Individual bottles of vintage port for sale

[meinthesea]

I have the following individual bottles of vintage port to sell:

2 x Warre's 1983
2 x Dow's 1983
2 x Quarles Harris 1983
2 x Gould Campbell 1983
2 x Smith Woodhouse 1983
1 x Porto Calem 1983

These were given to my son as a very fine christening present and have been stored flat in our basement untouched in a cardboard box all these years. His father appropriated one bottle (of Porto Calem) from the set which was apparently very enjoyable. My son is now 16 and looking to fund various projects and is prepared to negotiate on a realistic price. Would there be any interest here in purchasing the set?

[uncle tom]

I'm sure someone here would be happy to make you an offer - whereabouts are you?

[Alex Bridgeman]

I might also make a counter-suggestion. I didn't really appreciate decent vintage port (which this is) until I was 21. Since then, I have really enjoyed vintage port and have been eternally gateful to my grandparents for buying me 12 bottles (actually 13, but one was opened by them on my 21st birthday and shared with the family) of vintage port and not telling me about them until I was 21. If I had been given the bottles when I was 16, I would probably have tried one, gone "meh" and sold them to get some money to spend on something that seemed important at the time - I might never had discovered the attractions of good port.

Please don't discount that something similar might be happening with your son. My son is 17. He would happily trade in any port I gave him for money to spend on DVDs, cinema visits or a trip to France with his friends. I have no intention of giving him his port until I think he's old enough to appreciate it!!

[meinthesea]

Thank you AHB for this and your suggestion is very sound, but we have already 'given' him the case. I do think that he will still enjoy a few glasses of decent port with his father now and again and hopefully will appreciate it long term. In fact I'm sure he will. Thank you very much for your reply (uncle tom too). We are in Cranbrook in Kent by the way.

[DRT]

The advice that is generally given here is along the lines of what AHB has already said. However, if your son is determined to sell his options are private sale, sell to a wine merchant or sell through an auction. In all three of those scenarios he is likely to realise around 50% of the current retail price.

A quick look at www.wine-searcher.com suggests that a private sale would realise 50% of 11 x £40 = £220 (perhaps a little more if you are lucky).

The normal reaction to this is "why can I only get 50%?". The reason is that buying from a wine merchant or an auction provides the buyer with more certainty of provenance and possibly an after sales service should the wine prove to be flawed. A private sale offers no protection, so the risk is higher. Higher risk equals lower price.

Based on that advice, perhaps it is worth considering an intra-family purchase. Father would end up with some nice bottles of port to share with son at a future date and son could buy half an iPad.

[meinthesea]

Thanks so much for your reply. I will give this some thought.