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André L. Simon, in [i]In the Twilight[/i], wrote:It was a very hot day, indeed, and we [ALS, Percy and Frederick, later Lord, Thellusson] had our traditional three bottles of Champagne [...] and it was more than enough for us both on such a hot day. But not for Frederick, who suggested a bottle of Vintage Port, and when we both quite firmly refused, he turned to Baker, our faithful cellarman, and asked for a pint of his own Port, not Port that he had made, but that Cockburn had made for him for years--their finest tawny wine with a dash of young vintage just before bottling. As Baker went to get this wine, Frederick shock his head rather sadly and mumbled audibly: "Degenerates, degenerates, both of you, beaten by the weather"--then he drank his pint of Port. With coffee and cigars we had a marvelous Hine 1844.

This was in August 1926. I wonder how much Port one had to buy in those days to be able to commission a personal Port from Cockburn? Though if Frederick Thellusson drank it by the pint in August, quantity probably wasn't too much of an issue... It would certainly be interesting to look through Cockburn's books for things like this.

Does anyone fancy attempting to recreate this with a bottle of 20 year-old tawny and some 2008 Canais? Or do we assume that the blend was made from an old colheita and so the dash of young vintage was no more unusual than the normal blending of wines which goes into making a normal blended tawny?

a barrel i think is over 60 cases of wine.

that's alot of port

but then again, a pint in the middle of august after a bottle of champagne....

JacobH wrote:André L. Simon, in In the Twilight

My list of port and wine books says I own 33 works by ALS.

I thought I had all that I need and then Jacob tells me about one I haven't heard of.

Once Amazon get over their Christmas crisis I will have 34

g-man wrote:a barrel i think is over 60 cases of wine

Although a pipe (barrel) varies in size, in the UK Wine trade a pipe is taken to mean 56 cases.

Could a 20 year old pipe be had for 3K USD in Portugal?

mosesbotbol wrote:Could a 20 year old pipe be had for 3K USD in Portugal?

That's the equivalent of <$4.5 per bottle. Not likely for a 20 year old wine. Or were you after an empty one?

DRT wrote:

mosesbotbol wrote:Could a 20 year old pipe be had for 3K USD in Portugal?

That's the equivalent of <$4.5 per bottle. Not likely for a 20 year old wine. Or were you after an empty one?

I'd think $4-6 a bottle sounds right for a 20 year considering there are no bottles, corks, fining, bottling time and taking the whole pipe; coming right from the lodge. Transportation and shipping might be a lot? An empty pipe should be around $300.

mosesbotbol wrote:

DRT wrote:

mosesbotbol wrote:Could a 20 year old pipe be had for 3K USD in Portugal?

That's the equivalent of <$4.5 per bottle. Not likely for a 20 year old wine. Or were you after an empty one?

I'd think $4-6 a bottle sounds right for a 20 year considering there are no bottles, corks, fining, bottling time and taking the whole pipe; coming right from the lodge. Transportation and shipping might be a lot? An empty pipe should be around $300.

Hmm...I imagine that $4-6 is about the bare cost of a bottle Port from a 20-year-old cask and wouldn’t leave much profit for the shipper. I also would think that even if you are buying the whole thing the transport is still likely to be considerable. Imagine how much effort it takes to get a cask out of one of those cellars! It might not actually add that much to bottle it (€1-2 or so for the bottle and an hour or so of the bottling machine’s time).

Of course, the other question is whether you would get a cask of colheita-quality wine, something pretty good, or just some very pale and faded wine which is ear-marked to be added to the basic tawny blends to make them taste older...

Again everything points to us needing a Port version of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society which can buy and bottle (anonymously) whole casks of unusual tawny wines which might be difficult for the shippers to use in their blends.

I would like go in on a pipe and have the wine bottled into "box wine" packaging. Imagine 3L box of 80's colheita for $35-40! Sign me up.

mosesbotbol wrote:I would like go in on a pipe and have the wine bottled into "box wine" packaging.

Moses: meet the IVDP.
IVDP: meet Moses.

Everybody else: stand back and be entertained.

jdaw1 wrote:

mosesbotbol wrote:I would like go in on a pipe and have the wine bottled into "box wine" packaging.

Moses: meet the IVDP.
IVDP: meet Moses.

Everybody else: stand back and be entertained.

A pipe is just over a full pallet of cased wine, correct?

A shipper’s pipe is 56 cases.

wiki.answers.com wrote:Case size makes a difference but in general 56 cases per pallet, with 4 layers of 14 cases each would be standard for 12 pack cases standing upright. I would always check with your shipping company to see what their capacity is though.