Age profile of my port

[Alex Bridgeman]

Every now and then, usually when I can't drink from my cellar for some reason, I like to look at some of the statistics for the bottles that I have to enjoy in the future. This time, I was curious to know what sort of age profile the bottles had since I have in mind that I am trying to buy port from the 70s and 80s for current drinking - but this was based purely on intuition and not on any scientific study of what I already own.

Until yesterday, when I actually sat down and worked out what the age profile was of my ports. What I found was:
21% of the port I own comes from the decade 2000-2009 - this is for drinking when I will be in my sixties and seventies (or older)
32% comes from the decade 1990-1999 - for drinking when I will be in my fifties and sixties (5 years time)
8% comes from the decade 1980-1989 - absolutely need more from this decade for drinking now, I was intuitively right
10% comes from the decade 1970-1979 - for drinking now and needing to stock up
16% comes from the decade 1960-1969 - mostly birth year ports from 1963
12% comes from decades before I was born and are rarely opened except at offlines

I'm surprised that I have so much young port. No wonder I sometimes struggle to find a bottle I think is ready to open and drink at home, which shouldn't wait for an offline.

[Glenn E.]

My intuition tells me that the age profile of my Port is even worse than yours, but that may be due to the fact that I'm excluding 22 bottles of 1985 as those are intended for an offline horizontal. I'll have to check cellartracker and see if my intuition is correct!

[uncle tom]

21% of the port I own comes from the decade 2000-2009 - this is for drinking when I will be in my sixties and seventies (or older)
32% comes from the decade 1990-1999 - for drinking when I will be in my fifties and sixties (5 years time)
8% comes from the decade 1980-1989 - absolutely need more from this decade for drinking now, I was intuitively right
10% comes from the decade 1970-1979 - for drinking now and needing to stock up
16% comes from the decade 1960-1969 - mostly birth year ports from 1963
12% comes from decades before I was born and are rarely opened except at offlines

For me:

2000 - 2009: 15%
1990 - 1999: 32%
1980 - 1989: 19%
1970 - 1979: 15%
1960 - 1969: 11%
Pre 1960: 8%

So exactly the same from the '90's, but a wide variation elsewhere. Average age is currently 27 years, 7 months & 25 days

Tom

[benread]

Probably no surprise that mine has a younger profile:

• <1970: 3%

• 1970-9: 8%

• 1980-9: 25%

• 1990-9: 34%

• 2000+: 30%

I have included Tawny and similar wines (but not colheitas) in the 2000+ for no specific reason, other than I did!

[Glenn E.]

My intuition tells me that the age profile of my Port is even worse than yours, but that may be due to the fact that I'm excluding 22 bottles of 1985 as those are intended for an offline horizontal. I'll have to check cellartracker and see if my intuition is correct!

As suspected, out of 201 bottles of VP I have:

pre-1960: zippo
1960-1969: 5%
1970-1979: 10%
1980-1989: 25% (33% *)
1990-1999: 30%
2000-2007: 30%

* I have a 22-bottle horizontal of 1985 VP that I've excluded as it is intended to be consumed all at once. With it included the '80s jump to 33% while the other decades all adjust downward.

Realistically, though, that's not too bad. I'm reasonably well balanced over the last 3 decades and am only sorely lacking in older Ports. Since I tend to drink those rarely, having them in short supply isn't a terrible crisis. Of course if I had more of them I might drink them more often. As things stand, I'll be well stocked for well-aged Port once I retire!

[Chris Doty]

Thanks for the data.

These sorts of snapshots are interesting, but will understate the amount of older wines you buy, as these are the bottles you actually drink over time. So, while only 8% of your cellar may currently be comprised of 1980-1989 VP, that decade might represent ~25% of your port purchases -- you've just consumed them down.

[uncle tom]

These sorts of snapshots are interesting, but will understate the amount of older wines you buy, as these are the bottles you actually drink over time.

It depends how you manage your cellar. At one extreme you can keep hardly any stock, and rely on buying in mature wine as needed; or you can do what I am doing, and go to the opposite extreme; building a cellar that only needs to be topped up with young wine each year, with sufficient bottles maturing downstairs to yield the desired quantity and age profile for drinking.

From a quantity perspective, I have opted for 72 bottles p.a. - about 50% more than I drink at home, the rest covering offlines etc.

For age profile, I have opted for the following:

Under 17 - nil.
17 - 21 - 2 btls
22 - 29 - 10 btls
30 - 39 - 20 btls
40 - 49 - 20 btls
50 - 59 - 10 btls
60 - 69 - 5 btls
70 - 79 - 2 btls
80 - 99 - 2 btls

This leaves one bottle (on average) reaching 100 yrs of age each year, of which:

0.4 to be drunk in its 100th year
0.3 between 100 and 119 years
0.2 between 120 and 159 years
0.05 between 160 and 199 years
0.05 in its 200th year

This requires me to hold (rather tidily), exactly 2,000 bottles that are 17 or more years old.

..I'm not quite there yet!

Tom

[Zelandakh]

But you can't be far away from 2,000!!

Every time I look at my collection (cellar being a rather optimistic description), I keep thinking I must get some more but then something expensive happens that creates a hole in my port purchasing ability. Need some current drinking port but first need the funds...

[Alex Bridgeman]

Thanks for the data.

These sorts of snapshots are interesting, but will understate the amount of older wines you buy, as these are the bottles you actually drink over time. So, while only 8% of your cellar may currently be comprised of 1980-1989 VP, that decade might represent ~25% of your port purchases -- you've just consumed them down.

Fair point, and I'll work on that when I've got a bit of time. It'll take me a while to figure out what I've been buying over the last few years and how that compares with what's currently in my cellar.

I've only been keeping detailed records of what I take out of my cellar for 6-7 years. On average, over that period, the age profile of the wines I have taken out of my cellar each year is:
0-10 years - 6 bottles (I do like new released port!)
11-17 years - 14 bottles (worth seeing how those younger wines are developing)
17-21 years - 8 bottles
22-29 years - 14 bottles
30-39 years - 7 bottles
40-49 years - 12 bottles (I like port from my birth year)
50-59 years - 4 bottles
60-69 years - 2 bottles
70-79 years - 2 bottles
80-99 years - 2 bottles
100+ years - 2 bottles

Some similarities to Tom's target drinking profile, but a lot more young port.

Now I have to work out how this drinking profile compares with the way my cellar will mature and therefore what I need to buy to add to the cellar.

I'll also figure out how my past buying over the last 10 or so years reflects Chris' thoughts. So much to do. Now I have to drink some port...

[uncle tom]

So Alex, if you have the same profile for drinking centenarian bottles as me (but doubling the quantity..) I reckon that you need a total of 1324 17yr + bottles, of which 500 need to be over 40yrs old, and 100 of them over 80yrs old.

Tom

[Alex Bridgeman]

So Alex, if you have the same profile for drinking centenarian bottles as me (but doubling the quantity..) I reckon that you need a total of 1324 17yr + bottles, of which 500 need to be over 40yrs old, and 100 of them over 80yrs old.

Tom

I can't argue with the maths - but I never said that I had the bottles to be able to keep my current drinking profile going forever. I'm busy adding tables to my statistics spreadsheet that will tell me what vintages I need to buy to add to the cellar to be able to keep this going.

The added complication is that I like to open 6-7 bottles from my birth year, each year, and this complicates the calculations plus I intend to open about 30 bottles from my birth year in 2013. All told, this means that I need about another 8 cases of 1963 vintage.

I need to be a little more aggressive in chasing after those 1963 ports, especially the ones I only have in limited quantities.