Looking for 50 year old port
October 27, 2015 10:21 AM   Subscribe

My parents' 50th wedding anniversary is coming up (just over a month) and one of the gifts is going to be a nice bottle of port from the year they got married (1965). Spending "a few hundred" dollars is fine. While this is a symbolic gift, it's also yummy port and is meant to be drunk, so nothing that is "too nice to drink". Dry, red-wine ports are preferred, but I'm flexible.
posted by It's Never Lurgi to Food & Drink (13 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Congrats to your parents! That's exciting!

I know you ask for port but thought this may help if you want an alternative.

I asked a similar question a while ago and ended up with a Datigalongue 40 year Armagnac, there is a 1965 one.
posted by xicana63 at 10:49 AM on October 27, 2015


Vintage Port only really exists for a particular year when it's declared a vintage by the port houses. 1965 wasn't declared (as opposed to '63 and '66) and the only named 1965 wines are ascribed to secondary vineyards: Graham's Malvedos, Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas, Fonseca's Guimaraens and Dow's Vale do Bomfim. All of those wines are probably on the downward curve for their price listings, given that they're not proper vintages.

That leaves you with tawny as your main option for 1965, or some other booze.
posted by holgate at 10:56 AM on October 27, 2015 [3 favorites]


Yum, port!

Note that 1965 was not declared a vintage year.

I have never tasted a vintage port that old, but some quick Googling seems to suggest that you can get a 1966 vintage port from one of the major houses for well within your price range. (I see a Grahm's 1966 for $261 and a Taylor Fladgate for $166 (although I see those are UK prices).

Here's the Decanter guide to the 1966's.
posted by QuantumMeruit at 10:57 AM on October 27, 2015


Best answer: I just poked around and it looks like '65 was a mediocre year pretty much everywhere. Not even much Barolo listed on cellartracker.

I think the Armagnac or other spirit might be your best route.
posted by JPD at 11:30 AM on October 27, 2015 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Lots of good info from Holgate and QuantumMeruit. A couple more points:

The rule about declared vintages is a specifically Portuguese rule and you may be able to get something called a "vintage" from 1965 if you're willing to go for "port-style" fortified wines from elsewhere in the world. However, ask around about the state of the wine industry in that place at that time before you buy (for instance, Napa wasn't really much to write home about before the 70s and anyway I don't think they were making anything fortified back then).

Another option to consider is a colheita, which is sort of the "tawny version" of a vintage. Vintage port wines are issued on declared vintage years only (as noted above), and by rule they are ruby ports only aged in barrels for 18 months, after which they continue to age in the bottle. Whereas a colheita is made from grapes of a single year's crop and aged in an isolated barrel for 4 or more years - typically much more. Searching for "1965 colheita" produces a few options, including at least the Kopke which seems to run about $170-240 for a bottle.

Finally, if all the colheitas you can track down are out of your price range, consider a "50 year tawny" port. The options may be few because 40 years is the highest "standard" age, and be aware that the age represents the average age of all the wine and very little or even none of it might actually have come from 1965 specifically (setting aside the possibility that you might get a 50-year bottle left over from 2014 or 2013, etc.).
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 11:59 AM on October 27, 2015


Oh, also:

I just poked around and it looks like '65 was a mediocre year pretty much everywhere.

Without getting into a big long argument about it, I'd like to see a lot more detail about this claim before acting on it. Local weather is a huge factor in whether a given year is good or bad so it would be quite striking indeed for a year to be a certain single level of quality "pretty much everywhere." Maybe you meant everywhere in the Duoro but again I'd like to see some detail if that's the suggestion.

And in my experience, vineyard-to-vineyard variation can seriously trump annual variations except in very good or very bad years. I would be entirely comfortable buying an emotionally-motivated bottle from a "mediocre" year unless I had specific info that the specific producer had trouble that year.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 12:06 PM on October 27, 2015


Usually if you can't find bottles for a given vintage in the secondary market it means that in most markets they were bottled for cuvees that were meant to be consumed quickly because the winemakers didn't think they could age. There is not a lot out there in inventory for 1965 is all.

For example on Cellartracker there are about 1600 bottles from 1965 in inventory total. 1961 there are 11,250 bottles in inventory.

The best years (61 and 66) are up in the 10k+ range. Most other years are around 4-7k. 1965 is an outlier.

My point wasn't "avoid 1965, it was a bad year" precisely because I agree with you about the importance of vintage, but rather - "weak year, hard to find on the secondary market."
posted by JPD at 1:15 PM on October 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


Also can I just say MetaFilter massively limits what old wines to drink. Fifty years is nothing for a good vintage in lots of regions. Its not just about Port.
posted by JPD at 1:16 PM on October 27, 2015


You could get a 50year tawny port that's non-vintage, e.g. Yalumba 50yr.
posted by jeffamaphone at 1:28 PM on October 27, 2015


Regarding port, 65 was not a declared vintage, so you would need to find a 65 under a second label. I believe Graham made a pretty good Quinta Malvedos in 65 but it was probably at its best at about 25 or 30 years old. I'd look for a Colheita as was suggested above, Kopke is very reliable and I see a number of listings for the 65 in wine-searcher. It seems to run a couple of hundred dollars. I suspect a "50 year old tawny" from Portugal would be about as much. Madeira might also be a possibility, it pretty much lasts forever.

Barolo or a similar wine (Gattinara or Spanna) is a possibility if you could find it. 65 was at least a good vintage. According to this discussion thread, California had a good harvest in 65.
posted by mr vino at 6:41 PM on October 27, 2015


Best answer: Here's a place to start, perhaps?
posted by h00py at 12:16 AM on October 28, 2015


I just saw this on Chambers St's site - 65 Barolo, good producer, excellent merchant. $99.99.
posted by mr vino at 2:14 PM on October 29, 2015


Response by poster: Good advice all, thanks. I hadn't heard of armagnac before. I've placed some orders and their 50th should be a well lubricated affair.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:53 PM on October 30, 2015


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