Pointless Statistics

[PhilW]

Looking back over 2017, this is the first year since starting to build up the cellar where I have taken more bottles out of the cellar than I have put in. At the of the start of 2018, my cellar comprises the following (2017 values in brackets for comparison):

Port by type:
81% Vintage/SQVP (82%)
9% LBV (9%)
3% Crusted (4%)
6% Tawny/colheita/white (6%)

Vintage port by shipper:
The producers with highest representation for VP in my cellar are Fonseca at 23% (23%), Warre at 22% (23%) and Graham at 9% (9%).

Vintage port by years:
The years with highest representation for VP in my cellar are 1970, 1985, and then 1977 (previously 1970, 1977 and then 1985).

The above figures show minimal overall change; the underlying detail also shows:
- a notable reduction in representation of '77s (due to drinking them).
- a notable increase in '85s (from purchasing).
- the lack of Dow has been partially repaired.

[CPR 1]

I am very late this year, but I have finally updated my stats. Thus I can see that as of 1st Jan 18 my port 'cellar' held the following:

Taylor 13% (15%) last year
Dow 12% (8%)
Fonseca 11% (14%)
Graham 9% (11%)
Warre 9% (8%)

If port is ready to be drunk at 21 years of age then 63% is 'ready' and the top 4 vintages are:

1977 12% (15%)
2011 10%
1994 9%
1970 8%

5.1% of my port is in magnum or Tappit Hen
4.3% is in half bottles

I opened bottles from 25 different vintages and 25 different shippers in 2017 (plus Tesco, Avery and BBR which I am not sure how to classify!) 6% was Tawny/Colheita, 6% was LBV and 12% SQVP

[uncle tom]

I was fairly restrained in my purchases last year - until two 'turkey shoot' sales cropped up late in the year at Bonhams and Christies.

This has resulted in my collection of vintage port now topping one thousand imperial gallons, with an average bottle age of just over one billion seconds.

The collective age of my VP now advances by one day every 14.5 seconds and is currently just under 192,000 years in total..

[DRT]

my collection of vintage port now topping one thousand imperial gallons

I recall you telling me about a decade ago that you planned to keep your collection at around 2,000 bottles. 500+ case is slightly more than that

[Alex Bridgeman]

Would you believe it, this is my 10th annual posting of pointless statistics? I also had a look back to that first post and have noted how things have changed over the decade in italics.

At the end of 2018, I had a cellar which was composed of:
90.4% Port (90.8% last year; 82% in December 2008)
3.3% Bordeaux (3.4%;2008-7%)
1.2% Champagne (1.2%)
0.9% Australian (0.9%; 2008-2%)
0.8% South African (0.8%)
0.6% Spain (0.7%)
2.8% Other (2.2%), each less than 0.5% individually (including English, Hungarian, US, NZ, Lebanese, Portuguese, Chilean and other regions in France).

I added 257 (209) bottles of Port to the cellar this year, although quite a few came in and went straight back out as part of shared purchases. The oldest added was from 1920 (1870) and the youngest from 2016 (2015).

Using the 21 year rule, 64% (64%; 2008-42%) of my Port is ready for drinking, implying that almost none of my cellar comes from the 1998 vintage.

The average age of the Port in my cellar is 35 years and 135 days (34 years, 2 days).

88% (89%; 2008-96%) of the undrawn Port corks I own are in 75cl bottles, 8% (7%; 2008-4%) in half bottles or smaller and 4% (4%; 2008-none) magnum or larger. 66% (67%) of the containers hold Vintage Port (which includes Quinta do Noval but excludes Quinta do Vesuvio), 26% (26%; 96% was Vintage or SQVP in 2008) hold Single Quinta Vintage Port (including Quinta do Vesuvio), 5% (5%; 2008-2%) hold LBV, 1% (1%; 2008-2%) hold Crusted and 2% (2%) hold other stuff. I own 16 (9; 2008-1) bottles of Port which would be considered Colheita Port under current regulations.

The shippers making up the largest share of my Port cellar are Quinta do Vesuvio (14%, was 14%; 34%), Graham (9%, was 9%; 5% in December 2008), Warre (7%, was 7%) and Fonseca (7%, was 7%; 10% in December 2008). Looking only at the Port ready for drinking the picture changes slightly to be Warre (10%, was 10%), Fonseca (9%, was 9%), Graham (8%, was 9%) and Vesuvio (8%, was 9%).

8% (8%; 0%) of my port is from the 2011 vintage with another 7% (8%; 13%) from 1963; 5% (6%; 9%) is from 1994.

I have 564 different Ports in my cellar.

Pointless statistics on my tasting notes will follow at some point in the future when I have caught up with my tasting notes.

[uncle tom]

For the eighth year in a row I consumed exactly 48 bottles of vintage port at home last year, with an average age of 43.8 years compared to 44.1 years in 2017

I currently have 874 different ports, of which 616 are vintage.

Average age of my VP as of Jan 1st was 32 years, ten months and 24 days

Collectively, my vintage port gains another bottle year of age every 88 minutes and 5 seconds (16.35 years per day)

[CPR 1]

Thus an update to my Pointless Statistics.....

In 2018 I opened bottles from 29 different vintages from my cellar. With 1977 being the vintage with I opened most often, followed by 1970 and 1966.

Graham was again the favourite shipper being opened more than 50% more often than any other and ahead of Warre and Dow in 2nd and 3rd places.

Despite my best efforts to drink down the cellar the overall number of bottles in the cellar seem to have been multiplying again this year. I now find that only 60.5% (63%) of my bottles are ready to be drunk, indicating I bought some 2016 and could not resist the relative value of 2000/03 VP, and that these purchases outweighed the older VP purchases.

The shippers in my cellar have been changing and are now much more equally distributed:

Graham 11% (9% last year)
Taylor 10% (13%)
Fonseca 10% (11%)
Warre 10% (9%)
Dow 9% (12%)

With the vintages being led by 1977 11% (12%), 2011 10% (10%) and 1994 9% (9%)

I seem to have lost track of my non fortified wine which I must remedy thus not sure the current % that Port makes up in the cellar.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Charles's note has made me realise that I can also talk about the bottles which came out of my cellar this year, without having to wait to finish typing up my tasting notes.

The shippers which came out of my cellar most often in 2018 were Warre (11 bottles including Cavadinha) followed by Dow (9 bottles) and Graham (9 bottles including Malvedos). The vintages which came out most often were 1963 (9) and 1985 (8).

[PhilW]

As I enjoy reading the same from others, here is my own updated cellar stats looking back over the last year.
At the of the start of 2019, my cellar comprises the following (2018 values in brackets for comparison):

Port by type:
80% Vintage/SQVP (81%)
7% LBV (9%)
3% Crusted (3%)
10% Tawny/colheita/white (6%)

Vintage port by shipper:
The producers with highest representation for VP in my cellar are Warre at 22% (22%), Fonseca at 21% (23%) and Graham at 8% (9%).

Vintage port by years:
The years with highest representation for VP in my cellar are 1970, then 1985 and 1977 tied (previously 1970, 1977 and then 1985).

Overall no large changes, except for the increase in tawny/colheita.

[winesecretary]

This thread above all others is the one that led me to become active in this group, I find it oddly soothing to read and re-read. So I spent some pleasant time over the new year break doing a comprehensive cellar audit.

As at 03/01/2020 my cellar comprises the following:

Unfortified 57.6%;
Fortified 41.4%; and
Spirits 0.8%.

45.5% of my cellar is Burgundy (i.e. 78.9% of unfortified wine) and 3.3% is Rhone. Of my unfortified wine no other region or country reaches even 1.5% of the total.

Fortified wine, as a percentage of the whole cellar, breaks down as follows:

Port 34.6% - I have been drinking some but buying more;
Madeira 4.5% - I have been drinking some, and not buying much; and
Sherry 2.1% - I am surprised this is as high as it is, it's more because it doesn't get drunk than because it does.

Of my fortified wine, port thus makes up 83.6%.

Considering solely the port:

7.2% is SQVP;
91.1% is VP (including Vesuvio); and
1.7% is other types of port.

8.2% (by volume) of my port is in halves, and 91.8% in bottles. I have no magnums or larger bottles.

Using the 21 year rule, 49.7% of my port is ready for drinking. Using the 30 year rule this percentage falls to 29.0%.

By decade, my port stocks break down as follows:

2010s 25.3%;
2000s 23.7%;
1990s 20.7%;
1980s 18.1%;
1970s 8.9%;
1960s 1.3%; and
1950s 0.6%.

By shipper the percentages are as follows.

M&S 16.8% - all of it purchased this year, I could not resist the challenge of tracking down ever more £6 VP;
Taylor 16.1%;
Warre 11.0%;
Graham 10.2%;
Dow 8.9%;
Fonseca 7.6%;
Vesuvio 6.3%;
Croft 4.3%;
Niepoort 2.3%;
Smith Woodhouse 2.3%;
Gould Campbell 2.1%; and
Quarles Harris 2.0%.

No other shipper reaches 2.0%.

I have 88 different ports from 27 different vintages.

[PhilW]

That was a good early reminder! Ok then...
At the of the start of 2020, my cellar comprises the following (2019 values in brackets for comparison):

Port by type:
84% Vintage/SQVP (80%)
9% LBV/Crusted (10%)
7% Tawny/colheita/white (10%)

Vintage port by shipper:
The producers with highest representation for VP in my cellar are Warre at 19% (22%), Fonseca at 17% (21%) and Graham at 9% (8%).

Vintage port by years:
The years with highest representation for VP in my cellar are 1970, 1985, and then 1977 (previously 1970, then 1985 and 1977 tied).

[uncle tom]

Yet again, I kept to my target of 48 bottles of VP drunk at home last year, with a collective age of 2161 years, an average bottle age of just over 45 years; topping the previous year's record of 44.1 years. The oldest vintage drunk was 1955 (3 bottles) and the youngest 1995 (1 bottle). As usual, I observed my rule of not drinking the same VP twice at home in one year.

Total stock of VP has now crept past the 6000 bottle mark with a collective age that now tops 200,000 years

[DRT]

Total stock of VP has now crept past the 6000 bottle mark with a collective age that now tops 200,000 years

Tom, I think you might have failed in your objective of just over a decade ago of not going over 2,000 bottles

That is a seriously impressive cellar you have. I am quite sure many Port shippers have less impressive Pointless Statistics in terms of age, if not quantity.

Bravo!

[Andy Velebil]

Total stock of VP has now crept past the 6000 bottle mark with a collective age that now tops 200,000 years

Tom, I think you might have failed in your objective of just over a decade ago of not going over 2,000 bottles

That is a seriously impressive cellar you have. I am quite sure many Port shippers have less impressive Pointless Statistics in terms of age, if not quantity.

Bravo!

Looks like I may have to make a trip across the pond to help Tom reduce back down to 2,000.

[PCM]

Total stock of VP has now crept past the 6000 bottle mark with a collective age that now tops 200,000 years

48 bottles per year, more than 6000 bottles!! How old are you planning to be ??

[uncle tom]

Total stock of VP has now crept past the 6000 bottle mark with a collective age that now tops 200,000 years

48 bottles per year, more than 6000 bottles!! How old are you planning to be ??

I like to be optimistic! - I've also got 2200 bottles of non vintage port and 1200 bottles of wine to get through..

An odd little calculation:

If I started at my oldest bottle of VP and worked forward at 48 bottles p.a., the youngest vintages to be drunk would be 1969/70 in 2037/8 when they would be 68 years old. Thereafter they would get older and older.

[Alex Bridgeman]

An odd little calculation:

If I started at my oldest bottle of VP and worked forward at 48 bottles p.a., the youngest vintages to be drunk would be 1969/70 in 2037/8 when they would be 68 years old. Thereafter they would get older and older.

Now that is the most wonderful Pointless Statistic. I need my spreadsheet...

[Alex Bridgeman]

This thread above all others is the one that led me to become active in this group, I find it oddly soothing to read and re-read. So I spent some pleasant time over the new year break doing a comprehensive cellar audit.

As at 03/01/2020 my cellar comprises the following:

Unfortified 57.6%;
Fortified 41.4%; and
Spirits 0.8%.

45.5% of my cellar is Burgundy (i.e. 78.9% of unfortified wine) and 3.3% is Rhone. Of my unfortified wine no other region or country reaches even 1.5% of the total.

Fortified wine, as a percentage of the whole cellar, breaks down as follows:

Port 34.6% - I have been drinking some but buying more;
Madeira 4.5% - I have been drinking some, and not buying much; and
Sherry 2.1% - I am surprised this is as high as it is, it's more because it doesn't get drunk than because it does.

Of my fortified wine, port thus makes up 83.6%.

Considering solely the port:

7.2% is SQVP;
91.1% is VP (including Vesuvio); and
1.7% is other types of port.

8.2% (by volume) of my port is in halves, and 91.8% in bottles. I have no magnums or larger bottles.

Using the 21 year rule, 49.7% of my port is ready for drinking. Using the 30 year rule this percentage falls to 29.0%.

By decade, my port stocks break down as follows:

2010s 25.3%;
2000s 23.7%;
1990s 20.7%;
1980s 18.1%;
1970s 8.9%;
1960s 1.3%; and
1950s 0.6%.

By shipper the percentages are as follows.

M&S 16.8% - all of it purchased this year, I could not resist the challenge of tracking down ever more £6 VP;
Taylor 16.1%;
Warre 11.0%;
Graham 10.2%;
Dow 8.9%;
Fonseca 7.6%;
Vesuvio 6.3%;
Croft 4.3%;
Niepoort 2.3%;
Smith Woodhouse 2.3%;
Gould Campbell 2.1%; and
Quarles Harris 2.0%.

No other shipper reaches 2.0%.

I have 88 different ports from 27 different vintages.

It is wonderful to read the statistics of other Port lovers. Thanks to George, Phil and Tom for posting - and others please feel free to post if you're thinking of doing so.

I've been surprisingly busy the last few weeks and particularly the last few days, but I will post my Pointless Statistics for end 2019 before too long.

[nac]

As at close of play on 7th January 2020, I believe my total stock of port to be 699 bottles (of varying sizes).

74% is resting in my cellar and the remainder is in bond.

73% is "normal" Vintage Port; an additional 5% is what I've described as "Premium Vintage Port" (ie, Nacional, Stone Terraces, Capela); 19% single quinta; 5% colheita.

77% is in 750ml (or similar) bottles; 18% halves; 4% magnums; 1% each for Tappit Hens and double-magnums. The figure for halves is skewed by 24 each of TV and FG 2012.

30 shippers are represented, with a top 5 of Taylor at 28%, Fonseca 19%, Noval 13%, Warre 10%, and Vesuvio 6%. The high figure for Noval is largely due to the 60bts from 2012/13/14.

There are 47 different vintages with 2012 coming top at 14% (again skewed by 36bts of Noval). Only four vintages in the top 10 meet the "21 year old ready-to-drink" rule - 3rd 1970 8%, 8th 1977 4%, 9th 1963 3%, and 10th 1997 3%.

There are 130 different ports.

Only 38% of the total are "ready".

The last two decades account for 62%, and after these the biggest representation is the 1970s (13%).

Total age of contents = 8,749 years.

[uncle tom]

Only 38% of the total are "ready"

What is your definition of 'ready'?

For VP, mine crept forward over the years from 18 years to 21 and then 24 and finally to 24 'for investigative purposes' and 30 for mainstream drinking.

[nac]

Only 38% of the total are "ready"

What is your definition of 'ready'?

For VP, mine crept forward over the years from 18 years to 21 and then 24 and finally to 24 'for investigative purposes' and 30 for mainstream drinking.

I've used the 21 year rule for the calculation, but the reality is that I'm still unlikely to be drinking 97s yet. In fact, for VP currently not drinking anything younger than 1983...

[nac]

Only 38% of the total are "ready"

What is your definition of 'ready'?

For VP, mine crept forward over the years from 18 years to 21 and then 24 and finally to 24 'for investigative purposes' and 30 for mainstream drinking.

I've used the 21 year rule for the calculation, but the reality is that I'm still unlikely to be drinking 97s yet. In fact, for VP currently not drinking anything younger than 1983...

Using a 30 year rule "ready" falls to 28%.

[winesecretary]

@nac - question - why so much 12/13/14 Noval? Do you feel it is a house that is on a particular roll in those years, or is there a back story of which I am not aware?

[nac]

@nac - question - why so much 12/13/14 Noval? Do you feel it is a house that is on a particular roll in those years, or is there a back story of which I am not aware?

2012 was a "strategic purchase" - was offered 3 bottles of the Nacional 2004 with 3 cases of the Noval. Then picked up individual cases of 13 and 14 in subsequent years.

[winesecretary]

@ nac - Given how the price of the 04 Nacional has leaped up since release, that sounds like a very good deal indeed!

[Alex Bridgeman]

I finally got caught up with a few things and so have taken an hour out to run through my cellar list and generate this year's pointless statistics.

At the end of 2019, I had a cellar which was composed of:
90.1% Port (90.4% last year; 82% in December 2008)
3.1% Bordeaux (3.3%)
1.1% Champagne (1.2%)
0.9% South African (0.8%)
0.8% Australian (0.9%)
0.8% Portugal (less than 0.5%)
0.7% Spain (0.6%)
1.4% Other (2.8%), each less than 0.5% individually (including English, Hungarian, US, NZ, Lebanese, Chilean and other regions in France).

I added 244 (257) bottles to the cellar this year. Many came in and went straight back out as part of shared purchases and many were daily drinking wine such as Altano Branco. The oldest Port added was from 1934 (1920) and the youngest from 2017 (2016).

Using the 21 year rule, 63% (64%) of my Port is ready for drinking, and using the 30 year rule it is 45% .

The average age of the Port in my cellar is 35 years and 255 days (35 years, 135 days).

89% (88%) of the undrawn Port corks I own are in 75cl bottles, 7% (8%) in smaller format and 4% (4%) in magnum or larger format.

65% (66%) of the containers hold Vintage Port (which includes Quinta do Noval but excludes Quinta do Vesuvio), 27% (26%) hold Single Quinta Vintage Port (including Quinta do Vesuvio), 5% (5%) hold LBV, 1% (1%) hold Crusted and 2% (2%) hold other stuff. I own 19 (16) bottles of Port which would be considered Colheita Port under current regulations.

The shippers making up the largest share of my Port cellar are Quinta do Vesuvio 14% (14%), Graham 9% (9%), Warre 7% (7%) and Fonseca 7% (7%).

Looking only at the Port ready for drinking (at 21 years) the picture changes slightly to be Warre 10% (10%), Fonseca 10% (9%), Graham 8% (8%) and Vesuvio 8% (8%).

8% (8%) of my port is from the 2011 vintage with another 7% (7%) from 1963; 5% (5%) is from 1994.

I have 615 (564) different Ports in my cellar.

The shippers which came out of my cellar most often in 2019 were Graham 9 (9), and Fonseca 7. The vintages which came out most often were 1963 x 7 (9) and 1985 x 4 (8) and 1970 x 4.

Pointless statistics on my tasting notes will follow at some point in the future when I have caught up with my tasting notes.

[winesecretary]

So: for those of us who classify Vesuvio as a VP, your VP% is 79%, which is much more in line with TPF average stats than the above 65% would otherwise suggest?

[uncle tom]

So: for those of us who classify Vesuvio as a VP

I long ago gave up trying to distinguish between VP and SQVP - there are several VPs that appear to have been made from a single quinta and some producers regard the quinta names as no more than brand names, and offer a blend of wines from different quintas (possibly not even including the one it's sold as) under the label.

It's easier to just call them all VP..

[DRT]

Port accounts for 78% of my cellar: 69% Vintage, 8% LBV and 1% other Port.

I have one bottle of Colheita (a 1965 Quevedo), no Tawny and no White Port. I refer readers to my signature.

The remainder of my cellar is all dry reds: 21% Bordeaux and 1% from other regions.

My Port cellar is, 17% Warre, 16% Graham, 12% Cockburn, 10% Fonseca, 7% Dow, 6% Quevedo, 6% Taylor, 6% Vesuvio and 5% Sandeman.

The top three Port vintages in my cellar are 1985 (16%), 1970 (13%) and 1960 (11%).

88% of my Port corks are in 75cl bottles, 10% in halves or smaller and 2% in magnums or larger.

83% of my Port is 21 years or older with 60% being 30 years or older.

I have 73 different wines from 33 vintages in my cellar.

The average age of the Port in my cellar is 36.5 years.

[gerwin.degraaf]

My first attempt to supply some pointless statistics here
(some of the calculations are partially manually, as my spreadsheet skills are quite basic (not to say horrible).

Of my port, 87.6% is Vintage, 6,3% is Colheita, 2,9% is LBV, 2,5% is Tawny and just under 1% is White.

My Vintage Ports are divided in 119 different wines from 30 vintages. The average age of my Vintage Ports is 24,5 years.

54,4% of my Vintage Port is at least 21 years old, 23,4% is at least 30 years old.

[Alex Bridgeman]

So: for those of us who classify Vesuvio as a VP, your VP% is 79%, which is much more in line with TPF average stats than the above 65% would otherwise suggest?

Yes, absolutely. That would be correct.

[Alex Bridgeman]

An odd little calculation:

If I started at my oldest bottle of VP and worked forward at 48 bottles p.a., the youngest vintages to be drunk would be 1969/70 in 2037/8 when they would be 68 years old. Thereafter they would get older and older.

Now that is the most wonderful Pointless Statistic. I need my spreadsheet...

I've just played with my spreadsheet while my other half watched something on TV I wasn't interested in. I clearly need to by more Port. My Port just gets younger and younger as I get older. I never seem to reach the point where my Port starts getting older.

[winesecretary]

Perhaps you need to buy a Quinta? Assuming you sold none whatsoever of the resulting production, while there would be a substantial reduction in the average age of your bottles (including current port stocks) in year 1, from year 2 onwards there would be an inexorable annual increase.

[PhilW]

Perhaps you need to buy a Quinta? Assuming you sold none whatsoever of the resulting production, while there would be a substantial reduction in the average age of your bottles (including current port stocks) in year 1, from year 2 onwards there would be an inexorable annual increase.

Only provided he produces enough bottles; Alex would need to produce at more bottles each year than the product of the number of bottles drunk from his collection multiplied by their average age - so perhaps at least 200 cases, otherwise there would be further drop in year 2; plus a disaster if he doesn't declare in a year. Love the premise though - Alex should definitely buy a Quinta!

[nac]

Alex should definitely buy a Quinta!

Good idea - with all the spare time he now has...

[jdaw1]

I vote that Alex buys either Vargellas, or Malvedos, or Noval.

Any preferences between these three?

[DRT]

I vote that Alex buys either Vargellas, or Malvedos, or Noval.

Any preferences between these three?

I vote for Noval as it has a great view.

Well done, Alex. I think this is a great idea.

[Alex Bridgeman]

If I only need to produce about 200 cases per year, I really only need something the size of the Nacional vineyard. That produces 180-250 cases in years when the wine is made.

[DRT]

I think the most important thing to consider is that the quinta house needs to have at least 10 bedrooms.

[uncle tom]

Fifteen years ago this month I started keeping proper records of the bottles of port I bought and drank.

So a quick tally..

Since then I've decanted 636 bottles of VP for consumption at home, comprising 236 different wines. The most times any VP has been drunk at home is eight, with three candidates. Of those, I have Dow 60 on death row, which will be it's ninth outing.

Curiously, I have four times taken Noval '63 to a tasting, and have enjoyed bottles of that wine many times more when supplied by others, but have never opened one at home. Also slightly surprising is that the ubiquitous Taylor '70 has had only two outings..

[JacobH]

I’d forgotten about this thread.

I have just been updating my Port Records Notebook. It now lists 708 notes for 666 ( ) Ports.

On the basis that a glass of Port is about a fifth of the viable contents of a Port bottle, the 10 shippers I have drunk the most of in terms of volume are:

1. Taylor
2. Croft
3. Graham
4. Fonseca
5. Dow
6. Churchill
7. Sandeman
8. Warre
9. Quinta do Noval
10. Delaforce

I am disappointed about how very, very predictable this is. I wish it something exotic would be number 2 or 3. The closest is Croft which is caused by the Croft LBV that used to be sold as a lost-leader by Tescos!

Vintages are very highly LBV weighted, too:

1. 2005
2. 2001
3. 2004
4. 2003
5. 1996
6. 2000
7. 2007
8. 1985
9. 1997
10. 1970

[JacobH]

The most times any VP has been drunk at home is eight, with three candidates.

I am very envious as to your diversity. My “most drunk” wine is the Croft 2005 LBV of which I have opened 15 bottles since about 2008 (+ 10 halves of the 2004 LBV).

[winesecretary]

Am interested to see Churchill at 6 on your list. That I would not have predicted!

[JacobH]

I think of Churchill as one of those Ports that is always around. We usually have some dry white in the fridge; I always have a glass at Bar Douro; and they seem to be present at any public tasting. I'm actually drinking some right now- a ruby in a 20cl bottle which has somehow completely matured so that it looks like a 40 year old tawny!

What strikes me about it is that by ownership, I think I would be Graham's, Niepoort and Fonseca but yet Niepoort doesn't even make the top 10! I must stop trying to mature / hoard it and start drinking it...

[winesecretary]

I too have fallen in love with the sheer vinosity of Dirk-era Niepoort ports, and so my next pointless statistics update at year end will undoubtedly show a dramatic uptick in its presence in my cellar.

[winesecretary]

As at 31/12/2020 my cellar comprised the following (with end 2019 figures in brackets):

Unfortified 44.7% (57.6%);
Fortified 54.6% (41.4%); and
Spirits 0.6% (0.8%).

34.4% (45.5%) of my cellar is Burgundy (i.e. 69.8% (78.9%) of unfortified wine) 2.1% (>1%) is Bordeaux, 1.6% (3.3%) is Rhone, and 1% (>1%) champagne. Of my unfortified wine no other region or country reaches even 1% of the total.

Fortified wine, as a percentage of the whole cellar, breaks down as follows:

Port 49.5% (34.6%) - I have been drinking some but buying lots;
Madeira 3.6% (4.5%) - I have been drinking some, and buying little;
Sherry 1.0% (2.1%) - ditto; and
Other fortified 0.2% (0.1%)

Of my fortified wine, port thus makes up 91.7% (83.6%).

Considering solely the port:

10.9% (7.2%) is SQVP;
85.7% is VP (including Vesuvio); and
4.4% (1.7%) is other types of port.

5.9% (8.2%) (by volume) of my port is in halves, and 93.9% (91.8%) in bottles.

Using the 21 year rule, 58.6% (49.7%) of my port is ready for drinking. Using the 30 year rule this percentage falls to 22.1% (29.0%).

By decade, my vintage-dated port stocks break down as follows:

2010s 20.8% (25.3%);
2000s 30.0% (23.7%);
1990s 23.5% (20.7%);
1980s 12.4% (18.1%);
1970s 7.7% (8.9%);
1960s 0.8% (1.3%); and
1950s 0.4% (0.6%).

By shipper the percentages are as follows.

Niepoort 12.2% (2.3%);
Taylor 9.8% (16.1%);
M&S 9.5% (16.8%)
Warre 9.3% (11.0%);
Fonseca 9.3% (7.6%);
Graham 7.1% (10.2%);
Dow 6.7% (8.9%);
Vesuvio 5.0% (6.3%);
Churchill 4.0% (>2%)
Croft 3.8% (4.3%);
Sainsbury's 3.6% (>2%)
Gould Campbell 3.3% (2.1%); and

No other shipper reaches 2.0%.

I have 160 (88) different ports from 44 (27) different vintages.

[uncle tom]

My vintage port count has remained fairly steady over the past year, currently at 6063 bottles, but my LBV collection has grown significantly.

I currently have 631 different vintage ports, with an average age of 34 years, 1 month, 28 days, 1 hour and 42 minutes.

My vintage port collectively gains an extra bottle year every 1 hour, 26 minutes and 42 seconds.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Lockdown has given me plenty of time to run through my cellar list and generate this year's pointless statistics.

At the end of 2020, I had a cellar which was composed of:
87.9% Port (90.1% last year; 82% in December 2008)
3.6% Bordeaux (3.1%)
1.2% Champagne (1.1%)
1.9% South African (0.9%)
0.7% Australian (0.8%)
0.7% Portugal (0.8%)
1.0% Spain (0.7%)
0.5% England (less than 0.5%)
2.5% Other (1.4%), each less than 0.5% individually (including Hungarian, US, NZ, Lebanese, Chilean and other regions in France).

The oldest Port added to the cellar this year was from 1854 (1934) and the youngest from 2018 (2017).

Using the 21 year rule, 67% (63%) of my Port is ready for drinking, and using the 30 year rule it is 44% (45%).

The average age of the Port in my cellar is 36 years and 167 days (35 years, 255 days).

88% (89%) of the undrawn Port corks I own are in 75cl bottles, 8% (7%) in smaller format and 4% (4%) in magnum or larger format.

65% (65%) of the containers hold Vintage Port (which includes Quinta do Noval but excludes Quinta do Vesuvio), 26% (27%) hold Single Quinta Vintage Port (including Quinta do Vesuvio), 4% (5%) hold LBV, 1% (1%) hold Crusted and 4% (2%) hold other stuff. I own 31 (19) bottles of Port which would be considered Colheita (or white Colheita) Port under current regulations.

The shippers making up the largest share of my Port cellar are Quinta do Vesuvio 14% (14%), Graham 9% (9%) and Fonseca 7% (7%).

Looking only at the Port ready for drinking (at 21 years) the picture changes slightly to be Vesuvio 11% (8%), Fonseca 9% (10%), Graham 8% (8%) and Warre 8% (10%),

7% (8%) of my port is from the 2011 vintage with another 7% (7%) from 1963; 6% (5%) is from 1994.

I have 671 (615) different Ports in my cellar.

The shippers which came out of my cellar most often in 2020 Graham 12 (9), Churchill 11 (1), Croft 10 (6). The vintages which came out most often were 1963 x11 (7), 1920 x7 (0) and 1977 x6 (3).

Pointless statistics on my tasting notes will follow at some point in the future when I have caught up with my tasting notes.

[JacobH]

Do you own much non-Port fortified wines? I notice that after champagne most of your holdings, apart from England, are from fairly major fortified wine producers. I must say that I’m pretty bad at stocking up anything that is fortified but not Port: I don’t think I’ve got any unopened / un-coravined bottles at the moment!

[Alex Bridgeman]

Do you own much non-Port fortified wines? I notice that after champagne most of your holdings, apart from England, are from fairly major fortified wine producers. I must say that I’m pretty bad at stocking up anything that is fortified but not Port: I don’t think I’ve got any unopened / un-coravined bottles at the moment!

From time to time I have owned and drunk non-Port fortified wines from Australia, California, England, France, Greece, Italy, Madeira, South Africa and Spain. When I own a bottle of non-Port fortified at the end of the year they are included in the number of bottles from that country of origin.

As at the end of 2020 I had in the "cellar" 1 bottle from California, 9 bottles of Madeira, 24 bottles of South African fortified and 2 bottles of Spanish fortifieds.