Help please

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Mick
Cruz Ruby
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Joined: 13:26 Sun 08 Feb 2009
Location: Camberley, Surrey

Help please

Post by Mick »

Hi,

This is a first time post and I am looking for some advice. I enjoy port but I am a complete novice when it comes to vintage ports but we have inherited four bottles:

Croft 1963
Grahams 1963
Grahams 1970
Offley Boa Vista 1970.

I would appreciate any background and advice on these wines that anyone may have to offer.

* How would you rank these wines?
* Will these bottles improve with time or should they be drunk now. Should we drink these wines in any particular order.
* Do you have any tasting notes that may help us enjoy the wine when we come to drink it?
* Lastly, any advice on decanting i.e. how long in advance of drinking the wine should we decant it.

Many Thanks
Mick
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DRT
Fonseca 1966
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Location: Chesterfield, UK
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Re: Help please

Post by DRT »

Hi Mick,

Welcome to :tpf:

You have inherited a very good little collection of ports.

If you go to the Tasting Notes section of the Forum you will find two threads at the top of that section that contain an index to the tasting notes on this site. The index threads are sorted alphabetically and by Vintage. You will find numerous tasting notes for each of these wines so you should get a broad range of opinions on which is best, how long to decant and ageing potential.

The Graham's 1963 is arguably the greatest of the 4 bottles you have. 1963 was one of the best vintages in the past 100 years and the Graham's from that year is close to the top of the pack. The Croft 63 is a beautiful elegant wine. Not the blockbuster that the Graham's is but excellent all the same.

The Graham's 1970 should also be fabulous. I have not had it many times and, unfortunately, had a bad bottle of it a couple of weeks ago with some of the other members here. I hope your bottle is up to the normal high standard.

The weakest of your 4 bottles is the Offley 1970, but this should be very nice to drink now if it has been properly stored.

All four bottles would keep for many years to come but, with the possible exception of the Graham's 1970, are unlikely to improve further as they are now at the peak of their maturity. That doesn't mean any of them will go downhill fast so don't rush to drink them all up now if you have somewhere to store them.

Where are you? It may be that you live close to somewhere that we use to hold port tastings and you would be very welcome to join us. Any of the four bottles you have would make welcome additions to any tasting :wink:

Regards
Derek
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
Mick
Cruz Ruby
Posts: 3
Joined: 13:26 Sun 08 Feb 2009
Location: Camberley, Surrey

Re: Help please

Post by Mick »

Derek,

Thanks very much for the advice. I have been looking at the tasting notes and found that very interesting to browse through. There are obviously some very knowledge connoisseurs of port on this forum.

I am looking forward to trying a bottle and we have dinner party next month where I think our guests would appreciate a good port so I am going to try the Offley.

If you or anyone else could give me some advice on the proper way to decant a bottle of port and also the decanting time for a Offley 1970 then I would really appreciate that.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

Mick
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DRT
Fonseca 1966
Posts: 15779
Joined: 23:51 Wed 20 Jun 2007
Location: Chesterfield, UK
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Re: Help please

Post by DRT »

Mick wrote: If you or anyone else could give me some advice on the proper way to decant a bottle of port and also the decanting time for a Offley 1970 then I would really appreciate that.
Mick, take a look at this thread. You will find other useful bit of info in the Reference section of the forum.

I would suggest decanting your Offley about 4 hours before serving.

Please come back and post a tasting note or at least let us know whether or not you and your guests enjoy it.

Derek
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Help please

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Mick,

Welcome to the Port Forum, what a great collection of ports you have inherited. As Derek has already said, the 1963 Grahams is a great port, the Croft '63 is absolutely delicious for drinking today, the Graham 1970 is a stunning port and the Offley is the weakest of the four but is still very nice indeed. If you are storing them somewhere dark and cool and of constant temperature these bottles will last another 20-30 years before starting to fade in a big way.

While I agree with derek's suggestion to decant the Offley about 4 hours before serving it, don't be too concerned if the timing of this doesn't work for you as you prepare for your dinner party. You could get away with decanting anything up to 12 hours before drinking the port.

When you decant, you can follow the instructions given by Tom and they will work very successfully. However, an alternative would be the way that I would be tempted to decant the port and that would be to line a funnel with a couple of coffee filter papers and then to pour gently the contents of the bottle through the filter.

But most of all, enjoy the ports and please let us know what you think of them. And if ever you want to try a wider range of ports then please let us know and you would be very welcome to join us at one of our informal get-togethers.

Alex
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
Mick
Cruz Ruby
Posts: 3
Joined: 13:26 Sun 08 Feb 2009
Location: Camberley, Surrey

Re: Help please

Post by Mick »

Derek / Alex,

Thanks to both of you for the advice - much appreciated. Ill let you know how I get on"

Best Regards
Mick
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