My buddy Steve is finally graduating med school after many years of hard work. I’d like to get him a decent bottle of port - my budget is right around $40. I am far from an expert. Any ideas of a commonly-available port that’ll fit the bill?
For that price range I’d suggest Graham’s Six Grape. I assume you are wanting a .750 as opposed to a split, so $40 is the challenge. In the price range you are looking for a ruby port or a vintage character. Do you know his favorite port house? If you’ve heard him talking about a specific one, most Rubys are roughly the same price range with vintage character being a bit more. Sorry, no easy answers.
My tastes always gravitate to Tawny. One problem with Port is there are few places I can find that have much of a selection. We like the Fonseca, but they are under your price point for the most part.
Ramos Pinto 10 year should be right about what you want to spend or perhaps a touch more, but in truth I haven’t seen if for sale anywhere near me in quite some time.
Sounds like I need to man up and spring for a better bottle! :D Price aside, what else is good? I’m mainly a beer guy myself, so I’m kind of out of my element here.
“Donny, you’re out of your element here!”
This is my favorite “Port”. Not expensive. Really good.
If the link doesn’t work, goto Justinwine.com and look for Obtuse in dessert wines.
My wife likes the Taylor Fladgate 20 year tawny. We opened a bottle of Warre’s 20 year last night. Pretty good.
Taylor Fladgate LBV is solid for a budget pick.
Best port I ever had was a 2003 Vintage from Sandeman. Bought in Porto. Drank it by the fire pit in Chicago years later.
If you have the time, make your own.i made a chocolate raspberry port a few years back and it was awesome.
I was going to suggest the Taylor Fladgate or the Bin Fonseca.
+1 I prefer a tawny port myself. You should be able to get a 10 year old tawny for around $40. A 20 year old will run you in the $60 range.
I know this has little to do with the OP’s question, but indulge me, I like thinking about this…
When I first discovered that I really liked Port, it coincided with the issue of Wine Spectator that hailed 1994 as the “Port vintage of the century.” There were 4, 100 point wines and many 95 and above. I bought 3 of the 4 100 point wines (the 4th was ~$500) and finished out a case with 95 pointers and above. It is sitting at the bottom of my cellar at 53* waiting for a retirement party - about 10 more years.
Nice. The bottles we brought back from Portugal did not last but a few years.
So we will have to go back. I believe the bottle of Warre’s we opened last week is a 96 pointer. Very tasty and lighter than the Taylor Fladgate. But the wife loves the TF.
I have no input for this topic other than every time I read a comment I think that if the weather is really bad, any sample will be good.
In addition to buying a bottle now, I’d like to give this a shot soon. Did you use a kit? It would be great to do up a batch and see how it develops over the years.
Every time I read a thread like this I just envision my wallet opening up and dollar bills (or 20’s, in reality) just flying out. I haven’t had a port in ages, but when I smoked cigars I drank quite a bit. Port is a great pairing with many Nicaraguan cigars, which often have a nice, red wine character to them.
I recall Fonseca and Sandeman being the ones I drank most often (possibly because they were the ones I had easiest access too, it’s been a long time so I can’t be too sure).
Sademan is typically the easiest to get. Fonseca is pretty easy too. My wife and I drink port every Christmas eve and through the rest of the holiday. We generally have 6-10 bottles at any given time. What we have found is we don’t care for Noval and as far as just nice to drink the Fonseca is great. The Ramos was a find back in the day and I didn’t realize exactly what I had found. It is pretty darn nice, but like I mentioned I haven’t seen it around in forever.
I’ve got some unfinished Sandeman Ruby that’s been sitting in my cabinet for perhaps several years. I much preferred the Tawny. When I make sausage I’ve been subbing the Ruby for red wine.
What is y’alls opinion about the longevity of an opened bottle? It’s hard for me to consume an entire bottle- even over the course of a week.
Years is a little long for an open bottle. But they will keep fine for a couple weeks IMO. Beyond that, not so sure.
Sandeman is not readily available where I shop. TF, Fonseca, Warre’s. Sometimes Noval. I’ve laid down vintages from the birth years of my kids, but unfortunately 2009 was not a vintage year. I will have to get Bordeaux or else a Colheita for that year.
Yes.
I’ve gone years with open bottles (corked of course). The Tawny aging is essentially an oxidation process in wood so I’ve never felt bad about keeping open bottles around. I’ve never had a bottle of port go off, probably a combination of alcohol and the fact the wine is already oxidized.
Yes, it was a kit. I think it was about 6-8 years ago and I still have a couple bottles.