the '06 Quinta do Crasto Touriga Nacional), as well as some older Barros port and some Sauternes as well. I had no idea that some of you fanatics collect almost exclusively Port!

Anways, I have a particular interest in Douro wines because of the incredible viticultural practices and unusual history. So much more than, say, Napa. As a side note, Port is possibly the only wine producing area whose wines are still alive from my birthyear (1980).

Cheers,
Ted

[Andy Velebil]

Hi Ted and to the Forum. Glad you have finally "come out of the shadows" and posted. There is many of us who love Douro wines so don't hesitate to chime in. You sure started off with a good one in the Crasto with Roy. If you're out my way, let me know and I can open some Douro wines that will get your attention for sure. Of course, your bank account may not like it so much .

Again welcome and please do know we're a really laid back group compared to other wine forums, so don't think twice about asking a question. No matter how small or trivial you may think it is.

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Ted,

Nice to have you join us here. It was Eric M. and his lovely wife who joined us along with the rest of the crew on that sunny afternoon into night. Good to have you here. Although there are plenty of us who do drink other wines besides Port, there are certainly quite a few who collect it and do drink it exclusively.

The 1980 Vintage Ports are really doing well. I opened an Offley 1980 on Sunday night for a friend staying here from Portugal. She loved it and it drank even better on Monday night. You are lucky to have such a good birth year as there are so many 1980's that are in great shape today!

I will be back out your way next summer and look forward to seeing you again. In the meantime, we hope you'll continue to post here when time permits.



Roy

[Phil M]

Hi everyone,

Phil here... I was pushed in this direction from the wine library forums to come and learn more about Port... I have a small cellar that seems to be growing daily, although I admit I just bought my first Port yesterday (bad Phil, I know!!)... I came here to try to educate myself more, see what I can learn, and hopefully expand my cellar to include more Port!!! Cheers!!

Phil