Souza 1987 VP

Port to sell? Excellent! Please post here, with details of what you have, how stored, and where in the world it is. Please start by reading our ‘Standard advice to would-be vendors' and ‘A note to wine merchants’.
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alastair456
Cruz Ruby
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Joined: 20:44 Fri 27 Dec 2013

Souza 1987 VP

Post by alastair456 »

Dear All,

I am hoping to tap into your knowledge and advice.

I received at my Christening (1990) a case of Souza 1987 port. I am currently not much of a port drinker and I'm trying to decide what to do with it. It has been stored fairly well in a cool dark shed and I opened a bottle which, to a layman such as myself, was very nice. The cork was in ok condition but it was a little fragile.

Does this port need to be drunk ASAP? If so I will likely sell at least half. Google tells me it's worth around £40 a bottle, is this accurate, and where do you personally go to sell?

What I'd like to do I keep it for another 5 years, possibly gifting the odd bottle along the way, by which time I envisage myself becoming more of a port drinker!

Any input greatly appreciated.

Regards

Alastair
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John M
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Re: Souza 1987 VP

Post by John M »

Keep it and drink it. You'll be lucky to get 50% selling. Far better to enjoy it or give it away. While a nice port--it is no blockbuster.
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DRT
Fonseca 1966
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Re: Souza 1987 VP

Post by DRT »

Alastair,

Welcome to :tpf:

Your idea of keeping it and enjoying it later is spot on.

Trying to sell it privately, through and auction or to a wine merchant will yield about half the current retail price. Both the producer and the vintage of this particular wine are not top notch so demand would be low. That doesn't mean it is bad Port, it is just not a particularly attractive proposition at £40 a bottle.

I hope you persuade yourself to keep it and enjoy it in the future.

Derek
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
Ernest H. Cockburn
LGTrotter
Dalva Golden White Colheita 1952
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Re: Souza 1987 VP

Post by LGTrotter »

I know very little of this vintage, but it has a good reputation for an 'undeclared' vintage.

Drink it, in all probability it will not decline too quickly.

I am a little worried about the shed. Sheds often have too much temperature variation and it would almost be better off slightly warmer overall with less variation. The cupboard under the stairs is the classic standby, provided it doesn't have central heating pipes in it.

Drink it!
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jdaw1
Cockburn 1851
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Re: Souza 1987 VP

Post by jdaw1 »

I agree with the above.

You might wish to compare to our standard advice for such situations.
We wrote:
:tpf: Standard advice to would-be vendors :tpf:
Some new members of ThePortForum.com join because they have a bottle, or some bottles, for sale. So we have jointly composed this standard advice, that covers the most frequently-seen situations. Of course, some more specific advice might follow after.

First, hello and welcome. We welcome such visitors, from the likes of whom we have bought bottles and cases in the past.

Second is less good. Your bottles are unlikely to be worth a lot. Selling at auction, through one of the big auction houses, is likely to net you about half the retail price. (Auction prices are less than retail which is why wine merchants buy at auction, and there is the seller’s commission and transport costs.) Selling to a wine merchant is likely to net you about the same, half retail. As a guide, vintage port (rather than LBV, Crusted, or other types), of a good name, from a good year, four or so decades old, of good provenance, might be as much as £100 a bottle. If not all these ducks are in a row, it will be less. So this will not pay for a car or a holiday: sorry.

So our usual advice is not to sell.

If you were given these bottles as a christening present, we advise that you hold them. When you are thirty or forty years old it will give you great pleasure to open these bottles with friends bottles you will have owned since you were a toddler. (Recall Alan Clark on Heseltine: ‟he had to buy all his furniture”. Your friends will have had to buy their own wine; yours came to you as a child.) Selling will net you small money; holding and drinking later can give you great pleasure.

If you are the father of the vendor, a teenager with non-vinous uses for money, then you are probably the best purchaser. Buy, and share with your offspring when they are old enough to regret having sold.

But if, despite all this, you still want to sell, then we might be the best purchaser. Please describe what you have, and post a picture of the bottle or of the unopened case. When did you acquire it, and where has it been stored? And where is it now located: which country (UK? USA? Other), and approximately where within that?
alastair456
Cruz Ruby
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Joined: 20:44 Fri 27 Dec 2013

Re: Souza 1987 VP

Post by alastair456 »

Many thanks for your swift responses.

Good, that is really the reassurance I was looking for. Keeping it is the obvious choice.


LGTrotter: rest assured the shed is solid granite with almost cellar like properties.
Jdaw1: thank you that is a great summary, I had a scan of the forum but missed that.
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Alex Bridgeman
Graham’s 1948
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Re: Souza 1987 VP

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Alastair

You could also consider using one of these bottles and joining us at one of our informal "bring a bottle" port evenings in London. You'd be able to try a variety of other ports so you could see how ports vaies with age and in style and we'd get to try a port which is not seen very often.

But the overall advice of keep it and slowly drink it is advice I wholeheartedly agree with. These should be perfectly capable of lasting another 5-10 years if your granite shed maintains a stable temperature (day/ night and summer/winter).

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

2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.
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