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Ok so straight back, I will try to remove as much sediment as I can though. Ive never had a “crusted port”, reading it, sounds like it will have quite a bit of sediment.
There will likely be sediment but it’ll probably be slightly gritty rather than sludgy, given it’s been in bottle for only 9 years
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As always with reading Community threads this has lead me to look at port in my local wine merchants and now has me hovering over buying one of their Grahams 2007 vintage ports reduced from £59.95 to £45. Quick trawl on the internet shows it’s a good price. Certainly a tad cheaper than the £180 they are asking for the Taylor’s 1992. My first ever TWS purchase EP was port but I chose the Fonseca 1992 which they used to stock but don’t have anymore ( but I do 
).
Decisions, decisions - why can I hear the Christmas ghost of Taffy on Tour warning me not to hesitate.
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DON’T BUY IT !!! This is the worst possible time to buy Port (you are the wrong side of supply and demand) - and a ‘reduced’ sticker is a sign of desperation, 2007 is unlikely to be ready to drink at it’s best.
Go large & pay £65 for TWS exhibition 1980, or go light and buy the Croft 2002 for £20 ish.
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Yes your options are interesting although I don’t think the local wine merchant is desperate. They do tend to reduce a couple of ports at Christmas and have a fairly large spread of shippers and vintages as standard stock. From previous comparison tastings I find Grahams to have a “sweeter” style to Fonseca and Taylor’s which I prefer. I did notice in their pull out wooden shelf’s they have for their ports and first/second class growth Bordeaux wine there were a couple of these in the Grahams shelf so I suspect they will still be there after Christmas even if the display ones disappear.
That said a friend did kindly give us £150 wine vouchers for their shop but they do have so many other nice wines to try I suspect something else will grab my attention. My second highest rated wine drink this year was a German Riesling which I bought from them to make a change to all the red I usually get.
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Personally I wouldn’t hesitate (on the Graham) at that price. Taylor 92 has never recovered from being rated 100 by Parker.
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I agree
They were £43 inc taxes when I bought en primeur in 2009, so 45 seems a good deal… but you can get older vintages for similar. I’ve noticed that theres no financial advantage of buying VP en primeur as most seem to fall in price until it gets really old/rare or gets Parkered (1992/1994). I generally only buy EP port if its the undeclared/single quinta years as they are often a fraction of the price but usually excellent; I wonder about the relevance of “declared years”
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Got an interesting New Year’s Eve surprise at a friends. He offered a port and he had a bottle of Graham’s LBV. My eyes popped when I looked at the bottle and he confirmed he had kept it a while as he had heard port improved with age. It was a 1996 vintage bottled in 2002. I wouldn’t recommend keeping an LBV that long but it was Ok if not perhaps a little bit muted to a younger port.
20 year old LBV to see 2022 out, who would have guessed that would have been one of my last drinks of the year.
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The 1980 Exhibition vintage was opened for New Years Eve. Regretfully (or perhaps a good thing) I cannot recall any details, except to say it was very good indeed & thoroughly enjoyed - absolutely perfect condition. Have bought a replacement bottle for next years NYE.
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Anyone who’d been hovering over joining Port Club, run by Churchill’s, might be interested to know it’s changing… moving from 4x deliveries pa down to 3 with a view to increasing quality/interest and reducing LBVs/10yo tawnies etc. The changes followed a feedback survey. Details here:
The first major change will be to the structure of Port.Club’s pack deliveries from quarterly shipments to 3 per year. This transition will allow us to premiumize and diversify the contents of our packs. It will allow more time to focus on club blends which have received great feedback and will enable us to invite new port mates to share their ports with you all, thus diversifying Port.Club’s range. This structural transition will take effect in January.
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Interesting article in the Telegraph today about the joys of Porto, where the writer is given a tour of the city by Anthony Symington. After discussions with Senhor Symington, he proffers the following advice:
“We went for a glass of white port, chilled, no less. What a revelation this drink was to be over subsequent days. Sweet and refreshing, invigorating and fun, the white port and tonic trend is here to stay, although we preferred it straight up. Another tip: drink all your port chilled. It brings a completely new experience to some of those overly sickly, ruby ports you may have consumed in Christmases past.”
I wonder if @lockej would agree that ALL port is best served chilled?
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I think tawny port is always better cool. And even vintage Port I quite like cellar cool.
Tawny yes, definitely chilled but have never chilled vintage port.
Neither have I, tempted to give it a go with one of the Exhibition 1980s sometime soon.
It depends on the vintage, younger fruitier vintages do better, I wouldn’t do it myself for 1977 or older, but everything else, why not? It tends to warm up if you leave the decanter in a heated room anyway. And I wouldn’t suggest ‘chilled’ as in a fridge, more cellar temperature.
Interesting to see thoughts on white port here. When we were kids [myself & 3 younger sisters], my mum several times drove us all the way down through Spain from Santander to stay with Portuguese friends at their wild & remote place on an orange farm near Tavira in the Algarve; and then all the way back again.
Her magic potion for controlling 4 kids on this journey and getting us off to sleep at night en route - white port with lemonade. As recommended by all good doctors :~}
I’ve loved it ever since!
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I’d guess it makes more sense in a country where the average temperature is above 10C.