ThePortForum.com

Asda online (I do not know about their branches) have Dow's Crusted Port on sale reduced from £18.00 to £13.50. They are coy as to the bottling date (the image would suggest 2003 or 2005 - the last number is partially obscured), but it may well be a later bottling. I have ordered some as future cel...

The Royal Escort is the standard VP style port (and occasionally they apparently declare that vintage from time to time). It was excellent, and good enough that I splashed out on a bottle (a decision potentially helped by an afternoon of wine tasting!). Prices of wines in California vs Europe are ge...

I recently visited a friend who has moved out from San Francisco to Napa and obviously undertook some wine tastings while there. One of the highlights for me was the Prager tasting rooms, where they produce what they call port (stylistically to me it was a very good version of a port style wine). Wh...

More great stuff thanks! I really appreciate specific opportunities for purchases so the Sandeman LBV is a good call, I'll keep an eye out for that. Where would I even start with the 1970/80s Colheitas? Is this an auction play or direct from the producers? I have no idea how to go about that, so far...

Congratulations, I've always found the team there a pleasure to deal with, long may it continue!

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In some sense, I use 40yo Tawny Port as a cellar defender because my cellar contains so much very old Tawny Port. When your "next" option is something from the 1960s, 1950s, or 1940s, a mere 40yo starts to look like a frugal choice. On the ruby side, it's by value for me. I have some very inexpensi...

This is all very helpful, thanks! I wonder if it's worth having a "cellar defenders" thread on here for non-VP bargains that have cropped up in supermarkets or online? Thoughts? I agree that it's about getting a range of options, I'm a fan of LBVs for a low budget bottle that I can crack open when I...

Having spoken to a few (Julian in particular) about the idea of cellar defenders, I have been having a dig around for options. Sadly my local M&S isn't carrying their 2007 own label VP, but I've seen another couple of intriguing options: https://www.waitrosecellar.com/all-offers/taylors-quinta-de-va...

I would be interested pending a date I can make, but would need to adopt as well. If I can manage both of those things then I'd definitely be interested!

Complex and spicy, red fruit and plums. Not as tannic as others, might be one for early drinking, it's very enjoyable right now! V good. (I have the rest of the bottle but haven't had the chance to try again yet, but as soon as I do I'll add further notes) Further tasting this evening reveals a lay...

I have finally had time to add my tasting notes, it was enjoyable to review the various ports that I'd tried! Thanks for those who organised and sourced the ports, it was extremely enlightening to a relative VP novice (certainly in terms of tasting young ports) such as myself, and I was grateful to ...

Sadly my notes are very brief on this, they say "this is lovely, see if you can track it down - delicious". This this may have been one of my last tastes of the night!

Big vanilla and dark fruit aroma. Masses of fruit on the palate, red fruit and black cherries. Lots of pepper and spice and really balanced tannins. Excellent. (Nb I was fortunate to take the remains of a half bottle of this home, and a couple of days later it had opened up further and was delicious...

Deep and complex, very drinkable, dark fruit on the nose. Plenty of fruit and tannins in the palate, long finish with the fruit really shining through. V good.

Lots of red fruit, dark cherry and liquorice on the palate. Balanced with this is a heavy tannin. Chewy. Good

Sweet red cherry nose. Chocolate and red cherry on the palate, doesn't have the depth of others. Ok

Easy drinking, lighter fruits and not much depth to it but enjoyable nonetheless. Light to medium levels of tannins. Good

Plum and chocolate on the nose. Very enjoyable deep, dark fruits. Complex with a lovely tannic structure. Very good.

Fruity nose. Not as fruity on the palate (red fruits mostly), but heavy, grippy tannins. Quite bitter in the back, certainly not easy drinking. Not convincing right now, but could age well. Ok.

Redcurrants and berries. Citric with decent tannins. Not massively complex but drinkable. Good

Redcurrants and strawberries, the mouth is dominated by the grippy tannins. Not overly impressed as it's fairly closed right now, when it opens up it might be excellent. Ok

Lovely red berries and dark cherries, lots of tannic structure, nicely balanced. Not extremely complex but reasonably so - not quite hitting the heights of the Stone Terraces. V good to excellent

Delicious! Red fruits on the nose. Loads of dark fruits - black cherries and plums, a little spice. Good tannin structure, strong but not dominating the fruit, wonderfully balanced. Having read some of the scores for this port I was unsurprised when this was revealed as the Stone Terraces. Excellent.

Some chocolate alongside plum on the delightfully full aroma. Plum dominates the palate alongside other dark fruits and yet more dark chocolate. Maybe the aroma promises more depth than I'm getting in the taste, but this is enjoyable drinking. V good.

Some dark fruits, cranberries, chocolate and spice. Strongly dominated by the tannins in the mouthfeel. Quite closed, but opened up with more time in the glass. Potential.