ThePortForum.com

I get my first state pension payment next Tuesday - triple locked 'n' all - at least, for now..

What should I pop to celebrate?

I think you should open three bottles, since the number one in the UK charts when you were born was "Three steps to heaven" (Eddie Cochran).
I suggest something '60 (birth year), something '66 (age) and something wonderful (heaven).
Perhaps, Noval Nacional '60, Fonseca '66, and Graham '48, or similar.

31 Nacional!
You know it makes sense. You can’t take it with you!

Actually the regular bottling will be fine - so Noval 31!
From memory you have more of those!-:)

PhilW wrote: ↑10:43 Wed 17 Jun 2026 I think you should open three bottles, since the number one in the UK charts when you were born was "Three steps to heaven" (Eddie Cochran).
I suggest something '60 (birth year), something '66 (age) and something wonderful (heaven).
Perhaps, Noval Nacional '60, Fonseca '66, and Graham '48, or similar.

My pension cuts in at 66yrs and one month, and then they pay you in arrears..

..the number one on the day I was born (May 3rd) depends on whether you trust Google or Wiki - they don't agree! Both songs long forgotten

uncle tom wrote: ↑11:29 Wed 17 Jun 2026

PhilW wrote: ↑10:43 Wed 17 Jun 2026 I think you should open three bottles, since the number one in the UK charts when you were born was "Three steps to heaven" (Eddie Cochran).
I suggest something '60 (birth year), something '66 (age) and something wonderful (heaven).
Perhaps, Noval Nacional '60, Fonseca '66, and Graham '48, or similar.

My pension cuts in at 66yrs and one month, and then they pay you in arrears..

..the number one on the day I was born (May 3rd) depends on whether you trust Google or Wiki - they don't agree! Both songs long forgotten

Damn, that extra month ruins anything. Oh well, a bottle of Cruz '89 it is then ("Cathy's Clown" by the Everly Brothers).

PhilW wrote: ↑11:47 Wed 17 Jun 2026

uncle tom wrote: ↑11:29 Wed 17 Jun 2026

PhilW wrote: ↑10:43 Wed 17 Jun 2026 I think you should open three bottles, since the number one in the UK charts when you were born was "Three steps to heaven" (Eddie Cochran).
I suggest something '60 (birth year), something '66 (age) and something wonderful (heaven).
Perhaps, Noval Nacional '60, Fonseca '66, and Graham '48, or similar.

My pension cuts in at 66yrs and one month, and then they pay you in arrears..

..the number one on the day I was born (May 3rd) depends on whether you trust Google or Wiki - they don't agree! Both songs long forgotten

Damn, that extra month ruins anything. Oh well, a bottle of Cruz '89 it is then ("Cathy's Clown" by the Everly Brothers).

Now there's a song that you don't hear on the radio...ever. I'm a big fan of 50's and 60's pop, blues and rock and roll (you should see my Spotify list), but I've never seen someone reference Cathy's Clown at all, no less on a Port Forum.

Your 11th most valuable bottle.

mosesbotbol wrote: ↑15:41 Thu 18 Jun 2026 Your 11th most valuable bottle.

Well there's an idea..

My eleventh most valuable bottle in terms of what I paid for it is a Dow 1896 with excellent provenance.

Not something to quaff casually at home though - needs a bigger occasion..

Given your age and the triple-lock, I think a three bottle 1966 horizontal with an N31 for desert would be appropriate.

Happy Pension Day, Tom

uncle tom wrote: ↑16:00 Thu 18 Jun 2026a Dow 1896 with excellent provenance.

Please share that with others.

jdaw1 wrote: ↑21:32 Thu 18 Jun 2026

uncle tom wrote: ↑16:00 Thu 18 Jun 2026a Dow 1896 with excellent provenance.

Please share that with others.

Available to fly in on the day it's shared.

jdaw1 wrote: ↑21:32 Thu 18 Jun 2026

uncle tom wrote: ↑16:00 Thu 18 Jun 2026a Dow 1896 with excellent provenance.

Please share that with others.

Perhaps Dow should be the theme of a future Old Port dinner...

how about the 66th port your bought or in value in your cellar

I think age and pensions are all in the eye of the beholder ..... personally I stopped thinking about age ages ago

I would choose something you like a lot, something you haven't tried in ages and something random and go for it.

Regardless .... Happy retirement 

hadge wrote: ↑15:55 Fri 19 Jun 2026 how about the 66th port your bought or in value in your cellar

The 66th most valuable in terms of purchase price per bottle is a Taylor 27 bought in 2012, the 66th oldest stash in terms of purchase date that I still have stock of takes me back to January 2006 and an owc of Offley 83 that I still haven't opened, bought from Christies for a princely £13.17 per bottle (inc. BP)

- My first pension payment duly hit my bank account at a minute to midnight last night.

I've decided to stick with the 66 theme but in a different direction, and will be decanting a Taylor 66 later, bottled by Christopher & Co. of Ormond Yard SW17 (Tooting) - neither company nor address appears to still exist and the last registered office was in Covent Garden.

As it's very warm I put a decanter in the cellar last night to cool down and will be decanting the wine down there as well

uncle tom wrote: ↑11:17 Tue 23 Jun 2026 I've decided to stick with the 66 theme but in a different direction, and will be decanting a Taylor 66 later, bottled by Christopher & Co. of Ormond Yard SW17 (Tooting) - neither company nor address appears to still exist and the last registered office was in Covent Garden.

You managed to resist "opening 66 bottles" then

Re: Christopher & Co. the oldest bottle for which I have photos of their bottlings is a Noval 1945 bottled 1950 [sic] (note still labelled as Vintage Port) at which point they were at 94 Jermyn St, London SW1; they were still at this address when bottling Fonseca 1955 in 1957, but had moved to 4 Ormand Yard by the time they bottled the Dow 1960 in 1962 and were still there up until they bottled Fonseca 1970, presumably in 1972 though bottling date not shown. Of course after this date they would no longer have been able to bottle given the change to regulations. They kept the same style of label (their own design) across all their bottlings.

PhilW wrote: ↑12:01 Tue 23 Jun 2026Re: Christopher & Co. the oldest bottle for which I have photos of their bottlings is a Noval 1945 bottled 1950 [sic] (note still labelled as Vintage Port) at which point they were at 94 Jermyn St, London SW1; they were still at this address when bottling Fonseca 1955 in 1957, but had moved to 4 Ormand Yard by the time they bottled the Dow 1960 in 1962 and were still there up until they bottled Fonseca 1970, presumably in 1972 though bottling date not shown. Of course after this date they would no longer have been able to bottle given the change to regulations. They kept the same style of label (their own design) across all their bottlings.

Don't forget it was only Vintage Port which was covered by the regulations requiring bottling in Oporto after the 1972(3?) regulation change. Other types of Port were permitted to be bottled outside Portugal until the mid-nineties. You occasionally see bottles of, say, crusted Port bottled in the 1980s and early 1990s by UK merchants.

uncle tom wrote: ↑11:17 Tue 23 Jun 2026Christopher & Co. of Ormond Yard SW17 (Tooting) - neither company nor address appears to still exist and the last registered office was in Covent Garden.

Christopher & Co had offices at 94 Jermyn Street, which backed on to Ormond Yard SW1Y, into which there is an entrance from my former offices. Is the purported “SW17” a mis-read of SW1Y?

jdaw1 wrote: ↑21:20 Tue 23 Jun 2026

uncle tom wrote: ↑11:17 Tue 23 Jun 2026Christopher & Co. of Ormond Yard SW17 (Tooting) - neither company nor address appears to still exist and the last registered office was in Covent Garden.

Christopher & Co had offices at 94 Jermyn Street, which backed on to Ormond Yard SW1Y, into which there is an entrance from my former offices. Is the purported “SW17” a mis-read of SW1Y?

Aha - you might be on to something there - will check..

Wine is gorgeous - peak maturity..

uncle tom wrote: ↑21:22 Tue 23 Jun 2026will check..

And?

jdaw1 wrote: ↑21:04 Mon 29 Jun 2026

uncle tom wrote: ↑21:22 Tue 23 Jun 2026will check..

And?

Time had taken it's toll on the label and I didn't preserve the bottle, but you could be right