Any port drinkers?

Yes I’d read about this as well but haven’t done any kind of comparison, mainly that would mean opening a few bottles at the same time, a lot of port to get through! And there would be vintage, shipper and bottle variation.
Post 2000, I had a 2013 Graham Crusted last night which was good, lots of fruit and not much sign of age, no spirity-ness. Likewise with a Croft Roeda 2018 recently . I’ve had Gr 2007 a few years ago and felt it was closed, so I’m going to stick to my rule of thumb of not opening VP between 5 and 20 years old.
One thing I’ve noticed with older ports is sometimes there is an off smell that goes away with some air but I don’t know what causes that

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Im not really a port drinker but I do like it on the rare occasion, so I just purchased the society’s crusted port.

It says to decant it, which is where my question is, can I decant some and leave the rest In the bottle, and how long does a stored opened bottle of port last?

Also how long should you decant/rest port for? Ive read 2-3hrs.

Ive always purchased port from the supermarket and just poured straight from the bottle and then stored the bottle in the cupboard for 2-3 weeks or so.

Thanks

Crusted port should be treated as a young vintage port so this link should help. The whole bottle should be decanted IMO.

Decanting Vintage Port | | The Vintage Port Site

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I have a decanter but no stopper, so is it best if I decant whole bottle (leaving any sediment in bottle) and then wash out bottle to store any I don’t drink that day?

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AKA the “double-decant”. This should be fine.

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I agree.

If you check the video on the https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/the-societys-exhibition-crusted-port-bottled-2013 page Joanna Locke explicitly states that she double decanted it! I have the same bottle and that’s what I’ll do. I then figure on finishing the bottle by the new year.

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I have some Vacuvin stoppers as well so I will double decant and then seal it, Im sure it will only last a few days though, lol!

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To be honest, if you’re not keeping it long, I’d just re-cork it with the original cork. I’m always a bit twitchy about what else gets pumped away with the air in the vacuvin system. But that’s a conversation for another thread! :smiley:

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‘the fortifying spirit which, it is easy to forget, makes up 20% of the wine’

Easy to forget because it’s not true! The spirit brings alcohol up to 20% from whatever level the partial fermentation of the grapes reaches before it’s arrested by the addition of the spirit - in the range of 6 to 9% depending on sugar content of the grapes, which would mean spirit is 11 to 14% of the finished wine. Where’s the quotation from?

I do agree though about purity of fruit and approachability of the 2007s - Graham has been drinking beautifully for five years. And I also remember reading that particularly poor spirit quality in the 80s spoiled many 85s - which chimes with my experience of that disappointing vintage.

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In that case I’ll have to crack open another to see how its doing!

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Any excuse! :rofl:

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I am finding it awkward to follow this discussion. There appears to be some switching back and forth between the %age contents of the bottle in terms of volume, and the %age in terms of alcohol.

Sorry it’s getting confusing! Port is always 20% alcohol, give or take 1%. I don’t know how much aguardiente (the spirit used) is added but it is added early in the grape fermentation to make it 20%. Someone with better maths could work that out!
This gives a good description of the process- How Port wine is made, in pictures – Jamie Goode's wine blog

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I guess you’d only know for sure if you knew the abv of the wine pre-fortification and the abv of the fortifying spirit.

20% or more of the liquid contents of the bottle being spirit would seem plausible to me if the spirit is only at 40% abv.

Ive never decided if port gives worse hangovers because of its constituent parts or if (more likely) it’s because it’s often drunk on nights of general overindulgence.

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Definitely

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Present from my sister-in-law, who kindly brought this back from the lodge on a visit to Porto.


Perhaps not a desert island wine, but I can’t imagine anyone not liking this: nicely balanced, not too spirity nor too sweet, with a clean taste and a seasonally appropriate whiff of cloves on the nose. Terribly drinkable. Could recommend.

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You’re right of course, it depends on the abv of the spirit, which I’d assumed was near pure alcohol. But it turns out it’s required to be 77%. (Other fortified wines do use near pure alcohol for fortifying.)

If the fermentation is stopped when it’s reached 6% then it does indeed take 20% spirit to increase the final strength (coincidentally) to 20%. If the grapes give as much as 9% alcohol, then it’s 16% spirit in the final blend.

Interesting article here:

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How long should I decant the crusted port for before I decant back into bottle?

I was thinking 2hrs?

Just straight back I didn’t decant btw just strain last glass through your teeth

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