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A little turkey shoot at Brightwells this week (while others were watching N31 and D27 go for astronomic sums elsewhere..)

My goodies included 10bts of Cruz '99 VP for less than the LBV price, half a case of the rarely seen Rebello Valente '75, a pristine case of Martinez '63 and some magnums of Croft 2000.

uncle tom wrote:A little turkey shoot at Brightwells this week (while others were watching N31 and D27 go for astronomic sums elsewhere..)

My goodies included 10bts of Cruz '99 VP for less than the LBV price, half a case of the rarely seen Rebello Valente '75, a pristine case of Martinez '63 and some magnums of Croft 2000.

I was half tempted by that Cruz lot but had no idea on whether it was a wine worth having a look at. Some interesting bidding going on, I didn't end up getting anything but it was a fun first dig at an online auction.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑00:55 Fri 03 Dec 2021 I saw the price of the Warre '94 and thought just the same - you have got yourself an absolute steal Mike. If there's more available at the same price, buy it!

I wish there was more. I won it at Zachy's London Auction yesterday. I couldn't believe no one had bid on it so I put in a low ball offer and won.

After finding out - to my astonishment - that Maynard's vintage 2016 got 99 points on Wine Enthusiast and finding it for €42, I couldn't resist and got a couple of bottles.

1 x Warre 1960
2 x Quarles Harris 1978 LBV

3 x Martinez 1985

1 x Cockburn Crusted 1960 (and a case of W77)

I'm a member of Churchills Port.Club and have just bought their latest offer.
6 x 2011 Vintage Port @ £320. Selling on VWP for £99 a bottle. Shipped in January.

3 x Niepoort Crusted (bottled 2015)
3 x Niepoort LBV 2017
2 x Graham's 2000
2 x Fonseca Guimaraens 2015 (a bargain in Garrafeira Nacional)


Quite curious to try the crusted.

Two miniatures of Warre’s Warrior “special reserve”.

Purchased because they came in a pack like this:

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑19:58 Mon 27 Dec 2021Two miniatures of Warre’s Warrior “special reserve”.

Whence?

jdaw1 wrote: ↑21:33 Mon 27 Dec 2021

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑19:58 Mon 27 Dec 2021Two miniatures of Warre’s Warrior “special reserve”.

Whence?

From an auction in Ireland.

Yesterday I picked up a Graham's 2015 LBV for £9 from Asda.
I also received a few bottles of Taylor's 2017 LBV and Tesco 2016 LBV for Christmas too.

I wish more people gave me wine as a gift.

MigSU wrote: ↑10:52 Wed 29 Dec 2021 I wish more people gave me wine as a gift.

I have to say the quality of wine that I have been given has increased immensely over the last year, entirely thanks to Vintage Wines & Port. On three occasions people who know I like Port have ordered something from them rather than going to their local wine-merchant or supermarket. There’s been a resulting huge increase in quality in all price ranges.

JacobH wrote: ↑10:38 Thu 30 Dec 2021

MigSU wrote: ↑10:52 Wed 29 Dec 2021 I wish more people gave me wine as a gift.

I have to say the quality of wine that I have been given has increased immensely over the last year, entirely thanks to Vintage Wines & Port. On three occasions people who know I like Port have ordered something from them rather than going to their local wine-merchant or supermarket. There’s been a resulting huge increase in quality in all price ranges.

Cherish them, Jacob. Cherish them.

It’s taken a lot of practice: “Please don’t buy me socks. Ever. I have very specific tastes. Please buy me a bottle of Port instead. Yes. Even a £8 ruby. I promise it isn’t boring. I promise I will enjoy it. Every year.”

A half of Niepoort Bioma Vinha Velha 2013 in the Solent Cellar's refurbishment sale.

12 x T70 PB in

Justin K wrote: ↑19:45 Wed 19 Jan 2022 12 x T70 PB in

You finally persuaded her! Good man.

Doggett wrote: ↑21:26 Wed 19 Jan 2022

Justin K wrote: ↑19:45 Wed 19 Jan 2022 12 x T70 PB in

You finally persuaded her! Good man.

Yes but she’s now in her 80’s (I think) so I’ll have to make them last a lifetime; one every 3 years

Less of a latest buy and more of a "latest arrival", with the 2018 wines finally making it safely to our shores.

The Guimaraens is in 375s, I'm looking forward to regularly sampling those over the next couple of decades and seeing how they evolve.

I had the opportunity to buy some really old Tawnies from a dear Lady who's husband recently passed.
Does anyone ever saw or tasted some of those?
Did get alongside some old Sherries and a Madeira.
Looking forward to open the first one.

The “Récolte 1958” (= Harvest 1958) is strangely ill-fitting to some of the other words on the bottles.

They lived in france, so thats might be the reason.

jdaw1 wrote:The “Récolte 1958” (= Harvest 1958) is strangely ill-fitting to some of the other words on the bottles.

Agree. I don’t think I’ve seen something labeled very old/old and then have a year on a neck tag as well from back then. But weirder things have happened.

No Selo’s as well.

Regardless, seem to be more basic ports. Perhaps what would be a Reserve Ruby/Tawny today?

1 x Grahams '70
1 x Dow '70
1 x Taylor '77

Caught my eye in the Nickolls & Perks sale.

@ richmills - thanks for the tip on the N&P sale, have just snapped up a 6-pack of Vesuvio 1992. I love that wine.

Delinquent wrote: ↑05:20 Wed 02 Feb 2022 They lived in france, so thats might be the reason.

I believe Julian refers not to the fact that it is in French, but rather to the fact that at least 3 of those bottles look like types of Port that would not normally be year-dated.

The Special White, Finest Old White, and Finest Old Ruby sound like entry-level Ports to me, and so would not be year-dated. I'm not familiar with how Vintage Character Ports were normally labeled, so that's the one that I'm not sure about. But I suspect that they were also not normally year-dated.

I think I've seen one other vintage character with a date on it, but the vast majority don't have it.

Glenn E. wrote: ↑18:04 Wed 02 Feb 2022I believe Julian refers not to the fact that it is in French, but rather to the fact that at least 3 of those bottles look like types of Port that would not normally be year-dated.

Yes.

I've opened a bottle of the Special White. It had a regular corck, no stopper.
It is still very enjoyable to drink, it has a nice elegant hazelnut nose, in the mouth as well alongside with plum and cinamon.
Let's see how it improves (or not) in the next days.

Thats what it looks like:

Thank you for posting this. As I seem to be mentioning very frequently at the moment, I find these old non-Vintage Ports really interesting. It is such a pity that we don’t know exactly what these Ports are. Although it must have been pretty good to be enjoyable after 65ish years in a bottle!

How sweet is it? I’m trying to work out whether the description of “dry” you see on older adverts for Port (including ruby Ports) actually means “dry” in the modern sense or something else.

It isn't very sweet I must say - way less than i would have expected from a white Port.
Now after beeing open for a while it got even better. Walnut now, fresh an citrus with very nice plum. I must say I relly enjoy it.
But dry as I know it from some old wood-driven Whiskies or Champagnes it is not - not at all.

Yesterday I've opened another bottle of these old ones. I picked one who had lost quite a bit - so I was wondering if it is still good.
After the removal of the cap I saw that the cork has fallen into the bottle... no good sign. I don't know how long ago that happend...

So I poured a glass, and hey it is still good... I'll try it again and post some notes.

That’s a great colour for a wine whose cork had fallen into the bottle. Glad it’s still good.

Delinquent wrote:Yesterday I've opened another bottle of these old ones. I picked one who had lost quite a bit - so I was wondering if it is still good.
After the removal of the cap I saw that the cork has fallen into the bottle... no good sign. I don't know how long ago that happend...

So I poured a glass, and hey it is still good... I'll try it again and post some notes.

20220214_154103090_iOS.jpg

20220214_154109259_iOS.jpg

Nice! Crazy how a cork can fall in and still be good. Guess those old capsules really sealed.

6x Fonseca 1985 (0 points for originality!)
And 3x Vesuvio 1996 magnums (fun!) that I wasn’t looking for but popped up for what seemed a good price. I was never lucky enough to be given any birth year port either so thought that I might as well do it myself!

With thanks to all who posted on my thread a few days ago but In particular to Glenn and Akzy who inspired the above.

I’ve had a bit of a search on this but couldn’t find any directly relevant threads - is there a vague rule of thumb about the effect that bottle size has on port ageing, beyond just ‘bigger = slower’? Will it follow there or thereabouts the same patterns/rates as dry red wine?

2 x 1971 Taylor's Single Harvest
3 x 1996 Graham's Malvedos

nac wrote: ↑10:39 Fri 11 Mar 2022 2 x 1971 Taylor's Single Harvest

Lucky! We were told that those were going to be extremely limited. None for the US, for example.

12 x Martinez 1985 at a very good price.

Glenn E. wrote: ↑18:28 Fri 11 Mar 2022

nac wrote: ↑10:39 Fri 11 Mar 2022 2 x 1971 Taylor's Single Harvest

Lucky! We were told that those were going to be extremely limited. None for the US, for example.

Seckfords. And they have some more.

@ Jamiesan12o - Hello! Magnums tend to mature about 50% slower than bottles in my experience, no matter what is in them (wine/madeira/port/sherry). In bottle terms the usual rule is 21 years from vintage as a starting point. So magnums 32. Your Vesuvio 96 is now 26. But 96 is a minor vintage so perhaps earlier drinking. So maybe think about cracking one open in a couple of years, but be prepared to wait for the other two.

1 x 1983 Graham's VP
1 x 1985 Fonseca VP
1 x 1987 Niepoort VP

Just finished the vintage character Port - it had much depot left in the bottle, that explains that it really had vintage character

As the old one is empty, a new one is in the line:
Very fruity - lots of strawberries and raspberries. Wonderfull stuff.

G07 - 1 case of 6.

I tasted the Ramos Pinto 2015 LBV yesterday and loved it so much I bought 4 bottles (available from the Whisky Exchange).

My first Port purchase of 2022!

M.Charlton wrote: ↑00:06 Wed 23 Mar 2022 G07 - 1 case of 6.

That's a great buy. I love that Port. In another 10 years it'll really be shining.