For The Love Of Port

In the USA, Adventures in Wine is offering 30 ex-cellars (direct) bottles of 1977 Warre's VP in Tappit Hen (210 ml bottles), which are directly from the Sym cellars and these are supposedly the only remaining 30 bottles. This is also reported as the ONLY time this has ever been "sold on the market before" and the price ... $816 USD. To order; orders@adventuresinwine.com


I have no financial involvement ... yada, yada, yada.

I was going to suggest that this was a bit of a premium over regular 750 ml prices, at a bottle equivalent of $97.14 each. But it turns out that while I managed to pay a little less a while back for 750s, that isn't a big premium over the current going rate. Lowest price I see on the (non-subscription) wine-searcher right now is $83.72 in the UK and $89 in the US, and the reported average is $142. Considering the provenance, this does seem like a pretty good deal.

Roy Hersh wrote:...in Tappit Hen (210 ml bottles),

I'm assuming that was supposed to say 210 cl (2100 ml), yes?

Good assumption.

Some 77 Dow Tappit Hens were released into Hong Kong recently as well (200 bottles or so, i think)

Together with all those large format bottles they auctioned at Amsterdam, they seem to have been releasing quite a few old rarities recently...

Carl D wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:...in Tappit Hen (210 ml bottles),

I'm assuming that was supposed to say 210 cl (2100 ml), yes?

Now I'm really confused. Tappit Hens are 2.1 liters??? And I can buy 30 of them for $800? Seems like a steal to me.

I recall some other discussion about them being very large, in which case I would think that is a per bottle price. My original assumption on this thread was that they were 210ml, and the price was for the lot. This was also based on references to tappit hens being like a pint, which would put them in the 210ml range.

But I guess a pint, US or UK would really be more than 2x 210ml.

Tappit Hens are typically between 2.1 and 2.25 liters, but can be as large as nearly 3 liters. It's also a pretty rare size of bottle, so I'm sure that this offering is $816 each. From a purely QPR perspective it's not a very good deal, but you'll probably never see another Tappit Hen for sale, especially direct from the producer. So from a collector's point of view it might not be all that bad.

$816 At first I thought it said $186, which is reasonable.

This has to rank up there as the worst deal I've seen in a long time. An easy pass at that outrageous price.

Andy Velebil wrote:$816 At first I thought it said $186, which is reasonable.

This has to rank up there as the worst deal I've seen in a long time. An easy pass at that outrageous price.

Oops, my bad, it never occured to me that price could be per bottle. I guess there is more "collectibility" value here than I realized.

Roy Hersh wrote:In the USA, Adventures in Wine is offering 30 ex-cellars (direct) bottles of 1977 Warre's VP in Tappit Hen (210 ml bottles), which are directly from the Sym cellars and these are supposedly the only remaining 30 bottles. This is also reported as the ONLY time this has ever been "sold on the market before" and the price ... $816 USD. To order; orders@adventuresinwine.com

"Adventures in Wine" could be over-egging their claim a bit.

Warre 77 ex-cellars Tappit Hens are also available in the UK from Jeroboams for £425 - slightly better on price, but still very stiff compared to a per bottle basis (I purchased a couple of magnums of Warre 77 at £85ish per bottle last year, so the premium vs market price for other formats is very large).

Nevertheless - some Graham 1970 Tappit Hens went for a huge amount at Christies recently, so there's clearly a market for these unusual bottlings.

Andy Velebil wrote:$816 At first I thought it said $186, which is reasonable.

This has to rank up there as the worst deal I've seen in a long time. An easy pass at that outrageous price.

I disagree that this is an outrageous price. It depends on what you are looking to achieve - if you want some Warre 1977 to drink then you will clearly buy a bottle or three @ $90 - total cost for 3 bottles (ignoring the fact this buys you 225cl instead of 210cl). However, if you have plenty of cash and are looking for a bottle or two that will really impress your colleagues you might well buy a Tappit Hen. How rare are these? How much of a premium is this rarity worth? I have had Graham 1977 from a Tappit Hen and the bottles are really impressive.

Christies have clearly shown that there is a real interest in large format bottles at premium prices and Adventures in Wine must be confident that they can sell these at the price on offer. Time will tell, but I suspect that they are right - there is a history of selling out of limited supply prestige bottlings.

I wonder if this would have been possible without Julian's efforts to show the IVDP that large format bottles should be allowed to be sold.

I agree with you Alex. While on the face of it, this is extraordinarily expensive (heck, I paid $29 for MaGS of 1977 Warre in the early 1990's, which should have been $59 but that's another story) however, even today to purchase the quantity of W77 would be $300 or thereabouts. $816 is a far cry from that in a straight up comparison. However as AB points out, the scarcity and coolness factor of these large squat bottles, is going to have people scooping them up rather quickly I would think. That's why Scion did well, and all of the other high end bottlings we are seeing (assuming you read the newsletter) these days. Are they really designed for the HK market and wealthy investors from mainland China that don't care what's inside the glass compared to the rarity of the bottlings?

It is entirely possible that these bottles will be bought as trophies rather than something to open and drink. The result could be that in a few years, a decade or two, some of these will come onto the secondary market and will sell for significantly less than being offered today at retail. But I guess that if you want one, you have to make a choice and either buy one now or take your chances.

All of the tappit hens I have seen released recently have been offered at a significant premium. The Graham 1977 is selling for around 2½ times the current cost of the port in the bottle; the Warre has about the same premium on it. The Dow 1977 tappit hens have been exclusively offered to the Asian market at a slightly higher price than the Warre (about 5-10% higher) so roughly the same sort of premium over the cost of the wine in the bottle. These Dow tappits have been offered for sale in a really upmarket individual box; black lacquered wood, individually numbered box and bottle, back label signed by Paul Symington, gift book about Dow, felt lined, individual carry handle etc. All of the stocks for sale (303 tappit hens) have gone out of the Symington cellars and there are no more that will be offered in the future.

[I've just tried to upload a couple of photos of the Dow 1977 tappit hens, but can't seem to upload to Portraits at the moment. Don't know why.]

I suspect that the tappit hens will either sell out in a flash, or will sell slowly but surely. However, I am sure that they will sell simply because there is a market out there of wealthy people who like large format bottles that can be used to impress. It doesn't work so well for me, because most of my drinking tends to be at home with my wife accompanying our dinner...but that doesn't stop me from loving the idea of owning one **sigh**