djewesbury wrote:I like that you drank 495 ports and your cellar took a hit of only 92 bottles. That's good going!
The biggest tastings I attended were:
(1) The BFT (59) and pre / post tastings (79 including the latter)
(2) The 1963 Quinquagenary (47)
(3) My extended tasting of the 2011 vintage ports (43)
(4) The Berry Brothers Port Walk and the offline after (22)
(5) The Taylor Vertical (20)
There were no other tastings I attended at which I took more than 20 tasting notes.
djewesbury wrote:How much of your port is at home and how much in storage, just in percentage terms?
I keep about 18-24 months of wine / port at home which I find is enough to keep me going with my planned drinking but also offers some flexibility for spontaneity. Around the end of the summer I start to plan what I want to drink the following year. I decide the number of my bottles of port I want to consume and what these will be. The profile of the consumption is the same each year since my stocks have been designed to yield this age profile for a couple of decades at least. The profile being:
4% under 11 years since vintage
3% 11-16 years
5% 17-21 years
15% 22-29 years
26% 30-39 years
15% 40-49 years
5% 50-59 years
4% 60-69 years
1% 70-79 years
3% 80-99 years
3% 100+ years
9% from my birth year (1963)
8% other - non-vintage, unknown or something extra added to the list above
There are certain bottles which I have enough of to open every year (Croft 2004 LBV, for example) and certain vintages I can include every year (eg. 1955) but the whole exercise is quite good fun and takes a couple of weeks. I won't plan to duplicate a particular port in a year's drinking, but this usually does end up happening through offlines or me just grabbing what comes to hand. When planning, I first look at what I have on hand and use those as the core of the planned drinking list. Next I look at what I have in off-site storage which fills the gaps and when I will have space at home to accommodate a new case. This then gets planned into the drinking list for later in the year and a diary note made to arrange to take a case out of storage at a particular time. Sometimes I take a case out and then re-deposit 6 bottles for future years. It sounds complicated, but I rather enjoy the whole exercise and it helps build up the sense of anticipation for the future. Some of our fellow forum members tease me about my methodical approach to planning my drinking, but I don't care - it works for me.
And as an example, last year's withdrawals from my cellar were:
Cockburn (½) 1955
Taylor LBV 2003
Smith Woodhouse LBV 1986
Noval 1927
Noval 1931
Warre 1922
Cockburn 1908
Taylor 1970
Warre Traditional LBV 1994
Croft LBV (½) 2004
Fonseca Crusted 2001
Warre (Tappit Hen) 1977
Dow (Tappit Hen) 1977
Grahams (Tappit Hen) 1977
Malvedos (Grahams) 1986
Taylor 1920
Taylors Special Quinta 1950
Taylor 1977
Vargellas 1976
Port Society Finest Reserve NV
Smith Woodhouse (½) 1983
Warre 1991
Mellor LBV (Bucheiro) 1989
Noval Crusted 1965
Warre (½) 1985
Sandeman LBV 2008
Fonseca 1970
Grahams 1966
Taylor 1983
Warre Traditional LBV 1982
James & McCabe fine crusted 1984
Fonseca - Guimaraens 1984
Unknown shipper (was Graham) u/k
Dow 1983
Martinez 1970
Adam's 1963
Andresen 1963
Avery Special Reserve 1963
Borges 1963
Burmester 1963
Cachao (Messias) 1963
Calem 1963
Cockburn 1963
Constantino (OWC) 1963
Croft 1963
Dalva 1963
Delaforce 1963
Dow 1963
Ferreira (OWC) 1963
Feuerheerd 1963
Fonseca 1963
Foz, Quinta do 1963
Gonzalez Byass 1963
Gould Campbell 1963
Grahams 1963
Krohn 1963
Mackenzie 1963
Martinez 1963
Morgan 1963
Niepoort 1963
Noval 1963
Noval Nacional 1963
Offley Boa Vista 1963
Pocas Junior 1963
Quarles Harris 1963
Real Companhia Velha 1963
Rebello Valente 1963
Royal Oporto 1963
Real Vinicola 1963
Sandeman 1963
Pinto dos Santos 1963
Sibio 1963
Souza, Viera de 1963
Taylor 1963
De la Rosa 1963
Warre 1963
Berry Brothers (Taylor) 1963
Warre (Tappit Hen) 1977
Dow 1960
Churchill 1985
Delaforce (owc) 1977
Croft LBV (½) 2004
Martinez (believed) 1922
Warre Traditional LBV 1984
Morgan 1991
Warre 1970
Gould Campbell 1977
Unknown shipper (Hatch Mansfield) 1858
Malvedos (Grahams) 1976
Cockburn 1947
Top Ports in 2023: Taylor 1896 Colheita, b. 2021. A perfect Port.
2024: Niepoort 1900 Colheita, b.1971. A near perfect Port.