Your first vintage port(s)

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PhilW
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Your first vintage port(s)

Post by PhilW »

In another thread, Owen mentioned the first vintage port he had ever tasted, and I thought this would be an interesting topic for a new thread.
LGTrotter wrote:The first port I drank and can remember was in (I think) 1987 and it was a 1966 and I think the shipper was Warre. I had it a couple of times, maybe more. I still think of the 66 as it was then, all hard and sooty.
Glenn E. wrote:I was given my first bottle of Port for my 40th birthday in 2004. It was a half bottle of Porto Rocha 20-yr old Tawny. I really liked it, and so started trying Port here and there. It didn't take long before I discovered the 1977 Porto Rocha Colheita which I thought was just mind-blowingly amazing. I bought all of it that I could find, basically clearing out Seattle in the process. Little did I know at the time that Porto Rocha had accidentally bottled all of their remaining 1977, so what I had was a significant portion of the remainder in the US.

I don't recall when I first tried VP or LBV, but it was certainly before 2007. My guess would be 2005 or 2006, probably just to see what it was like. By 2007 I enjoyed Port enough that my wife and I visited Portugal for 4 days during our vacation in France for our 20th Anniversary. I started buying online in about that time frame as well and still have both of the first two bottles that I bought. My "first" aged VP tasted was a 1983 Warre that didn't impress me. I still have the bottle, though, because it was my first.
My first (aged) VP was a Croft '63 in 2000, as a present from my wife. I enjoyed it so much (especially compared to the ruby and LBVs which I had enjoyed from time to time before that) that I bought several more bottles of old VP and tried them over the next few months, discovering a love for vintage port, and F70 and W77 in particular.

How about other people? What was/were the first vintage port(s) you tasted, and when/where did you taste them?
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John M
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by John M »

1985 Fonseca around 1990.....did not know better to save it. Remember it being phenomenal all the same.
LGTrotter
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by LGTrotter »

For clarification the 66 was not the first port I drank, just the first one I noticed. I worked at a decent pub and on the odd occasion when the owners wanted to go to bed we would repair to whoever would put up with the rump. Late on one evening the port was produced. I noticed it because being young and impressionable I was struck by it being older than me. My memory has it as Warre, but I may be wrong. It was not until the mid to late nineties that I began to buy port as part of a wider interest in wine.
Last edited by LGTrotter on 19:26 Wed 20 Aug 2014, edited 1 time in total.
ajfeather
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by ajfeather »

2000 Niepoort around 2005, hooked me on port
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jdaw1
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by jdaw1 »

[url=http://www.theportforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=73225#p73225]Here[/url] jdaw1 wrote:
Oxford_Best wrote:I did not realise Oxbridge colleges have such a reputation amongst vintage port lovers.
My first taste of Port was at my matriculation dinner (Queens’, maths, matric. ’87). I was hooked.
[url=http://www.theportforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=76555#p76555]Here[/url] jdaw1 wrote:
AHB wrote:Do you remember what it was you were served?
No. I was young. But I late learnt that the cellar then had many 1970s from the best shippers, so that must be plausible.
Andy Velebil
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by Andy Velebil »

Best I recall, the first true VP I had was a 1966 Taylor's.


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Alex Bridgeman
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

Mine was a bottle of Taylor 1963, opened for me by my grandfather on the occasion of my 21st birthday in 1984. That was what hooked me.
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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DRT
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by DRT »

I drunk quite a few SQVPs around 25 years ago with my former father-in-law. They would have been from vintages in the 1980s but I can't remember specifics. I do remember black labels and it suggests to me now that they were Dow Bomfim.

The first "real" VP I tasted was Warre 1966. I think it was in 2005 at Christmas dinner at my current mother-in-law's house.

My first tasting was a modest affair with AHB, CMAG, RH and a few others: F63, F66, F70, T63, T66, T70, G63, G66, G70, S63, S66, S70. A shoddy line-up that inexplicably inspired us to organise one or two more tatsings. I had never tasted any of those VPs before that tasting.
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djewesbury
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by djewesbury »

AHB wrote:Mine was a bottle of Taylor 1963, opened for me by my grandfather on the occasion of my 21st birthday in 1984. That was what hooked me.
Rather good to have tasted 63 when it was 21!
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TLW
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by TLW »

A 1985 Dow in 1988. Forgive me. I knew not what I was doing, but I really enjoyed it.

Whilst I certainly had a couple of more in between, a year later, my friends bought a 1966 Graham for my wedding, and I was hooked. The 1966 Graham is still one of my favourites.
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Alex Bridgeman
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

djewesbury wrote:
AHB wrote:Mine was a bottle of Taylor 1963, opened for me by my grandfather on the occasion of my 21st birthday in 1984. That was what hooked me.
Rather good to have tasted 63 when it was 21!
Purely down to the foresight of my grandfather, who bought 13 bottles of Taylor '63 a couple of years after I was born. He opened the odd bottle for me on my 21st birthday and waited to see what my reaction was. A few days after I expressed great enjoyment, he gave me the unopened case.

I never did ask what would have happened to the case if I hadn't enjoyed the port that day. I suspect it would have slowly "evaporated" on the odd occasion when he was feeling thirsty. Sadly I don't have any of those bottles left but it is rather fun to be able to look back on the way the port has changed in the last 30 years.The first tasting note I wrote on Taylor '63 was on the bottle that we drank at Derek's first offline in 2005 so my written record only goes back 10 years and I have to rely on my emotional impressions rather than anything more definitive when comparing today's T63 with my early experience.

And this question did make me take a look at my cellar records. The bottle of port which is still in my posession and which I have had the longest is a bottle of Vesuvio 1989 which my better half bought me as a present from John Lewis in Reading in August 1994 having bought me a bottle from the same store for Christmas 1993. At that time Vesuvio was virtually unknown but I had been rather impressed by the bottle at Christmas and had been looking for another one. John Lewis sold out at Christmas but then - as is the way with UK department stores - in August the following year they put on display their Christmas 1994 stock and again offered the Vesuvio 1989 as one of their food & drink gift suggestions. I think, in total, we bought 3 or 4 bottles but this is the only one I have left, the others having been drunk over the years.

And - for the record - the wine I have owned the longest and is still waiting to be drunk are 5 bottles of claret from the 1983 vintage, acquired in 1985.
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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uncle tom
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by uncle tom »

A Christmas drinks party - around 1977 - a bottle of 1917 port was served, I don't recall the shipper.

It was nice, but not in itself the bottle that hooked me. That really started on the general election night of May 3rd 1979 - my nineteenth birthday - when I voted for the first time and stayed up late to watch the results come in. I can't recall exactly what I drank that night, but on that night and every general election night since, I've not turned in until a bottle of port has been emptied..
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly - W.S. Churchill
Glenn E.
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by Glenn E. »

The first VP with any age that I remember drinking was a 1983 Warre, and I wasn't impressed. That bottle reinforced for me that I prefer tawnies, and it wasn't until I got to try a 1947 Noval (BB&R bottling) at the 2009 Port Gala that my perception began to change.
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LGTrotter
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by LGTrotter »

uncle tom wrote:A Christmas drinks party - around 1977 -
Attaboy! If you happened to try a 55 or two around that time...
Andy Velebil wrote:Best I recall, the first true VP I had was a 1966 Taylor's.
A where and a when?
CaliforniaBrad
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by CaliforniaBrad »

I found out recently that my first port was actually Cockburn's Ruby Reserve at communion most of my youth. I was a fan, but had no clue what we were drinking. All I knew was it was better than the insipid and badly oxidized stuff at the Catholic parish I frequented in my younger youth.


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marc j.
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by marc j. »

If I recall correctly, my first VP was a bottle of 1977 Taylor. Up to that point in time I had tried plenty of tawnies/colheitas as well as a number of LBVs...the Taylor blew me away. It had a great nose, powerful on the palate and the finish was never ending.

It was quite the experience...
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djewesbury
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by djewesbury »

CaliforniaBrad wrote:I found out recently that my first port was actually Cockburn's Ruby Reserve at communion most of my youth. I was a fan, but had no clue what we were drinking. All I knew was it was better than the insipid and badly oxidized stuff at the Catholic parish I frequented in my younger youth.


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If Cockburn Ruby Reserve has actually become Christ in parishes around the US, I think the marketing men might be missing a trick..!
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griff
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by griff »

First vintage port style would be a 1982 Seppelt back in 1997 or 1998. This sparked an in interest in the style. The first Portuguese was the current release unfiltered Warre LBV on our first visit to the UK in 2005, closely followed by the 1987 Warre Quinta da Cavadinha 1987. The first true VP was a Graham 1983 in 2007.
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RonnieRoots
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by RonnieRoots »

Kopke '85 back in 2000 or 2001. Loved it so much that I've been hooked ever since. Finished my last bottle of Kopje '85 not too long ago and it was still a lovely Port.
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Axel P
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by Axel P »

Fonseca 77 - nice story to tell around, but not here.

Fonseca 2000 with David as I learned to appreciate young Vintage Ports as well.

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PhilW
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by PhilW »

Axel P wrote:Fonseca 77 - nice story to tell around, but not here.
Does it end with "I go down in flames"?
Look forward to hearing it sometime.
PhilW
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by PhilW »

Thanks to all for their replies; an interesting variation in the age and manner in which we all came to find our love of port, and some good memories.
LGTrotter
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by LGTrotter »

AHB wrote:Mine was a bottle of Taylor 1963, opened for me by my grandfather on the occasion of my 21st birthday in 1984. That was what hooked me.
In the 'Taylor 1985 debate' which prompted my post about when I first drank vintage port I was speculating about whether people remembered older vintages in their youth, the port's youth, that is. There is something reassuring about Alex trying the 63 at about the same stage the 94 is now. And here he is; still drinking, learning and sharing both port and the accumulated experience. Onya, as they say in Australia.
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mapmap
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your first vintage?

Post by mapmap »

I am curious. When did you taste your first port vintage? How old were you? How did you feel, what was the reason for opening such bottle? Did you get addicted right away?
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jdaw1
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Re: Your first vintage port(s)

Post by jdaw1 »

I’ve moved the previous post into this pre-existing thread, so that these stories can be kept together.

And there must be a link to mapmap’s excellent tale of his first: My way towards my first vintage.

Edit Aug 2020: link to What was your first vintage?
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