For The Love Of Port

An email offer from the THE RARE WINE CO

A Stunning Vintage Port Buy
Mint 1966 Delaforce
Recently Shipped from their Cellars
As great "old-style" vintages like 1955, 1963 and 1966 dwindle in supply, their desirability and prices climb.

So, it's rare today to find such Vintages—especially from one of the old British houses—at a reasonable price.

But, recently, Delaforce shipped a few immaculate original wood cases of their 1966 Vintage Port, and we were in the right place at the right time. It's rare to find multiple cases of such a wine, particularly in such pristine condition. But even more remarkable was the price, which was well below what we would have expected. Simply put: it was a drop dead bargain and we bought every bottle we could.

Delaforce isn't well known today, but it is one of the oldest British houses, dating back to before Phylloxera. It was founded by John Delaforce, who'd left England in 1834 to join the Port trade.

As for 1966, it was a very great year for Vintage Port. Had it not been for 1963, it would have easily been the towering year of the 1960s. Some knowledgeable observers even rate '66 higher than '63, with Decanter calling it the most underrated vintage of the 20th century.

We consider ourselves very lucky to have acquired this parcel. If you love port—or if you have a 1966 birthday or anniversary coming up—we urge you to grab at least a bottle or two while you can.

1966 Delaforce Vintage Port* $179.95 btl

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Correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems a rather fair price

Bradley Bogdan wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but that seems a rather fair price

It does indeed, I'm just not sure where I'd rank Delaforce in a 1966 horizontal.

It helps to try to construct a pricing matrix of sorts to figure out if this VP is a buy at $180. Here are a few markers to try to put this one in perspective:

Looking at this vertically:

1963 Delaforce VP is $190 at a place called Vintage Wine and Port in Hampshire, UK. Not that that does anybody any good on this side of the pond, but it has to be a marker of sorts. (By the way, this same place offers the 1958 VP for 85 pounds now, huge price drop. Picture here, before you get too excited: http://www.vintageportshop.co.uk/Produc ... uctID=6038 )
1970 Delaforce VP is offered at 110 Euros at a shop in Berlin. (I don't have pro version of wine-searcher, so six other places are hidden from me.)
1977 Delaforce VP is offered as low as $57 in the UK, and as low as $95 in the US.
1994 Delaforce VP is $50 at a few places in the US.

Looking at this horizontally:

1966 Sandeman VP is $146 at Saratoga.
1966 Warre VP is $175 at a few places in the US, notably OWC at European Wine Resource in Richmond CA
1966 Fonseca is $218 with a notation of "replacement labels" mentioned at the same place. It is offered at $230 at RWC, and I would certainly pay the extra $12 here just to be sure. $12 seems like nothing when dealing with provenance concerns for a wine that was bottled in 1968.
1966 Dow is $236 at EWR.
1966 Offley Boa Vista is apparently $145 at RWC. It doesn't show up on the inventory list, but when I click on the offer at wine-searcher, I am told that they have 2 bottles remaining at that price.

When using wine-searcher or any other price search site, click on the offer to make sure that the offer is for real, and not a stale price quote. Many times you will find that the offer is no longer available at the website in question. Frustrating, to say the least, but you can't trade on yesterday's price quotes. The silver lining is that sometimes, like in the case of the 1958 VP above, you might unearth an unmentioned bargain.

Auction prices can be a guide of sorts, also. Check http://wineprices.vinfolio.com and type in 1966 vintage port to get the horizontal look. They have no data for Delaforce.

Not that I'm a score whore, but one should check the scores on this website for Delaforce VP's and for 1966 in general to get an idea of what value should be placed on this wine. Scores do have meaning in this overall matrix. When enough meaningful data points show up, you can see a consensus of sorts for a given wine. It's especially important if one is looking to sell them. Something like 1966 Fonseca will always have a market in comparison to the more obscure houses. There are not nearly as many data points with Delaforce offerings.

Cellar Tracker is also an important resource for this exercise. 1966 Delaforce is rated close to 90 at Cellar Tracker, based on four notes: http://www.cellartracker.com/classic/wi ... ine=197559
Here is their list of 1966 VP's: http://www.cellartracker.com/classic/li ... ntage+port

Given all that information, one can better ascertain whether or not 1966 Delaforce VP is a buy at $180.

Brian
Fantastic info. Thank you!