ThePortForum.com

Good Evening,

I've joined the forum in desperate search for help!
My only experience of Port is at countless mess dinners of which I can not remember many. I am looking to purchase a 2010 bottle of port. Preferably I would like to lay this bottle down for 10-15 years, however as I'm a complete novice and I may have naively thought this possible then I'm also happy to buy a bottle and open it in 2016!
I have searched endless sights and have only been able to find a bottle of Quinta do Vesuvio, 2010. Is this a good one to purchase?! I am riskily going to say that I do not have a budget, however this may change!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Hi,

Quinta do Vesuvio is generally fabulous in any year, the 2010 being no exception.

Why are you planning to open it in 2016? Vintage Port, and especially good quality vintage port, benefits from at least 10-15 years in the bottle and preferably one, two, three, four or five decades more.

If you explain the purpose we might be able to suggest alternatives that would give a better drinking experience.

Derek

ppurplecc wrote:I've joined the forum in desperate search for help!

No problem, welcome to , you've come to the right place

ppurplecc wrote:My only experience of Port is at countless mess dinners of which I can not remember many. I am looking to purchase a 2010 bottle of port. Preferably I would like to lay this bottle down for 10-15 years, however as I'm a complete novice and I may have naively thought this possible then I'm also happy to buy a bottle and open it in 2016!

Vintage Port generally starts to be "ready" at 20+ years, so a 2010 port opened in 15 years from now would probably be just ready, though would still improve with more time.

ppurplecc wrote:I have searched endless sights and have only been able to find a bottle of Quinta do Vesuvio, 2010. Is this a good one to purchase?! I am riskily going to say that I do not have a budget, however this may change!

2010 is a year in which very few port producers declared a vintage (i.e. it was not generally a great year for port), so the Quinta do Vesuvio may well be your best option if you want that specific year.

As Derek has said, if you let us know a little more about why 2010, or perhaps 2016 are significant, we might be able to suggest some further options for you.

Do you want to buy port for years from now, or would you like to buy something that's ready to drink? I'm guessing you may have had fairly decent ports in the mess, which have been cellared for some time.

2011 is the vintage everyone is clamoring to buy for cellaring.

Thanks for all your replies. I apologise for such a slow reply!

I would like to lay down a bottle from 2010 as this was the year that my partner commissioned into the Royal Navy. I'd love for it to be a bottle that we could drink in 15-20 years, perhaps once he has retired. Any suggestions for this would be greatly welcomed.

Drinking the bottle in 2016 was only if I had completely mis-understood the length you lay a bottle down for and it had to be opened earlier but from reading your comments the above plan of 15-20 years would be possible.

A bottle of Quinta do Vesuvius 2010 for 64.95 pounds is the only 2010 that I can track down. Perhaps this is due to the bad year that you mentioned them having? Should I go ahead and purchase the Quinta or are there others out there?

Thanks very much

ppurplecc wrote:A bottle of Quinta do Vesuvius 2010 for 64.95 pounds is the only 2010 that I can track down. Perhaps this is due to the bad year that you mentioned them having? Should I go ahead and purchase the Quinta or are there others out there?

I can only see a couple of other options easily available in the UK, but the Vesuvio (not Vesuvius) will likely be much better, I would go with that. Since you're London-based, you could potentially drop by Hedonism who look like they currently have them in stock at £61.20 per bottle and you would be able to buy one directly avoiding additional delivery costs.

I realise you've been talking about buying a single bottle; one extra note - if you buy 6 of the Vesuvio, they come in a very nice looking presentation case; when you open the first one on retirement, you would also have 5 more to enjoy over the subsequent years.

Quinta do Vesuvio is probably the best of the ports you can buy from the 2010 vintage. A quick look at wine searcher (www.wine-searcher.com) reveals that Four Walls Wine Company in Chilworth has some available for a shade under £50 per bottle. If you fancy a nice drive to the South Downs, Chilworth is a lovely place to visit - or you could order via the internet.

If you talk nicely to the folks at Four Walls you might even be able to persuade them to let you have an empty case for the bottle you buy, especially if you intended to buy more over the next few years until you had a full case of six bottles.

Thank you all very much for your help.
I'm taking your advice and travelling to purchase several bottles of Quinta do Vesuvio this weekend.

I look forward to drinking them in years to come,

Thanks again

A great conclusion to the thread - I really hope you both enjoy these bottles. Please come back and let us know your experiences from time to time!