ThePortForum.com

Yes Daniel I have the patience and the dedication to go abroad to obtain stocks!

I'll try to keep a few, but meanwhile they will help keep my sticky paws off some of the wines I really should allow to age a little more.

Agreeing with Daniel: tip-top cellar defenders.

djewesbury wrote:Rubbish corks in the Vau - centre stripped with a good corkscrew, necessitated some jiggling (and joggling) to get the remnant out of the bottle.

Try rotating the top of the neck of the next bottle in the steam from a boiling kettle when you get a stuck cork like this. I find it makes a huge difference as to whether the cork comes out intact or not.

If you do this, don't forget to allow the glass to cool before you decant!

AHB wrote:

djewesbury wrote:Rubbish corks in the Vau - centre stripped with a good corkscrew, necessitated some jiggling (and joggling) to get the remnant out of the bottle.

Try rotating the top of the neck of the next bottle in the steam from a boiling kettle when you get a stuck cork like this. I find it makes a huge difference as to whether the cork comes out intact or not.

If you do this, don't forget to allow the glass to cool before you decant!

I would have done this if I'd suspected it was a sticky cork. Perhaps it's a good precaution with supermarket bottles anyway.

World duty free at Heathrow T2 has Kopke 10yo tawny as their only port for sale. I forget exactly how much it was, but £20ish is what comes to mind.

I've just noticed that in my local Sainsbury the TTD Vintage Port is now the 1998 vintage, still supplied by SFE. Anyone tried this yet?

The only clue as to what this could be is a reference on the back label that this comes from "the upper Douro Valley". Could this be a clue that this is the Vesuvio? If it is, £20 for this port represents great value for money. If it is SdR then it is still very fair value.

AHB wrote:The only clue as to what this could be is a reference on the back label that this comes from "the upper Douro Valley".

The entire port-producing region is in "the upper Douro Valley". It could be Vesuvio, or it could be from a vineyard west of Regua. We might never know. The important thing is what it tastes like, and I assume you will be telling us later this evening?

AHB wrote:I've just noticed that in my local Sainsbury the TTD Vintage Port is now the 1998 vintage, still supplied by SFE. Anyone tried this yet?

Yes, and I think my note was a bit mean. I had two bottles of it and the one I left to settle down and gave a bit more decant time showed a little better. O am no judge of young ports but this seemed OK, the 03 TTD was better though.

Edit; As to the precise location of the vineyard I would need to try it once more to pinpoint it exactly...

Just in case the pricing is keen and the storage conditions don't appear too risky, Amazon UK have GM2001 in tomorrow's deals of the day.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007 ... 7_6a9fcff1

SCP wrote:Just in case the pricing is keen and the storage conditions don't appear too risky, Amazon UK have GM2001 in tomorrow's deals of the day.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007 ... 7_6a9fcff1

At £24 per bottle that wasn't a compelling price, perhaps fair at best.

Not good enough to buy, yes.
Interesting that Taylor 20yo is on tomorrow as well.

Local Tesco had Graham 30yo tawny at £35 as part of the stock reduction, presumably continued from a month ago.

SCP wrote:Local Tesco had Graham 30yo tawny at £35 as part of the stock reduction, presumably continued from a month ago.

Sadly ours does not.

As of last night our local Sainsbury now has the 25% off for 6 bottles or more running, though very few port-specific discounts.
Morrisons has Graham Crusted reduced at £14/btl; current year seems to be 2004 (vs 2006 at Sainsbury), though I was also able to find an odd bottle of 2002 as well.

Ocado have 25% off 6 - bought some QdN unfiltered LBV 2008 down to £15.

As expected, Waitrose now also have 25% off 6.

There are some interesting promotions at Waitrose at the moment:
Optima 10yo 50cl £9.59
Taylor 10yo £17
Sandeman 20yo £30
Graham 20yo £27.36
Vargellas 2002 £25
FG 1998 £24
Warre LBV 2003 £15

I do like the Warre LBV, and a good price

M+S. 1995 Taylor's QdTF at £22.50 (25% off from £30). Curiously, offer is to buy 2, which usually means 2 cases of either 6 or 12, but I only had to buy 2 bottles. I bought 6 (which gives the advantage of free named day delivery order total being over £100).

DaveRL wrote:M+S. 1995 Taylor's QdTF at £22.50 (25% off from £30). Curiously, offer is to buy 2, which usually means 2 cases of either 6 or 12, but I only had to buy 2 bottles. I bought 6 (which gives the advantage of free named day delivery order total being over £100).

Thanks Dave. Also picked up 6 of these.

Waitrose has a few offers on port, the most notable being the Warre LBV thingy for £14.86. They also have a few single quinta wines (Taylor and Fonseca) and the twenty year old Sandeman tawny for £30. I thought the Sandeman 20yo was supposed to be good but I have never tried it.

LGTrotter wrote:I thought the Sandeman 20yo was supposed to be good but I have never tried it.

Those with a taste for the brown sticky stuff say it is up there with the best of them. Knock yourself out

LGTrotter wrote:Waitrose has a few offers on port, the most notable being the Warre LBV thingy for £14.86. They also have a few single quinta wines (Taylor and Fonseca) and the twenty year old Sandeman tawny for £30. I thought the Sandeman 20yo was supposed to be good but I have never tried it.

Sandeman is very good, but that price seems a tad high. Here in the States I pay about $40 on average.

Aldi have Maynard's 2011 unfiltered LBV at £9.99.

Aldi have an amazing value for money Maynard's 40Y Aged tawny Port for just £29.99. I have just got a couple of bottles, but not tried it yet. I did have a few bottles of their xmas release last year, which was a very lovely 30Y tawny for £30 and I hope this to be even nicer. They also have a Maynard's 1989 Vintage port for £19.99. and a Maynard's 10Y Tawny for £9.99.
Has anyone had a Maynard's VP port before, and if so, would they recommend?

Simon

Doggett wrote:Aldi have an amazing value for money Maynard's 40Y Aged tawny Port for just £29.99. I have just got a couple of bottles, but not tried it yet.

At that price I'd have bought a couple, too! That's a crazy good price for a 40-yr old.

Doggett wrote:Aldi have an amazing value for money Maynard's 40Y Aged tawny Port for just £29.99. I have just got a couple of bottles, but not tried it yet. I did have a few bottles of their xmas release last year, which was a very lovely 30Y tawny for £30 and I hope this to be even nicer. They also have a Maynard's 1989 Vintage port for £19.99. and a Maynard's 10Y Tawny for £9.99.
Has anyone had a Maynard's VP port before, and if so, would they recommend?

Simon

I've had a couple of young Maynard's ports but nothing like as old as 1989. How about taking one for the team and trying it?

The latest incarnation of Maynard's was created by Cristiano van Zeller and a few others only four or five years ago. I believe the aged wines they sell under that brand are bought in from other producers/shippers. VP from 1989 could not have been made by Matnard's. I wonder if this is re-badged Cruz 1989, which was made in vast quantity?

Thanks for the heads-up Simon, I have just picked up a couple of bottles of the 40yr tawny this morning, which says on the back label that it is from Barao de Vilar; I also picked up one of the '89 VPs just for interest, hoping I would not be increasing my Cruz '89 stock - which on the back label says "bottled by Barao de Vilar" (vs my Cruz '89 which says "bottled by Gran Cruz").

I wouldn't pay too much attention to that, Phil. Barao de Vilar, which AHB, Andy V, JDAW and I visited about four years ago have only themselves just returned to the Port shipping business. I don't think they have any vineyards and I don't think they produced Port for over a century before their recent re-incarnation. I seem toremember that Oscar was involved in at least one of their aged tawnies but can't be certain.

My guess is that whoever is running Maynard's has purchased a stock of 1989 VP and re-corked/re-labeled it as their own. Cruz just seems a likely candidate to me as there was so much of it made (1,000,000 bottles!) and I can't think of any other producer who made a significant amount of Port that year. That is of course pure speculation.

The Casa do Douro has huge volumes of old tawny, stored in concrete. A new company’s old tawny might well be Casa do Douro.

jdaw1 wrote:The Casa do Douro has huge volumes of old tawny, stored in concrete. A new company’s old tawny might well be Casa do Douro.

Indeed. But they don't have VP.

Waitrose have just substituted a Fonseca Guimaraens 1998 for the unavailable Warre LBV. In price terms I have done very well (A £23.99 bottle for £14.86) but I feel a little disappointed still!

DRT wrote:I wouldn't pay too much attention to that, Phil. Barao de Vilar, which AHB, Andy V, JDAW and I visited about four years ago have only themselves just returned to the Port shipping business. I don't think they have any vineyards and I don't think they produced Port for over a century before their recent re-incarnation. I seem toremember that Oscar was involved in at least one of their aged tawnies but can't be certain.

We visited Vilar d'Allen, which is different from Barao de Vilar - the only connection being a similar name. From memory Barao de Vilar was set up with a team including one of the Van Zeller family and currently has the labels Barao de Vilar, Feuerheerd and Maynards in the portfolio. Maynards is being used for sales to Aldi, Barao de Vilar for other BoBs and Feuerheerd for the prestige market. I couldn't determine whether these were different wines in the bottles as well as different labels.

AHB wrote:We visited Vilar d'Allen, which is different from Barao de Vilar

Do you happen to know if any of the companies that now form BdV were producing VP in 1989?

Lidl have the following in the Christmas listing:

Cockburn Qunita dos Canais 2001 VP £19.99
Warre's Otima 20Y Tawny (500ml) £19.99
Saint Clair 1997 colheita £14.99
Saint Clair 2007 White Colheita £14.99
Saint Clair 2009 LBV £9.99
Armilar 10Y Tawny £9.99

Simon

Waitrose cellars have 15% discount today only. Use BLACK2015. If you buy 12 bottles you get another 5%. Warre LBV is already 1/3 off so it can be acquired at £12/bottle if you buy 12!


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Not quite port but there is Moët NV at £23 a bottle at Tesco and with 25% off when you buy 6 that is £17.25 a bottle. Bolly at £22.50/bottle too...

LGTrotter wrote:Not quite port but there is Moët NV at £23 a bottle at Tesco and with 25% off when you buy 6 that is £17.25 a bottle. Bolly at £22.50/bottle too...

I can see I'm going home via Tesco...

AHB wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:Not quite port but there is Moët NV at £23 a bottle at Tesco and with 25% off when you buy 6 that is £17.25 a bottle. Bolly at £22.50/bottle too...

I can see I'm going home via Tesco...

I was thinking of you, or to be precise, your wife.

LGTrotter wrote:

AHB wrote:

LGTrotter wrote:Not quite port but there is Moët NV at £23 a bottle at Tesco and with 25% off when you buy 6 that is £17.25 a bottle. Bolly at £22.50/bottle too...

I can see I'm going home via Tesco...

I was thinking of you, or to be precise, your wife.

Sauce!

Today our local Sainsbury have many ports and champagne reduced, plus the 25% off for 6 bottles (mixed wine, port, champagne) offer as well.

PhilW wrote:Today our local Sainsbury have many ports and champagne reduced, plus the 25% off for 6 bottles (mixed wine, port, champagne) offer as well.

Was going to post the same adding that the Graham's Crusted 2002/2003 was already reduced from £20 to £15 making the per bottle cost £11.25 as part of the offer.

Note for future reference, at 42 rue Chapon 75003 Paris 3^ème, +33 7 81 52 25 65, www.portologia.com (currently saying “We are coming really soon”):


Depuis 2000? With that name? Really? OK, if you say so.

jdaw1 wrote:Depuis 2000? With that name? Really? OK, if you say so.

Following in the ancient tradition of Port shippers?

February Sale by Nickolls and Perks. Large number of wines reduced, several very tempting indeed, but I held firm (mostly).

DaveRL wrote:February Sale by Nickolls and Perks. Large number of wines reduced, several very tempting indeed, but I held firm (mostly).

Thanks for the heads up. Some interesting pricing eg is the V94's star that much in the ascendancy that a case is worth over a £100 more than F94?!

idj123 wrote:

DaveRL wrote:February Sale by Nickolls and Perks. Large number of wines reduced, several very tempting indeed, but I held firm (mostly).

Thanks for the heads up. Some interesting pricing eg is the V94's star that much in the ascendancy that a case is worth over a £100 more than F94?!

It is interesting and surprising. Just checked, and the V94 price seems a little high and the F94 a little low, compared to other merchants on wine searcher, so tentatively I think no, not yet. On the rise though?

Some very odd pricing indeed. A case of 6 T92 is £570, a case of 12, £1425.

Darn it, I thought I'd finished buying port for at least a few months but I couldn't resist that Fonseca '94. Don't know how I'm going to afford it, but I'm telling myself that I've saved money in the long term...
Rich.