ThePortForum.com

Just an idle question. I wondered what other VP drinkers buy for their cellars.. Do you find that port consumes all your passions, or is it just a corner of your wine collection? I find that I don't baulk at paying for bottles of port but would think twice about paying the same for (say) red wine. Perhaps port just seems like more of a special thing...

What are other forum users' thoughts?

DJ

About 90% of my bottles are Port, with Madeira and Sauternes being the bulk of the remainder.

i have 8 racks in my cellar of about 800 bottles now

4 of them is port
2 of them is california reds
1 of them is french/austrailia/spanish
and last one is champagne and pinot.

Port is 45% of my cellar. 39% is from California. The remainder is almost all French. My cellar contains approx. 2000 bottles. One can never have too much Port!

I'm always interested that people talk in percentage terms by reference to number of corks, as opposed to value (whether acquisition price or "market" value) or percentage of budget allocated.

Thanks to the relative underpricing of port, my cellar looks very different depending on which way you look at it!

OK. You know I love an excuse for a good burst of statistics, so here I go - gives me a distraction from work during my lunch hour:

Counting Bottle Stoppers
92% of my containers hold Port
3% hold Bordeaux
2% hold Champagne
1% hold Aussie table wines
No other single region accounts for more than 0.5% of my containers

By Volume
92% is Port
4% is Bordeaux
2% is Champagne
1% is Aussie

By Acquisition Cost
92% is Port
4% is Bordeaux
1% is Champagne
1% is Aussie

By Replacement Cost
88% is Port
8% is Bordeaux
1% is Champagne
1% is Aussie

I guess all this really shows is the crazy jump in value of some of the wines from Bordeaux in the last few years and the fact that Port has not increased in value quite so much.

RAYC wrote:I'm always interested that people talk in percentage terms by reference to number of corks, as opposed to value (whether acquisition price or "market" value) or percentage of budget allocated.

Thanks to the relative underpricing of port, my cellar looks very different depending on which way you look at it!

the few first growths i have that i bought on release seriously skew the values towards single rack! I still look in shock that only 6 years ago I was able to buy Lafite for 120$/btl

that single rack of bdx/spansih/aus
has Penfolds Grange, L'ermita, Lafite, Mouton, Barca Vehla, Qd Vale Meao, Haut Brion, Calon Segur, La Conseillante and Pontet Canet
and would slightly exceed the value of my port racks.

would say port comprises less than 20% of my collection. Cali cabs, french bdx and Italian piedmont region (nebbiolo grape specifically) lead the pact for me I would imagine.

I would estimate the port accounts for ~8% of my cellar, and 98% of that is vintage port (a few bottles of 'Black' are served at informal/novice gatherings).

The remainder comprises:
Bordeaux (28%)
Burgundy (20%)
Champagne (20%)
Rhone (15%)
Piedmonte (10%)
Mosel (5%)
California / Other (5%)

This is fascinating stuff! I'm now curious to know to what extent you all buy port primarily to drink, or as an investment... I suppose, if I'm lucky, I have about 10,000 days left, which probably makes me think there's only so many bottles of port it's worth me buying (and I'm not even close to a fraction of that figure yet!)

There's also the question of how much space I have available for a cellar - although I could always do some minimal conversions to that outhouse and suddenly expand my cellar capacity a hundredfold..

And finally there's the question of getting port in Belfast. I think there are probably two realistic options for me, in terms of dealers who will deliver here, if I'm willing to buy by the case (or near enough). I sent an order six days ago and the merchant hasn't even acknowledged receipt of it yet.. I'm beginning to get a little worried!

djewesbury wrote:And finally there's the question of getting port in Belfast. I think there are probably two realistic options for me, in terms of dealers who will deliver here, if I'm willing to buy by the case (or near enough).

I don't know whether or not they will deliver to Belfast, but there is a Berry Bros & Rudd in Dublin that has a very nice selection.

I haven't done the math because I don't track non-Port, but I would guess that my cellar is over 90% Port. The bulk of the remainder is Douro red wine for my wife, with a handful of other dessert wines in the mix for fun. Cellartracker says I have 400-odd bottles of Port. 40-odd bottles of non-Port sounds about right since the small fridge for the Douro reds holds a max of 42 bottles and isn't completely full.

Of course I'm not counting several cases of red wine that are just sitting in boxes on the floor in the dining room and living room. Those come and go frequently enough that I don't bother to track them at all.

I buy to drink not to sell. Sometimes prior purchases increase in value between purchase and drinking window to a level where I only keep 1 or 2 bottles and sell the rest to buy more wine.

Let' see...94% of my cellar is Port with the remainder being being First Growths/Cali reds/Burgs. The other 6% (non-Port) tends to cycle through rather quickly and forms the basis of much of my day-to-day drinking (with meals ect.). With that being said, I also tend to open quite a few Single Quinta wines during the week, but I try to hold off poping the fully declared wines until the weekend/offlines when I can fully appreciate them.

djewesbury wrote:This is fascinating stuff! I'm now curious to know to what extent you all buy port primarily to drink, or as an investment... I suppose, if I'm lucky, I have about 10,000 days left, which probably makes me think there's only so many bottles of port it's worth me buying (and I'm not even close to a fraction of that figure yet!)

There's also the question of how much space I have available for a cellar - although I could always do some minimal conversions to that outhouse and suddenly expand my cellar capacity a hundredfold..

And finally there's the question of getting port in Belfast. I think there are probably two realistic options for me, in terms of dealers who will deliver here, if I'm willing to buy by the case (or near enough). I sent an order six days ago and the merchant hasn't even acknowledged receipt of it yet.. I'm beginning to get a little worried!

I buy purely to drink, and the issue of storage is one which was easily solved by asking the wine merchants who I buy from to store the stuff for me (often in bond). While I'd love to convert an outhouse into a storage facility, it just isn't going to happen. So I have a modest 160 bottle wine storage cabinet in the garage where I keep my bottles for current drinking and leave the rest offsite. I do have the advantage over you in that it's relatively easy for me to get port delivered, but I think the places where I keep my port (Berry Brothers, Seckfords, Octavian) will all deliver to Northern Ireland but take more time and charge a little more to do so. Or you could always drive over and collect them if that's easier.

differentdave wrote:Mosel (5%)

At least someone with some taste. I know why I always liked you, Chris.

Axel P wrote:

chris doty wrote:Mosel (5%)

At least someone with some taste. I know why I always liked you, Chris.

some people like the smell of petrol in their wines.

others like it in their cars.

Axel P wrote:

differentdave wrote:Mosel (5%)

At least someone with some taste. I know why I always liked you, Chris.

Haha. Thanks Axel -- happy to pop some bottles when we next have a chance to catch up.

My 5% number may have gone up slightly since I posted, as I've been successful at a few auctions lately, generally scooping up some under-priced 1983 Auslese. Woo woo woo

g-man wrote:

Axel P wrote:

chris doty wrote:Mosel (5%)

At least someone with some taste. I know why I always liked you, Chris.

some people like the smell of petrol in their wines.

others like it in their cars.

And some people like the smell of tar in their wines

others like it on their roads.

SNACKY