For The Love Of Port

Hello,

I'm new to this site and found it really cool. It's neat to see such a passion for my favorite liquid dessert.

Back in 2007 I was a Bar Manager and lead bartender at a place called Marcello's Chophouse in Albuquerque, NM. It's the best steak house in NM if you are ever in the area p.s. At the time I worked there I had the pleasure of meeting the "Master Blender" for the Kopke firm. Kopke is the oldest porthouse in the world from what I was trained and it was actually a German family that started it. Being a major fan of the 1917, 1932 Colheita's I had tried (they were sold out when I met him), I asked him what he thought the next best vintage he had for sale in case would be and he replied. "You can not go wrong with the 1972 Colheita, a distributor in Santa Fe just bought the last 18 cases we had. " I honestly have no idea if this was true or not but when I did some research I could not even find one bottle sold online for that year and product... period. This sparked my curiosity and this is the reason I'm posting here. I was wondering if anyone knew of a wine broker or port specialist to ask an estimated value. If you could help with that I would be extremely grateful. I just had my first son and I realize it's going to take about 400k just to get him through high school with current inflation rates and rising commodities. Note: this is not including college. It would probably be in my best interest to get rid of my prized case of wine. :/

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I hope everyone has a nice evening... Cheers!

Dean G

Dean, my 2 cents would be to keep it and enjoy it! What you'll get out of it if you sell won't make any difference on the money you need! When this bottle will worth a lot, your son will probably have completed his studies!

My 1 cent... No need to dispose of your case now...

When you actually need to spend the cash, consider selling it then. The longer you keep it, the more it will appreciate.

You might win the lottery in the meantime, you never know. Would be v sad to have parted ways w you esteemed case ahead of having to!

As much as logic would seem to favor holding on to that special case, kids have a tendency to drive parents to drink, so it could be in danger... Haha

I don't see this going up in value with time. In my experience, most Kopke Colheita's show better closer to the date of bottling and tend to lose freshness the longer it sits in bottle. It also was one of the vintages affected by the industrial alcohol scandal. Just because a producer runs out of a given tawny Port, it generally doesn't cause the price to go up unless it's a well regarded Tawny to begin with. With those factors in mind I would either drink up soon or sell soon.

Andy Velebil wrote:I don't see this going up in value with time. In my experience, most Kopke Colheita's show better closer to the date of bottling and tend to lose freshness the longer it sits in bottle. It also was one of the vintages affected by the industrial alcohol scandal. Just because a producer runs out of a given tawny Port, it generally doesn't cause the price to go up unless it's a well regarded Tawny to begin with. With those factors in mind I would either drink up soon or sell soon.

I agree with Andy. Freshness counts, the more recently bottled the better. As to putting $ toward your first born, ENJOY the colheita, as the sale wouldn't even create a drop in the bucket of the financial expenditure of raising a child. Besides, more times than not, and depending upon your income, a wife will put some brakes on many future luxury wine purchases, so save these bottles for yourself!

Andy Velebil wrote:Just because a producer runs out of a given tawny Port, it generally doesn't cause the price to go up unless it's a well regarded Tawny to begin with.

This is the best reason to either sell now or drink it. Don't hold onto it expecting the value to rise, because it probably won't. While I often disagree with others here about the ability of Colheita to age in bottle, the general public does agree with them so the value of these bottles could very well decline over time. Your best bet for selling was probably last year, which would have been the Port's 40th birthday.

Given that you purchased the case in 2007, it has been in bottle for at least 6 years which is already outside the usual recommendation for consuming Colheitas.

I just realized that none of us really answered your implied question - what is your case worth?

As you already know, there isn't any of the 1972 Colheita available anymore. However, we can do a price comparison with similar vintages. Please note that Port's pricing doesn't really behave like dry wine - when the world runs out of a Bordeaux, its price tends to skyrocket. Not so with Port.

1971-1975 was an interesting time in Portugal. The country went through a revolution, and the Port trade in particular was tainted by an industrial alcohol incident. So those vintages can typically be lumped together under "not the greatest time to be making Port."

The 1974, 1975, and 1976 Colheitas are all available for around $100/bottle or slightly more. In the case of the 1976, which was an excellent year for Colheitas, that is telling - the quality of the year doesn't seem to have affected prices.

On the other hand, the 1966, 1967, and 1968 all cost $180-$200 per bottle. In the cases of 1966 and 1968, that is probably partially driven by quality since those are both superb vintages for Kopke's Colheitas. My guess is that 1967's price is simply along for the ride because it fits between the other two.

So for your case of 1972 Colheita, the best price you could reasonably hope to get would be $200/bottle. In my opinion, though, that's wishful thinking. I think it far more likely that the price will do no better than to split the difference between the 6 examples, or about $150/bottle. Realistically, though, you should probably be prepared to accept $120/bottle.

I hope that helps!

Agree with Glenn. $125 or so is about what you would likely get and the '72 Kopke is probably going to offer the most by drinking it. I would not be concerned at all about the "industrial alcohol" (actually, aguardente) scandal that was mentioned. The few Ports I've experienced from the years 1972 and 1973 were all drinkable and none showed signs of the terrible spirit that was found in those samples by the German labs. Nonetheless, although Glenn and I share a very similar view of Colheita's ability to improve with age in bottle, I would not worry about this.

Sadly, many Colheitas take decades to realize price increases to significant levels, except a few producers where the scarcity factor seems to drive the price upwards more quickly, (i.e. Niepoort) here in the USA. With most other producers, Colheitas are often times even slower than with Vintage Port. My strong suggestion is to drink or gift these, given you mention you are a Port lover do so on special occasions with your family or son when he is older; rather than selling them now for what might come out to $1500 or so, which you will regret later.

Thank you sooooo much for all the responses gents! I really got some great info! Glen and Roy, I think both your answers are exactly what I was looking for!

Have a great day all! Cheers from New Mexico!

p.s. I have drank a couple bottles of the my buddies case (he bought them at the same I did), and they were EXCELLENT to say the least. All my formal training has always taught any Colheita's to get much better with age as well. That was definitely the case with the two bottles I helped my friend with.

p.s.s. if anyone is interested in buying the case for 2k I will let it go, email me at (dcg2000@gmail.com)

Brad - I truly laughed when reading your post! Thanks!

Dean Gallagher wrote: Glen and Roy, I think both your answers are exactly what I was looking for!

What about my answer? I think it was pretty good, too.

I too am fairly new to this site, but I just have a wee bit of a suspicion that Dean Gallagher has more than one case for sale at $2000. Personally, and of course I am somewhat biased living here in Portugal, I would not be prepared to buy a case without first sampling it, and, whilst I agree with the minority view that (almost) all colheitas improve in bottle, $2000 a case is unthinkable.

Not for some. I've been amazed at what some wine consumers will spend on a bottle of wine, no less a magnum or rare find.