Pointless Statistics

Anything to do with Port.
PhilW
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by PhilW »

jdaw1 wrote: 09:51 Wed 12 Jan 2022Fewer.
I do far too much programming and maths; "x < 2" means "x less than 2" whether the value is integer (nominally countable) or not in pretty much every programming language; I suspect it's too ingrained.
Justin K
Niepoort LBV
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Justin K »

Fonseca should be 9.23%. Now does it add up?
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

I love the fact that the lists of most owned shippers includes M&S and Sainsbury. It shows that we know a bargain when we spot one.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Stunningly, after 2 years of retirement, I am up to date with transcribing my tasting notes so am in the position to spend some time pointlessly looking at what I drank last year.

In 2021 I tasted or drank (or tasted and drank) Port from 417 different containers (mostly bottles, but sometimes casks). 107 of these were Ports I had not tasted before, 13 of the 107 being 2019 Vintage Ports.

The oldest wines were from 1827, 1870 and 1892. The most frequently tasted vintages were 1994 (33), 1980 (17) and jointly 1963 and 2015 (15).

The shippers most frequently drunk were Quevedo (57), Graham (35) and Warre (32).

The best wine I tasted in 2021 was a bottle of Niepoort Garrafeira 1931. The distribution of points I awarded was as follows:
99 - 1 wine
98 - 2 wines
97 - 5
96 - 9
95 - 14
94 - 22
93 - 28
92 - 36
91 - 42
90 - 45
89 - 52
88 - 56
87 - 35
86 - 16
85 - 14
84 - 6
83 - 4
82 - 4
81 - 2
80 - 2
Less than 80 - 2

There were also 19 wines which were not scored either because they were faulty or because the circumstances made scoring difficult.

I accept that my distribution of scores is skewed towards the top end of the 100 point range, but in my defence I do admit to liking to drink good wine rather than average wine. I also wonder whether anyone would make and release an 80 point wine these days when there is such a lot of better wine to buy and drink.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Soon...
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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Doggett
Morgan 1991
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Doggett »

Alex Bridgeman wrote: 22:10 Thu 08 Dec 2022 Soon...
Just imagined the guy that does the movie trailers doing a promo for the Pointless Stats thread… “coming to a Forum near you…”
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flash_uk
Graham’s 1977
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by flash_uk »

Alex Bridgeman wrote: 22:10 Thu 08 Dec 2022 Soon...
I've never computed pointless stats. If I did, I would need to get up to date with tasting notes... :shock:
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Most of my pointless statistics are based on what’s in my “cellar” and how it’s changed.

But I am up to date with my tasting notes so will post something on that too.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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JacobH
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by JacobH »

I’ve re-run the script on my records following the last post in July 2020. In that time, I appear to have tried a further 130 new types of Port which doesn’t seem bad going!

The total recorded is therefore 796 different Ports & 843 tasting notes, although I am a bit behind with updating records.

My top 10 shippers are now (with their July 2020 places in brackets)

1. Graham [↑ from 2]
2. Taylor [↓ from 1]
3. Churchill [↑ from 6]
4. Croft [↓ from 3]
5. Fonseca [↓ from 4]
6. Dow [↓ from 5]
7. Quevedo [new entry]
8. Sandeman [↓ from 7]
9. Warre [↓ from 8]
10. Quinta do Noval [↓ from 9]

I think the big change from 2020 is the impact of the Port Club, with the big jump into the top 3 for Churchill. I’m surprised that Quevedo has appeared for the first time, too. I am expecting Croft to continue to fall over the next few years since I no longer drink Croft LBV almost every night. With Graham’s excellent recent LBVs, it wouldn’t surprise me if it holds its place over Taylor for a while.

My vintages remain heavily influenced by daily-drinking of LBVs and the like with a big jump into 5th place for 2015.

1. 2005 [same]
2. 2004 [↑ from 3]
3. 2001 [↓ from 2]
4. 2003 [same]
5. 2015 [new]
6. 1996 [↓ from 5]
7. 2000 [↓ from 6]
8. 1985 [same]
9. 2008 [new]
10. 2007 [new]

As before, I’ve assuming that a “glass” averages at about ⅕ of a 75cl / 50cl bottle.

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uncle tom
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by uncle tom »

The centenarian bottle I am pulling for the Xmas bash next week will reduce the average of the VP in my cellar by 3 days, 20hrs and 20 minutes..
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly - W.S. Churchill
MigSU
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by MigSU »

That's a brilliantly pointless statistic!
Mike J. W.
Taylor’s LBV
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Mike J. W. »

uncle tom wrote: 16:48 Sun 11 Dec 2022 The centenarian bottle I am pulling for the Xmas bash next week will reduce the average of the VP in my cellar by 3 days, 20hrs and 20 minutes..
To make this the ultimate pointless statistic, seconds need to be in there. :D
Glenn E.
Graham’s 1977
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Glenn E. »

Mike J. W. wrote: 23:42 Sun 11 Dec 2022
uncle tom wrote: 16:48 Sun 11 Dec 2022 The centenarian bottle I am pulling for the Xmas bash next week will reduce the average of the VP in my cellar by 3 days, 20hrs and 20 minutes..
To make this the ultimate pointless statistic, seconds need to be in there. :D
Insufficient significant digits.

Which hasn't stopped him from posting hours and minutes, and for that matter even days, but still... :wink:
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JacobH
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by JacobH »

Seeing as it would be rather difficult to identify the harvest date for most vintage ports, I presume Tom has decided on an official birthday for all of his Port like horses which implies a need for a birthday party!
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Justin K
Niepoort LBV
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Justin K »

uncle tom wrote: 16:48 Sun 11 Dec 2022 The centenarian bottle I am pulling for the Xmas bash next week will reduce the average of the VP in my cellar by 3 days, 20hrs and 20 minutes..
Julian is that enough information for you to calculate how many bottles in Tom's cellar?
Glenn E.
Graham’s 1977
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Glenn E. »

JacobH wrote: 11:16 Tue 13 Dec 2022 Seeing as it would be rather difficult to identify the harvest date for most vintage ports, I presume Tom has decided on an official birthday for all of his Port like horses which implies a need for a birthday party!
Is it the Port birthday, the calendar birthday, or the international birthday?

(Look up Korean age if you don't understand the question.)
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

I thought this year I would do something slightly different for my pointless statistics – a comparison to 10 years ago and not to last year. A chance to see how things have changed over the last decade rather than the last year.

On 31 December 2022, my cellar will comprise of the following (with 2012 figures in brackets)
Port 86% (91%)
Bordeaux 3% (3%)
South Africa 2% (0.5%)
Champagne 1% (2%)
California 1% (less than 0.5%)
Australia 1% (1%)
Italy 1% (less than 0.5%)
Portugal 1% (less than 0.5%)
Spain 1% (0.5%)
England 1% (less than 0.5%)
Lebanon 0.5% (less than 0.5%)
Rhone less than 0.5% (0.5%)
and small numbers of bottles from Hungary, Greece, Chile and other French regions. I am proud to conclude that I am developing a wider taste in wines as I get more mature.

Of the Port, 65% (61%) is 21 years of age or older and therefore ready for drinking. 87% (89%) of the Port containers are bottles, 9% (8%) are 50cl or smaller, 3% (3%) are magnums or larger.

The average age of the Port is 36 years and 249 days (compared with 34 years and 185 days when I first did the calculation at the end of 2016). Apparently, my Port gains 1 year of average age every 2 years and 277 days.

62% (68%) of the containers hold Vintage Port, 25% (25%) Single Quinta Vintage Port, 4% (6%) LBV, 1% (1%) is crusted, 2% (<0.5%) is white and 4% (<0.5%) is tawny or Colheita.

The top 5 shippers in my cellar are Vesuvio 13% (15%), Taylor 9% (less than 5%), Graham 8% (8%), Warre 7% (8%) and Quinta do Noval 7% (less than 5%).

The top 5 vintages are 1994 7% (7%), 2011 7% (-), 1963 6% (10%), 2000 5% (less than 5%) and 1997 4% (6%). There are 787 (409) different Ports in the cellar waiting to be consumed.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
MigSU
Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by MigSU »

Brilliant statistics. Fun!
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Some pointless tasting statistics about my imbibing in 2022.

In 2022 I tasted (or drank) from 763 different containers of Port or pretend-Port. Some containers were small (5cl) and some were large (18,000 litres). Most were between these extremes. My previous record number of tasting notes was 532 in 2017 so my retirement is paying dividends!

The oldest wine I tasted in 2022 was the 1872 Bom Retiro. There were 8 other 19th century wines included in my tasting.

The average age of the vintage dated wines tasted was 40 years, which is the perfect age for a Vintage Port to show well. The average age of the VPs was 44.

- 459 of the Ports were Ruby (24 ruby or ruby reserve, 31 LBV, 6 crusted, 60 SQVP, 338 VP).
- 196 of the Ports were Tawny (15 tawny or tawny reserve, 40 10YO, 25 20YO, 9 30YO, 13 40YO, 12 50YO, 3 +80YO, 79 colheita).
- 90 of the Ports were White (21 white or white reserve, 24 10YO, 5 20YO, 5 30YO, 6 40YO, 5 50YO, 24 colheita)
- 8 of the Ports were Garrafeira
- 3 of the Ports were Pink
- 7 of the Ports were not strictly Port (3 South Africa, 2 Douro Moscatel, 1 Quinado, 1 Cyprus Port)

The best wine I tasted was the Quinta do Noval Nacional 1931 drunk in February, which I gave 100 points and promptly burst into tears. The worst the Quinta de Vale da Figueira Dry White NV - just don't drink it unless you use it in a cocktail, in which case it's rather nice.

216 of the 763 Ports were new to me and were wines I've not tasted before. Of this 216, 84 were Vintage Ports I've not tasted before. The most satisfying of these was Smith Woodhouse 1992 (a bucket list wine) and the most interesting Dow 1947.

I'm still looking for a bottle of Smith Woodhouse 1963. If anyone knows where I might be able to get one, please let me know...
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
MigSU
Warre’s Otima 10 year old Tawny
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by MigSU »

Wait, I didn't give you any Val da Figueira whites, did I? I think I still have a couple of those dry whites (along with some extra dry whites) laying about. I've opened a few, and they are indeed tasty as cocktail fodder.
CPR 1
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by CPR 1 »

Having missed 2021, I will again contribute an update to Pointless Statistics :)

Unlike my last update in early 2021 I find my cellar seems to have grown again. This is partly a result that surprisingly consumption reduced by 10% compared to 2021!

I again managed to sample 31 vintages from the cellar, which ranged between 1927 and 2017. Bottles shipped by Graham made up 18% of this followed by Fonseca and Taylor. 1970 and 77 vintages were the most consumed, with 1994 a distant 3rd (while some of the G 2015 LBV never made it to the cellar!).

As at the end of 2022 the shippers in my cellar are:

Fonseca 14% (13% 2020)
Graham 14% (12%)
Taylor 12% (13%)
Warre 9% (10%)
Dow 9% (9%)
Vesuvio 5% (6%)

With the vintages being still led by 1977 12% (13%), 2011 8% (9%) and 1994 6% (7%)

I find that 44% of the Port in the cellar by volume is > 30 years old and 63% of the Port > 21 years old

Overall I am surprised at the stability of my stats
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uncle tom
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by uncle tom »

Nearly twenty years ago now, I has this little idea..
..that it would be fun to create a port cellar that could yield a centenarian bottle of VP every year in perpetuity

- There's been a bit of mission creep since then.. :roll:

With the 1924's now turning 100 I now have over 100 bottles (107 to be precise) of VP that are 100 or more years old.

In 2023 I actually managed to drink more VP than I bought, but compensated on the LBV front, bringing my total number of bottles of LBV to 871
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly - W.S. Churchill
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Tom, thank you for the prompt, your post reminded me that I haven't posted my pointless statistics for 2023 yet!

For ease, I've kept the comparison of the end 2023 statistics against 2012's numbers.

On 31 December 2023, my cellar comprised of the following (with 2012 figures in brackets)
Port 86% (91%)
Bordeaux 3% (3%)
South Africa 2% (0.5%)
Champagne 1% (2%)
California 1% (less than 0.5%)
Australia 1% (1%)
Italy 1% (less than 0.5%)
Portugal 1% (less than 0.5%)
Spain 1% (0.5%)
England 1% (less than 0.5%)
Lebanon less than 0.5% (less than 0.5%)
Rhone less than 0.5% (0.5%)
and small numbers of bottles from Hungary, Greece, Chile and other French regions. The only change since the end of last year is the reduction in the proportion of my cellar coming from Lebanon - moving from 0.5% to "less than 0.5%". I'll drop it from next year's statistics unless I acquire more.

Of the Port, 67% (61%) is 21 years of age or older and therefore ready for drinking. 88% (89%) of the Port containers are bottles, 9% (8%) are 50cl or smaller, 3% (3%) are magnums or larger.

The average age of the Port is 39 years and 292 days (compared with 34 years and 185 days when I first did the calculation at the end of 2016).

60% (68%) of the containers hold Vintage Port, 25% (25%) Single Quinta Vintage Port, 6% (<0.5%) is tawny or Colheita, 4% (6%) LBV, 1% (1%) is crusted, 2% (<0.5%) is white and 2% (0%) is other things (like advent calendars and tasting kits).

The top 5 shippers in my cellar are Vesuvio 13% (15%), Taylor 8% (less than 5%), Graham 8% (8%), Quinta do Noval 8% (less than 5%) and Warre 7% (8%).

The top 5 vintages are 2011 7% (none in 2012, obviously), 1994 7% (7%), 1963 5% (10%), 2000 5% (less than 5%) and 1997 4% (6%). There are 800 (409) different Ports in the cellar waiting to be consumed.
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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uncle tom
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by uncle tom »

The average age of the Port is 39 years and 292 days (compared with 34 years and 185 days
Average age of VP in my cellar is currently 36 years, 10 months, 7 days, 13 hours and 32 minutes

I have 389 bottles of VP that are older than I am and 1080 bottles that are over 50 years old
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly - W.S. Churchill
PhilW
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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Re: Pointless Statistics

Post by PhilW »

At the of the start of 2024, my cellar comprises the following (2021 values in brackets for comparison):

Port by type:
87% Vintage/SQVP (82%)
3% LBV (6%)
2% Crusted (3%)
8% Tawny/colheita/white (9%)

Vintage port by shipper:
The producers with highest representation for VP in my cellar are Warre, Fonseca and Churchill (previously Warre, Fonseca, Graham)

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

The most notable changes in the detail of the last couple of years are:
- a notable reduction in LBV (drinking the cellar defenders).
- a notable increase in Churchill - and indeed also a notable increase in '82s, can't think why...
- a flatter general spread across producers and years (peaks excepted) than previously.
- Dow continues to be anomalously under-represented, due to me drinking it every time I try to rectify the issue.
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