Personal port traditions

[AW77]

When I went to the Douro for the first time this summer, I took a small schist-stone home with me as a memento.
Now it has become a tradtion in our house that this stone has to be placed next to the decanter whenever a port or Douro wine is served.

So what are your personal port traditions?

[LGTrotter]

I am not much given to religous observances but if I have a really extraordinary bottle I will often go outside and pour the last thimbleful on the garden, libation style. I do not offer this to any particular deity but it is a sacrifice, the last one was an 1860 cossart sercial solera, now that was a sacrifice.

[DRT]

I keep the cork from every bottle of Vintage Port I open at home unless it disintegrates when removing from the bottle. I have no idea why I keep them, but have a few Vesuvio six-pack boxes full of them in various places around the house.

[djewesbury]

I am lining the shelves of my office with old VP bottles. These days, nobody actually writes in a university office, in the way they used to; all my books are at home and will stay there. So what else would I fill those shelves with? And where else would I put those hard-to-throw-away bottles, which each tell a story of an evening spent in good company, drinking great port?

[DRT]

I have around 100 empty VP bottles in my garage waiting for a time when I have a room in which to display them.

I wonder if we could find somewhere that could use Julian's software to produce placemat wallpaper?

[Andy Velebil]

I have around 100 empty VP bottles in my garage waiting for a time when I have a room in which to display them.

same here

[marc j.]

I have around 100 empty VP bottles in my garage waiting for a time when I have a room in which to display them.

I wonder if we could find somewhere that could use Julian's software to produce placemat wallpaper?

I also display many of the more memorable bottles either in the bar area or down in the cellar. One if these days I hope to construct a proper display area for them.

[Alex Bridgeman]

Elizabeth saw an arched wine cellar on Friday which has a glass front with glass shelves on the inside, full of empty wine bottles - and commented that it would be great to do something similar in our house.

But right now I have about a dozen empty bottles that I can't (or in some cases, am not allowed to) throw away. These are on top of my storage cupboards in the garage, with 3 more for which there is no space on the floor of the garage. Plus there is an empty Warre 1977 Tappit Hen bottle on the window sill in the Study.

And then whenever I can, I remove the labels from the empty bottles of port as these take up so much less space to store than the empty bottles.

Oh yes, and I keep the corks when they come out intact and have branding that can be read. These go into a huge glass jar that is nearly full.

So another question - what are those empty bottles that you have tucked away to display one day (or even have on display right now)?

[DRT]

what are those empty bottles that you have tucked away to display one day (or even have on display right now)?

Some of the boxes in my garage contain the bottles from some of the early Port tastings organised here on TPF or on FTLOP. Others contain memorable bottles from tastings or are bottles that have 1965 printed on the label.

[DRT]

I have achieved a significant breakthrough for the oppressed masses of .

Our sitting room is currently being decorated and I was told in no uncertain terms that my much-loved Van Gough prints did not match the new colour scheme. I took this opportunity to show SCP-DFD a 2.8m x 0.7m map, the colours of which are sympathetic to the new decor.

I now have permission to have it framed

[djewesbury]

Where did you get your map? I've been looking for one for my office...

[DRT]

Where did you get your map? I've been looking for one for my office...

Here.

[djewesbury]

Where did you get your map? I've been looking for one for my office...

Here.

Oh I saw that link. A little beyond my office-wall-map-budget...

[Alex Bridgeman]

I have achieved a significant breakthrough for the oppressed masses of .

Our sitting room is currently being decorated and I was told in no uncertain terms that my much-loved Van Gough prints did not match the new colour scheme. I took this opportunity to show SCP-DFD a 2.8m x 0.7m map, the colours of which are sympathetic to the new decor.

I now have permission to have it framed

What a lucky coincidence that SCP-DFD chose colours that go with the map. Has she heard of subliminal influencing?

[DRT]

What a lucky coincidence that SCP-DFD chose colours that go with the map. Has she heard of subliminal influencing?

Shhh! Loose lips sink ships

[SushiNorth]

I keep the cork from every bottle of Vintage Port I open at home unless it disintegrates when removing from the bottle. I have no idea why I keep them, but have a few Vesuvio six-pack boxes full of them in various places around the house.

Amusingly, I've been keeping those corks too, and in likewise in leftover wood boxes. Sadly, I find myself going to the added extreme of applying elmers glue to the disintegrated corks, simply to add them to that pile.

[DRT]

I keep the cork from every bottle of Vintage Port I open at home unless it disintegrates when removing from the bottle. I have no idea why I keep them, but have a few Vesuvio six-pack boxes full of them in various places around the house.

Amusingly, I've been keeping those corks too, and in likewise in leftover wood boxes. Sadly, I find myself going to the added extreme of applying elmers glue to the disintegrated corks, simply to add them to that pile.

Amusingly, that is what AHB does too. I stop short of gluing crumbs together, but have been known to join two or more pieces of a broken cork together with a cocktail stick before throwing it into the wooden box.

[djewesbury]

I keep the cork from every bottle of Vintage Port I open at home unless it disintegrates when removing from the bottle. I have no idea why I keep them, but have a few Vesuvio six-pack boxes full of them in various places around the house.

Amusingly, I've been keeping those corks too, and in likewise in leftover wood boxes. Sadly, I find myself going to the added extreme of applying elmers glue to the disintegrated corks, simply to add them to that pile.

Amusingly, that is what AHB does too. I stop short of gluing crumbs together, but have been known to join two or more pieces of a broken cork together with a cocktail stick before throwing it into the wooden box.

Dressmaking pins are better! apparently!

[LGTrotter]

My corks dry out and become illegible, like little wizened versions of themselves. Any suggestions?

[djewesbury]

My corks dry out and become illegible, like little wizened versions of themselves. Any suggestions?

No comment. Is it very arid in Somerset?

[DRT]

My corks dry out and become illegible, like little wizened versions of themselves. Any suggestions?

Keep them in a humidor.

[LGTrotter]

And my cigars?

[djewesbury]

And my cigars?

Keep them in a thermidor.

[Alex Bridgeman]

And my cigars?

Keep them in an old wooden port box

[PopulusTremula]

And my lobsters?