For The Love Of Port

You can do this by category if you have a hard time just naming one as your top Port of the year. For example, your favorite bottle-aged Port, or top wood-aged Port. It can be as geeky as you'd like, if you want to put in a selection for LBV, Colheita, White Port with age, Tawny, Vintage ... etc. You get the idea. I am sure there will be at least one person who can narrow it down to just one bottle though.

Of course there are still 2+ weeks left, so if you wind up drinking something that knocks off your previously posted top wine for the first 50 weeks of the year ... by all means, come back and let us know here!

VP: Grahams 2007 VP. It blew me away. Didnt have that many other VPs (others were Vesuvio 94, Grahams 77, Ramos Pinto 94) but the G 07 was head and shoulders above all.

Everyday Tawny: Quinta do Noval (this was a big relevation for me - had been drinking Otima 10 for a few years and liked the Noval so much more)
Everyday Ruby: Sandeman Founders Reserve

In QPR space, the G 07 VP is still the winner.

VP: 1967 Taylor Quinta de Vargellas (1969 Oporto bottled). Just phenomenal--even my wife liked it!!

LBV: 2000 Warre's. Along with Smith Woodhouse my favorite LBV brands

Aged Tawny: Ramos Pinto Bom Retiro 20 Years.

VP: 1970 Fonseca
Tawny: 1935 Niepoort Colheita

Taylor 1994 VP
Smith Woodhouse 1992 LBV
Ramos Pinto 20yr Tawny

VP: 1927 Taylor
Tawny: 1900 Niepoort Colheita

VP: 1980 Warre
Tawny: Noval 40 year

1970 Crasto Colheita
1853 Whitwhams Millennium Port – Colheita
1970 Grahams Vintage
1963 Dow Vintage

Tawny - the Niepoort VV blend bottled in 2012 (94 points) closely followed by the Villar d'Allen 20 year old and the Revolta 40 year old (both 93 points)

Colheita - the Graham 1952, bottled in 2012 (95 and 94 points) and the Niepoort 1912 (94 points) and Dalva Golden White 1952 (94 points)

Crusted - Cockburn's Crusted bottled by Avery's of Bristol in 1928 and Noval Crusted bottled 1965 (both 93 points)

LBV - Warre 1979 bottled in 1984, bottled matured (92 points), followed by the 1974, 1986 and 2001 vintages (91 points)

VP - Graham 1927 (99 points), then Sandeman 1922 (97 points)

Al B. wrote:Crusted - Cockburn's Crusted bottled by Avery's of Bristol in 1928 (93 points) and Niepoort Crusted bottled in 2007 (91 points)

No vote for the 1965 Noval Crusted you brought to a tasting earlier in the Summer?

Rob C. wrote:

Al B. wrote:Crusted - Cockburn's Crusted bottled by Avery's of Bristol in 1928 (93 points) and Niepoort Crusted bottled in 2007 (91 points)

No vote for the 1965 Noval Crusted you brought to a tasting earlier in the Summer?

Good point, not sure why I missed this one since I also rated it with 93 points. I will amend my post above. Thanks for pointing it out.

Disregarding pre-1950 rarities and the usual suspects (eg: G63/F63), the three VPs that stood out for me this year were:

i) Ferreira 1970 (for me, the best example of a port showing at "perfect" maturity right now)
ii) Gould Campell 1966 (one BBR-bottled, one Oporto bottled from the recent batch released ex-cellars, both an absolute joy to drink - though showing at very different levels of maturity. If GC77 gets anywhere close to this in 10-20 years, i'll be happy to have invested while it was cheap!)
iii) Noval 1966 (a lone bottle from the cellars of the great German port and wine aficionado Wolfgang Starz, on this showing at least the equal of the best Graham and Fonseca 66s i have ever tasted)

Overall, the vintage consistently providing the most enjoyable drinking throughout the year was 1966.

VP: 1955 Croft;
Colheita's: White: 1970 Quevedo, Red: 1971 Quevedo Colheita
Wood aged: Quevedo 40 yo Tawny (directly from the tank, the day before they were bottled)
LBV: 2008 Quevedo (also directly from the tank, the day before botteling)

Oscar: thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

The trio of Weise&Krohn "garden" Colheitas from cask.
Best Vintage probably the 1997 Noval Nacional.

Eric Ifune wrote:The trio of Weise&Krohn "garden" Colheitas from cask.
Best Vintage probably the 1997 Noval Nacional.

Yes, those Krohn "paradise" wines are amazing!

David Spriggs wrote:

Eric Ifune wrote:The trio of Weise&Krohn "garden" Colheitas from cask.
Best Vintage probably the 1997 Noval Nacional.

Yes, those Krohn "paradise" wines are amazing!

+1

It hasn't had a whole lot of competition this year but the 40 year old Brunheda tawny is an easy choice for me.

While the 1967 Kopke Colheita I had last week was quite nice, I think I give the edge to a 1970 Taylor Vintage Port opened earlier in the year.

Some great choices so far. Looking forward to read many more now that we are a bit closer to the end of the year.

This is no easy task, as like I posted in the Wine Section, I was lucky to have had so many wonderful Ports this year. Most shared with fantastic fellow Port lovers. Here's my favorites and the winner..

Some Fav's;

2005 Niepoort VP
1963 Niepoort VP
1963 Niepoort Colheita (b 1989)
1900 Niepoort Colheita (B 1972)
[the aforementioned at the Niepoort Gala in Seattle]
1963 Fonseca VP (the best showing I've ever had of this)
1952 Graham's Single Harvest Tawny (b 2012)
1942 Graham's VP
1957 Sandeman VP
1966 Ferreira VP
1970 Graham's VP

But my overall favorites, in the following categories, are...

VP:
1927 Graham's VP

COLHEITA (a tie):
1935 Niepoort Colheita (B 1977)
1970 Quinta do Crasto Colheita (b 2002)

LBV:
2003 Quinta do Tedo LBV

WHITE WITH AGE:
1952 Dalva Golden White

10 YEAR TAWNY:
Villar d. Allen (trial blend) I do hope this is made it was so good.

20 YEAR TAWNY:
Taylors (during the blind 20 year horizontal at my house for the FTLOP on-line tasting) So surprised and glad to see this has improved since I last had it!

30 Year Tawny
Niepoort