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Yes Daniel I have the patience and the dedication to go abroad to obtain stocks!

I'll try to keep a few, but meanwhile they will help keep my sticky paws off some of the wines I really should allow to age a little more.

Agreeing with Daniel: tip-top cellar defenders.

djewesbury wrote:Rubbish corks in the Vau - centre stripped with a good corkscrew, necessitated some jiggling (and joggling) to get the remnant out of the bottle.

Try rotating the top of the neck of the next bottle in the steam from a boiling kettle when you get a stuck cork like this. I find it makes a huge difference as to whether the cork comes out intact or not.

If you do this, don't forget to allow the glass to cool before you decant!

AHB wrote:

djewesbury wrote:Rubbish corks in the Vau - centre stripped with a good corkscrew, necessitated some jiggling (and joggling) to get the remnant out of the bottle.

Try rotating the top of the neck of the next bottle in the steam from a boiling kettle when you get a stuck cork like this. I find it makes a huge difference as to whether the cork comes out intact or not.

If you do this, don't forget to allow the glass to cool before you decant!

I would have done this if I'd suspected it was a sticky cork. Perhaps it's a good precaution with supermarket bottles anyway.

World duty free at Heathrow T2 has Kopke 10yo tawny as their only port for sale. I forget exactly how much it was, but £20ish is what comes to mind.

I've just noticed that in my local Sainsbury the TTD Vintage Port is now the 1998 vintage, still supplied by SFE. Anyone tried this yet?

The only clue as to what this could be is a reference on the back label that this comes from "the upper Douro Valley". Could this be a clue that this is the Vesuvio? If it is, £20 for this port represents great value for money. If it is SdR then it is still very fair value.

AHB wrote:The only clue as to what this could be is a reference on the back label that this comes from "the upper Douro Valley".

The entire port-producing region is in "the upper Douro Valley". It could be Vesuvio, or it could be from a vineyard west of Regua. We might never know. The important thing is what it tastes like, and I assume you will be telling us later this evening?

AHB wrote:I've just noticed that in my local Sainsbury the TTD Vintage Port is now the 1998 vintage, still supplied by SFE. Anyone tried this yet?

Yes, and I think my note was a bit mean. I had two bottles of it and the one I left to settle down and gave a bit more decant time showed a little better. O am no judge of young ports but this seemed OK, the 03 TTD was better though.

Edit; As to the precise location of the vineyard I would need to try it once more to pinpoint it exactly...

Just in case the pricing is keen and the storage conditions don't appear too risky, Amazon UK have GM2001 in tomorrow's deals of the day.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007 ... 7_6a9fcff1

SCP wrote:Just in case the pricing is keen and the storage conditions don't appear too risky, Amazon UK have GM2001 in tomorrow's deals of the day.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007 ... 7_6a9fcff1

At £24 per bottle that wasn't a compelling price, perhaps fair at best.

Not good enough to buy, yes.
Interesting that Taylor 20yo is on tomorrow as well.

Local Tesco had Graham 30yo tawny at £35 as part of the stock reduction, presumably continued from a month ago.

SCP wrote:Local Tesco had Graham 30yo tawny at £35 as part of the stock reduction, presumably continued from a month ago.

Sadly ours does not.

As of last night our local Sainsbury now has the 25% off for 6 bottles or more running, though very few port-specific discounts.
Morrisons has Graham Crusted reduced at £14/btl; current year seems to be 2004 (vs 2006 at Sainsbury), though I was also able to find an odd bottle of 2002 as well.

Ocado have 25% off 6 - bought some QdN unfiltered LBV 2008 down to £15.

As expected, Waitrose now also have 25% off 6.

There are some interesting promotions at Waitrose at the moment:
Optima 10yo 50cl £9.59
Taylor 10yo £17
Sandeman 20yo £30
Graham 20yo £27.36
Vargellas 2002 £25
FG 1998 £24
Warre LBV 2003 £15

I do like the Warre LBV, and a good price

M+S. 1995 Taylor's QdTF at £22.50 (25% off from £30). Curiously, offer is to buy 2, which usually means 2 cases of either 6 or 12, but I only had to buy 2 bottles. I bought 6 (which gives the advantage of free named day delivery order total being over £100).

DaveRL wrote:M+S. 1995 Taylor's QdTF at £22.50 (25% off from £30). Curiously, offer is to buy 2, which usually means 2 cases of either 6 or 12, but I only had to buy 2 bottles. I bought 6 (which gives the advantage of free named day delivery order total being over £100).

Thanks Dave. Also picked up 6 of these.

Waitrose has a few offers on port, the most notable being the Warre LBV thingy for £14.86. They also have a few single quinta wines (Taylor and Fonseca) and the twenty year old Sandeman tawny for £30. I thought the Sandeman 20yo was supposed to be good but I have never tried it.

LGTrotter wrote:I thought the Sandeman 20yo was supposed to be good but I have never tried it.

Those with a taste for the brown sticky stuff say it is up there with the best of them. Knock yourself out

LGTrotter wrote:Waitrose has a few offers on port, the most notable being the Warre LBV thingy for £14.86. They also have a few single quinta wines (Taylor and Fonseca) and the twenty year old Sandeman tawny for £30. I thought the Sandeman 20yo was supposed to be good but I have never tried it.

Sandeman is very good, but that price seems a tad high. Here in the States I pay about $40 on average.

Aldi have Maynard's 2011 unfiltered LBV at £9.99.

Aldi have an amazing value for money Maynard's 40Y Aged tawny Port for just £29.99. I have just got a couple of bottles, but not tried it yet. I did have a few bottles of their xmas release last year, which was a very lovely 30Y tawny for £30 and I hope this to be even nicer. They also have a Maynard's 1989 Vintage port for £19.99. and a Maynard's 10Y Tawny for £9.99.
Has anyone had a Maynard's VP port before, and if so, would they recommend?

Simon