ThePortForum.com

Fonseca 85 lined up

Some halves of Sandeman Vau 2000. A Cockburn Crusted. A double-magnum of Sandeman Vau 2000.

A Dalva Colheita 1940 will accompany me to Christmas dinner (the in-laws prefer brown Port) and a Taylor 1980 will be waiting for me when I get home.

I plan top open and slowly drink a bottle of Vesuvio 2010.

Niepoort Colheita 1912 as this is - more or less - the last chance to drink this with 100 years.

Axel

Axel P wrote:Niepoort Colheita 1912 as this is - more or less - the last chance to drink this with 100 years.

Axel

Worry not.

Assuming the grapes were picked, pressed and fortified in harvest 1912, surely the "100 year old" window runs from harvest 2012 to harvest 2013?

Somewhat less dramatically than Axel I have a Croft 70 awaiting for Xmas.

We started opening bottles on the 15th December (it's rude not to) so far it's been a 63 Dow, 63 Taylor, 63 Croft, 63 Cockburn, 63 Noval and a nice little mystery bottle of a 35 Graham 3 days out and doubt we are going to top that now!

Cockburn 1950

For guzzling at home, I am midway through my last but one bottle of the year - a rather good Croft '70; to be followed by a Warre '60 after Xmas.

For my brother's Xmas party, I will be taking wine in the form of a couple of bottles of Cloudy Bay '12, a couple of bottles of NV bubbly (BBR own), a Palmer '85, a Grange '82 and a half bottle of Latour '55, together with a backup bottle of Mouton '70

Port will be Dow '55, and for a bit of amusement I'm going to pop an 1892 Malmsey..

Tonight we'll drink a Niepoort 1952 Garrafeira, thanks to StevieCage, and with Christmas at the in-laws it will be Calem 1977 (which is leaking so an obvious victim).

uncle tom wrote:For guzzling at home, I am midway through my last but one bottle of the year - a rather good Croft '70; to be followed by a Warre '60 after Xmas.

For my brother's Xmas party, I will be taking wine in the form of a couple of bottles of Cloudy Bay '12, a couple of bottles of NV bubbly (BBR own), a Palmer '85, a Grange '82 and a half bottle of Latour '55, together with a backup bottle of Mouton '70

Port will be Dow '55, and for a bit of amusement I'm going to pop an 1892 Malmsey..

mind letting me nkow hwo the grange 82 is

i've got a lone bottle and wondering how it is.

me nkow hwo the grange 82 is

Wlil od..

uncle tom wrote:

me nkow hwo the grange 82 is

Wlil od..

heh a party for 40 people, 10 magnums and 10 bottles, along with a whole morning of scrubbing pots/pans and dishes will do that

As will being g-man.

jdaw1 wrote:As will being g-man.

Hi,

sofar for Christmas I was opening only Taylor 2009 in order to try and potentially buying more. It was rather lovely and for my personal taste I fear I prefer this to 2003 . Sad is this means I will buy more.

Other than that after my ill mother asked me for some good wine/port (very good sign!!!!!!) I think of open a Grahams 1955. Also an Offley 60 is greeting from the drinking shelf...

regards

WS1

WS1 wrote: sofar for Christmas I was opening only Taylor 2009 in order to try and potentially buying more. It was rather lovely and for my personal taste I fear I prefer this to 2003 . Sad is this means I will buy more.

Wolfgang, please, when will my double magnums of Taylor 09 be ready? In my lifetime....?!

RAYC wrote:

WS1 wrote: sofar for Christmas I was opening only Taylor 2009 in order to try and potentially buying more. It was rather lovely and for my personal taste I fear I prefer this to 2003 . Sad is this means I will buy more.

Wolfgang, please, when will my double magnums of Taylor 09 be ready? In my lifetime....?!

If you ask me like this I think they are ready now

But I anyway thought you bought this for your chlidren or wedding......

Portwise this will last more than a lifetime; I suspect based on experiments I did with red wine in Magnum, double magnum and 5L format a double magnum of Taylor 2009 will be too young for your grand children; I am sorry to say!

Hmmm...so i've committed a chunk of cash now and (let's say) 50 years of storage fees for a wine that i'll never get to enjoy in its prime. Time to rethink my buying strategy!!

Having had some nice VP's around my birthday (1987 Warre Qta da Foz, and 1977 Pocas J), all I have left for X-mas is a 1991 Vargellas VP. Otherwise I'll be breaking my VP-year-limit for this year (which I installed only last year, so to be breaking this already will probably show my lack of VP-willpower somewhat too much)!

Any advice on how to justify breaking the VP-limit, without too much of a guilt feeling and explanation that it is not a lack of willpower, is most welcome!!

Anyway, a very merry x-mas to all of you,

Cheers

RAYC wrote:Hmmm...so i've committed a chunk of cash now and (let's say) 50 years of storage fees for a wine that i'll never get to enjoy in its prime. Time to rethink my buying strategy!!

Again I disagree with you! You bought something you feel will be the right thing. That you may not drink it in the end and have to leave it to your children, etc. which is in case unfortunate but still in my eyes you have done the right thing/decision. As you know I did do the same!
Generally short term thinking is a good idea/concept, but sometimes just idiotic and fundamentally wrong!
So nothing wrong with your buying strategy but potentially with funds available for further purchases.

RAYC wrote:Hmmm...so i've committed a chunk of cash now and (let's say) 50 years of storage fees for a wine that i'll never get to enjoy in its prime. Time to rethink my buying strategy!!

Not at all. Certain ports were made to be drunk youthful and fruity. Taylor 2009 in double magnum is clearly one of these. My advice would be for you to invite a few friends out to buy you dinner and you bring the wine. (Not too many friends though, need to make sure there's enough to go round.)

gerwin.degraaf wrote:Having had some nice VP's around my birthday (1987 Warre Qta da Foz, and 1977 Pocas J), all I have left for X-mas is a 1991 Vargellas VP. Otherwise I'll be breaking my VP-year-limit for this year (which I installed only last year, so to be breaking this already will probably show my lack of VP-willpower somewhat too much)!

Any advice on how to justify breaking the VP-limit, without too much of a guilt feeling and explanation that it is not a lack of willpower, is most welcome!!

Anyway, a very merry x-mas to all of you,

Cheers

This made me laugh. I know the feeling. I have two pieces of advice with regard to the limit:
(i) Consider it to be a guideline, not a limit. That way there is flexibility if you decide just one more bottle is needed.
(ii) When counting to see if you have stayed inside your limit, don't count bottles which you have repalced during the year. If you replace a bottle, the one you drank doesn't count towards the limit.

Or just go down to the shop, buy a bottle and drink that. Since this bottle was never put in your cellar it cannot count towards the limit!

Merry Christmas everyone.

jdaw1 wrote:Some halves of Sandeman Vau 2000. A Cockburn Crusted. A double-magnum of Sandeman Vau 2000.

2000 Sandeman Vau, half bottle and 2000 Sandeman Vau, double magnum.

'55 claret showed remarkbly well, despite lack of provenance..

Festivities interupted by my factory alarms going off, seventy miles from where I am now...

..keyholders and staff to the rescue - bless 'em..! Major accident on A603 has taken out power lines and blacked out half of west Cambridgeshire - hope they get their power back before the fun wears off....!

D55 fine, elegant drinking (as expected), drunk this late pm after the 1892 malmsey, which was good, but a tad rough by comparison; yet blew the novices away by virtue of its age..

..Cloudy Bay is such a reliable white, and eclipsed the bubbly - fizz is cheap, class is more expensive..

Grange scheduled for Xmas lunch - others may wait another year...!

Grange' 82 opened and emptied over a good Xmas lunch with indecent speed - I only got a modest glassful..

Fully mature, needs no more time, and very good - but is this one of the classic Granges, as Broadbent expected? - not wholly convinced..

..didn't seem to have the beef for really old bones, so one to enjoy sooner rather than later, I would suggest..

AHB wrote:

gerwin.degraaf wrote:Any advice on how to justify breaking the VP-limit, without too much of a guilt feeling and explanation that it is not a lack of willpower, is most welcome!!

This made me laugh. I know the feeling. I have two pieces of advice with regard to the limit:
(i) Consider it to be a guideline, not a limit. That way there is flexibility if you decide just one more bottle is needed.
(ii) When counting to see if you have stayed inside your limit, don't count bottles which you have repalced during the year. If you replace a bottle, the one you drank doesn't count towards the limit.

Or just go down to the shop, buy a bottle and drink that. Since this bottle was never put in your cellar it cannot count towards the limit!

(iii) Buy a bottle of Port as a gift for a good friend, with the condition that it must be shared with you immediately. Thusly, you get to drink the Port, you get to drink Port with a good friend, and you do not violate your limit as it is not your bottle of Port.

PhilW wrote:Somewhat less dramatically than Axel I have a Croft 70 awaiting for Xmas.

The Cr70 turned out to be spectacularly good
The bottle was purchased as a bit of a punt as it had no capsule, so for it to be *that* good was unexpected and extremely enjoyable; one of my top ten ports for this year!

Hello All ... belated Season's Greetings! Been trying a few inexpensive NV's, rubys, etc. intending to give them as gifts. Needless to say, only 1 made it into a bottle bag!
- Retried Fonseca Bin 27 - still really good value for the Fonseca lover.
- M&S 2005 LBV - again, good value though dies off like lightning after opening!!
- Bogle 2008 Petite Sirah (USA) - haven't cracked it yet
- Vallado 2009 Vintage - not touching it yet ... disappearing into the darkness for some time

Also Xmas day, had some Warre's 83 which tasted as if it had been decanted into a dumpster; never saw the opening, but either the decanter itself was filthy or my glass was. Disappointing indeed ... quite a waste of a good one!!
W. esq

uncle tom wrote:Grange' 82 opened and emptied over a good Xmas lunch with indecent speed - I only got a modest glassful..

Fully mature, needs no more time, and very good - but is this one of the classic Granges, as Broadbent expected? - not wholly convinced..

..didn't seem to have the beef for really old bones, so one to enjoy sooner rather than later, I would suggest..

preciate the note!

sounds like i need to stand my last bottle up