For The Love Of Port

Hello everyone, I am new to the port world and I recently received a bottle of the Sandeman 40 year as a gift.

Problem is... that the bottle date is 1999!

David,

That shouldn't be a problem. Most people don't believe that tawny ports age well in bottles, but they also typically don't degrade all that much. Sometimes they'll close down a bit after bottling, but that typically passes after several years. Yours has been in bottle long enough that it should have rebounded, so I would expect it to be excellent!

Great ! I will be opening on Christmas Day.(Birthday)

Thanks Glen

This is an outstanding tawny - one of my all-time favorites! It's even better the next day. Enjoy!
-Dave-

Most Port Shippers recommend buying Tawny Ports "with an indication of age" which is the category for the 40 year old Sandeman; within a couple of years of the bottle date. When bottles like yours sit on a store's shelf for nearly a decade they typically wind up on "sale" just to get rid of it. Hopefully yours has been in your cellar for those years, forgotten about in some lonely dark corner.

In any event, I would highly recommend that you decant this Tawny for six to eight hours prior to consumption. It will certainly have what is known as "bottle stink" initially as these Tawny Ports are not made to be kept in bottle that long. I know there are some folks that believe that this type of Port can actually evolve in bottle, I am just not one of them. When a Port or any wine ... winds up being fined and filtered, it is thereby stripped of its potential to age and the sediment/yeast cells are gone. IMO (only) you are not going to find any incredible difference to a bottle that was purchased last year, although it is possible on the downside that there will be some freshness lost and bottle stink as mentioned. That is the reason for the decanting and I'd leave the decanter open at cellar temperature. Just my

You for sure will lose freshness with a bottle aged tawny. Saw it myself on some Ramos Pinto tawnys I won at auction. They were bottled in '97. Not to say I didn't enjoy them- very much so, but not like a fresh bottle.

Never had the 40 year Sandeman, but if it's anything like the 20; you're going to have a delicate port with fine acid and length.

You are keeping good company to get that as a gift.

Sandeman 40 is very nice. A few NH Liquor store used to have them for less than 100$ a couple of years ago which was a really good deal... Wish I had bought more than one

Enjoy!

The Sandeman 40 was $94 earlier this year in the New Hamphire wine stores. It is now $101. They usually have a discount on 12 bottles of port around Christmas.