Storing 2011 Vintage Port

[gardenhose]

Having read through this site's exhaustive (and very entertaining!) notes on the 2011 Vintage, I have decided to buy a few cases. What I am wondering is if the fact that these are drinking so well so young, will they peak early and not be a great long term investment? I myself am in my early twenties and would like to keep a bunch of these until well past my retirement.

The three specific ports are the Dow's, the Quinta do Vesuvio, and the Taylor Vinha Velha. Any thoughts are appreciated!

[DRT]

Welcome to

Most young VP drinks well on release because it is packed with fruit. The 2011, like other vintages, is likely to close down in a few years and go into a dumb phase whilst it matures. As for its long term prospects we will have to wait and see, but all the signs and all the informed commentary is positive.

Given the length of time you want to store these Ports you either need to have your own cellar with a cool, stable temperature or use a professional storage service. I would recommend you buy from somewhere like Berry Brothers In Bond and leave the cases with them until you want to drink them. That gives you the opportunity to to pay tax on the purchase price (i.e. 2013 price) rather than the value when you withdraw the wines in 2050something.

You have selected very good wines

[LGTrotter]

I would concur with all Derek has to say.
There are plenty of wiser heads than mine on this forum but here's my twopennarth:

I wonder how much the 2011 ports will go up in price over the next few years, probably not a great deal. If this is a major slab of money for you then it might be worth holding fire and having a think about it. The exception to this would probably be the Vina Velha which may well disappear/go up in price due to its scarcity.

The other thing that occurs to me is that my taste at least changed as I grew up. I prefer older wines now whereas I was more into upfront fruit driven things when I was younger. The other thing I remember is how extraordinarily cheap older vintages were when I began buying port (eg the 66 and 70). I really wish I had bought more of those when I had the opportunity. In looking at value I think there are some goood deals out there in the 94s, even some of the eighties wines. I guess they will be the ones that people will say 'do you remember when you could buy Graham 94 for £400 a case?' in ten years time.

I wish I had your foresight and started buying young. Whatever you decide you will have some good drinking ahead of you.

[Alex Bridgeman]

LGT does raise an interesting point. While my opinion is that the 2011 vintage is really, really good, it is very likely that there will be plenty of it around on the secondary market for the next 20 years. It is a relatively small vintage so there may be less of it than we've seen for the other recent vintages, but I would be very surprised if nothing is seen at all.

Experience has also indicated that buying on the secondary market 8-10 years after the vintage was first released often nets a lower price than buying on release. However, doing this exposes you to uncertainty (can you get what you want, will it cost you less than if you had bought on release, how was it stored) but there might be positives about a delayed purchase (lower cost for the port, avoiding 8-10 years of storage charges, disposable income has increased, bought other wine or port with the money you didn't spend on the 2011).

Do you already own some port? Is this a purchase which you intend to add to an existing collection of port or would it be your first foray into our favourite drink?

[g-man]

LGT does raise an interesting point. While my opinion is that the 2011 vintage is really, really good, it is very likely that there will be plenty of it around on the secondary market for the next 20 years. It is a relatively small vintage so there may be less of it than we've seen for the other recent vintages, but I would be very surprised if nothing is seen at all.

Experience has also indicated that buying on the secondary market 8-10 years after the vintage was first released often nets a lower price than buying on release. However, doing this exposes you to uncertainty (can you get what you want, will it cost you less than if you had bought on release, how was it stored) but there might be positives about a delayed purchase (lower cost for the port, avoiding 8-10 years of storage charges, disposable income has increased, bought other wine or port with the money you didn't spend on the 2011).

Do you already own some port? Is this a purchase which you intend to add to an existing collection of port or would it be your first foray into our favourite drink?

you'd have to look at the 94s for a fair comparison but the scores from the publications for the 2011 across the board are really high.

the 94's while still affordable have seen a 2x increase from release price. I believe teh 11's have even less stock then the 94s'

do i think you'll see a bordeaux like increase? No

but I do think that due to the high scores whiel you definitely will see them in the secondary market, you won't see them anywhere near release price.

[gardenhose]

Thank you all for the responses!

Just to give a little more background, I live in Canada, where the liquor laws are outdated (we can't ship wines from province to province, we can only bring back 12 bottles at a time, etc.) and vintage port can be difficult to find where I live. I will have to travel at least 10 hours to buy anything. Older vintages are very rare around here but the liquor stores usually bring in a good allotment of the current vintage if you can look around and drive.

I buy and drink wine with my father as a hobby, so all the port will be kept in his basement wine cellar. He is more of a Bordeaux/Napa Valley Cabernet guy, but does enjoy port, and we currently have six different cases of 80's and 90's port.

This purchase will be my first big purchase but it comes at a good time in my life, so I am celebrating.

And lastly, I must say that this site has been a wonderful learning experience and a pleasure to read. Thanks for keeping it up.

[LGTrotter]

See; I told you there were wiser heads. Gman has a point. (and a lot of 2011 to sell )

[DRT]

With access to free storage and the limitations that being a resident of Canada brings you would be best buying what you want now. If you leave it 10 or 20 years you will find very little of this in Canada, and what you do find will be ridiculously expensive.

Buy all you can afford now and forget about it for 30 years

PS: AHB and g-man raise good points for people in countries other than Canada.