ThePortForum.com

Every year me and a bunch of my college buddies get together down at a beach house for a weekend. Lately it's been the weekend after our holiday called Labor Day (Labor Day is always the first Monday in September. As usual, I brought the Ports. I decided to bring 1 Colheita from each decade from the 30's through the 90's. The Colheita lineup was:

1937 Quinta do Noval
1944 Kopke
1955 Burmester
1968 Krohn's
1976 Krohn's
1982 Andresen
1994 Graham's Harvest

The star of the night for me was the '76 Krohn's followed by the '68 Krohn's and then the '37 Quinta do Noval. The '55 Burmester was good, but not as good as I expected. It was the only relative disappointment in the line up. All in all it was a great night.

Some unusual bottles from unusual years: very interesting. All genuine?

There are some bottles in that line up which should have been great Ports.

The 1937 Noval has a huge reputation (although I prefer the Noval ‘68). The Kopke ‘44 can be stunning and the Graham ‘94 is one of my guaranteed go-to Ports.

Your college buddies are very lucky people!

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑21:48 Tue 13 Sep 2022 The 1937 Noval has a huge reputation (although I prefer the Noval ‘68).

I have had varying bottles of the 1937 Noval, and too few bottles of the 1968 Noval, but even the worst of the '37s that I have had have been easily superior to the '68.

Perhaps I have only had "bad" bottles of the 1968. This calls for additional research.

jdaw1 wrote: ↑20:52 Tue 13 Sep 2022 Some unusual bottles from unusual years: very interesting. All genuine?

I bought almost all of them from auction from reputable auction houses (Zachy's, Ackers and a few others) and acquired them over the past 4 years. Of course bottles can be faked, but I looked them over pretty closely and they looked authentic. They're consistent labeling wise with similar bottles from the same bottling time periods.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑21:48 Tue 13 Sep 2022 There are some bottles in that line up which should have been great Ports.

The 1937 Noval has a huge reputation (although I prefer the Noval ‘68). The Kopke ‘44 can be stunning and the Graham ‘94 is one of my guaranteed go-to Ports.

Your college buddies are very lucky people!

They all were great Ports although drinking another glass of the '55 Burmester, I can taste some slight VA. It's not detracting, but it's there.

The funny thing is that the '37 Quinta do Noval has improved in the last few days...immensely. It was very good when we tasted it Saturday night, but two nights later it was so much better. Even the Burmester was better tonight than it was Saturday night. Very strange, but I'm not complaining.

jdaw1 wrote: ↑20:52 Tue 13 Sep 2022 Some unusual bottles from unusual years: very interesting. All genuine?

You did spot they were all colheitas?

Mike J. W. wrote: ↑04:45 Wed 14 Sep 2022

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑21:48 Tue 13 Sep 2022 There are some bottles in that line up which should have been great Ports.

The 1937 Noval has a huge reputation (although I prefer the Noval ‘68). The Kopke ‘44 can be stunning and the Graham ‘94 is one of my guaranteed go-to Ports.

Your college buddies are very lucky people!

They all were great Ports although drinking another glass of the '55 Burmester, I can taste some slight VA. It's not detracting, but it's there.

The funny thing is that the '37 Quinta do Noval has improved in the last few days...immensely. It was very good when we tasted it Saturday night, but two nights later it was so much better. Even the Burmester was better tonight than it was Saturday night. Very strange, but I'm not complaining.

Mike, do you happen to know the bottling dates of the wines? Should be somewhere on the labels.

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑18:46 Wed 14 Sep 2022

Mike J. W. wrote: ↑04:45 Wed 14 Sep 2022

Alex Bridgeman wrote: ↑21:48 Tue 13 Sep 2022 There are some bottles in that line up which should have been great Ports.

The 1937 Noval has a huge reputation (although I prefer the Noval ‘68). The Kopke ‘44 can be stunning and the Graham ‘94 is one of my guaranteed go-to Ports.

Your college buddies are very lucky people!

They all were great Ports although drinking another glass of the '55 Burmester, I can taste some slight VA. It's not detracting, but it's there.

The funny thing is that the '37 Quinta do Noval has improved in the last few days...immensely. It was very good when we tasted it Saturday night, but two nights later it was so much better. Even the Burmester was better tonight than it was Saturday night. Very strange, but I'm not complaining.

Mike, do you happen to know the bottling dates of the wines? Should be somewhere on the labels.

Alex, the bottling dates were as follows:

1937 Quinta do Noval - 1996
1944 Kopke - 1994
1955 Burmester - 1989
1968 Krohn's - 2015
1976 Krohn's - 2015 (not 100% positive on this one, but I'm pretty sure of the date)
1982 Andresen - 2016
1994 Graham's Harvest - 2020