I got a bottle of 1977 Warre’s Port for my birthday. The last time I drank Port I didn’t enjoy it… Any suggestions??
hopefully my bro will chime in…but I would probably open a couple of hours prior to drinking and chill to low cellar temperature/high refrigerator temp. Then serve with something appropriate and DO NOT serve after you’ve had a bunch of other wines…you won’t appreciate it and you’ll claim it gave you a hangover in the am…
The 77s are pretty young still. I would decant a day in advance, serve at about 60F. Love port.
Thanks Tony…
Warre’s is a very nice house that often doesn’t get the full recognition that it deserves. The house style tends to be more sleek and elegant than something like a Fonseca that is a brute. I often say the Warre’s is a Rolls Royce where a Fonseca is a Ferrari. That said I often find that Warre’s VP’s often do better with longer decants. For the '77, which If memory serves, I’ve had about 5-6 times in the past year or so I’d decant for about 9-10 hours prior to drinking.
As my brother mentioned, DONT drink copious amounts of dry wine and leave this for the finally, only to be to tired or drunk to drink it. It does a disservice to you and the Port. Serving it slightly cooler is not bad, I like mine somewhere between about 65-70 degrees. So above cellar but below room temp.
I hope you enjoy this beauty and let us know how it goes. Have a happy birthday!
Open it up in the AM, invite some friends over, grab some cheese…enjoy.
I was loving this at a pre-Flannery Fest event.
All the feedback is wonderful!! Looks like I will be decanting this for 9-10 hours before drinking it with some great cheeses and great company…
Thanks everyone! Andy you know your Port… Very nice!
I am probably stating the obvious but I would also suggest small sampling throughout the decanting process. If nothing else you could get some observations of the evolution of the port as it breathes. Since I rarely have the patience (or the forethought) to decant that far in advance I would be interested in hearing about this.
Make sure you carefully pour the bottle when decanting so that you can remove as much sediment as possible. You might even consider straining through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth.
Metal sieve sure, cheesecloth? no way. Some long chain hydrocarbons will be absorbed by the cheese cloth and you’ll lose flavors/aromas.
OK physics/chemistry boy…
I have done this several times without any problems.
I don’t know who told you that, but I use unbleached cheese cloth all the time. Matter of fact for all my Vintage Ports, old and new, I use unbleached cheese cloth. Considering I’ve used this method with Ports going back to 1815 without any issues, I’d say your wrong.
Metal sieve for me, not a fan of the cheesecloth…no particular reason, just never used it.
Great. I’m wrong.
Do this for me. Get access to a GC/MS.
A. Take some of the bottle just opened and take a sample. GC/MS, get the results.
B. Now pour some of that bottle through the metal strainer. GC/MS, get the results. A and B will match
C. Now pour some of that bottle through the cheese cloth. GC/MS, get the results. C is chemically different from A and B.
D. Now take some of the port you strained through the metal strainer, and GC/MS. Oh wait, the chemistry changed. D is different from A and B. It matches C.
I’m sure the GC/MS is also wrong. No one told the GC/MS, it just reported the results.
I’m sure your unbiased palate is more accurate than a GC/MS to tell everyone that you haven’t altered the chemistry and thus the aromas and flavors.
I’m NOT saying you cannot enjoy a port through a cheesecloth, rather that cheese cloth DOES remove chemical constituents so you are altering the wine by doing that vs. through an inert metal strainer.
Without access to a GC/MS, tell me… does the cheese cloth change color?
What causes colors? Hydrocarbons. Those are left behind. Not all but some.
What causes aromas? Hydrocarbons. Does the cheese cloth somehow have a brain and say “I’ll take this colored one but not the scent one?” No the cheese cloth just captures some percentage of all hydrocarbons that pass through it.
What causes flavors? Hydrocarbons. Does the cheese cloth somehow have a brain and say “I’ll take this colored one but not the flavor one?” No the cheese cloth just captures some percentage of all hydrocarbons that pass through it.
I got a bottle of 1977 Warre’s Port for my birthday. The last time I drank Port I didn’t enjoy it… Any suggestions??
Yeah, you’re port hater. Send it to me. My wife loves port.
There are all kinds of permutaitons on port. Old port, young port, ruby port, tawney port. Just make sure you try a lot of different stuff before you give up on it. Personally, I love port. There are few wines that consistently give me as much pleasure.
I will nto argue with Jeff GC experience, because people like him and my wife have far more experience in that area than I do.
But, I appreciate your thoughts on it, and it is for that reason that something like cheescloth has always made me wary. I even hate metal funnels, metal screens, and decanters, because those are all extra variables that can ruin your wine if you mess up and not realize that it is not clean, for example.
I have always used an old beer six bottle holder to hold my bottle at a 60 degree angle to trap the sediment in the bottom corner. I will do this a few days in advance. Then, I just very carefully pour. I have never had a problem with that.
Any kind of porous material you use to filter a wine will strip it to a certain extent, whether it be cellusose filtration material, or a cheesecloth. That being said, I seriously doubt that if you blind tasted a cheesecloth vs. metal strainer port, you could perceive any difference.
Any kind of porous material you use to filter a wine will strip it to a certain extent, whether it be cellusose filtration material, or a cheesecloth. That being said, I seriously doubt that if you blind tasted a cheesecloth vs. metal strainer port, you could perceive any difference.
We’re making the same point here.
I’m NOT saying you cannot enjoy a port through a cheesecloth, rather that cheese cloth DOES remove chemical constituents so you are altering the wine by doing that vs. through an inert metal strainer.