Discussion

sidpatil: Original title: 'Rubens Menin's "Very Very Old" Port wine'

quantdude: Not quite 150 years old, but I've got a bottle of Taylor's 1896 Single Harvest Port in a bonded warehouse in the UK. Not sure I'll ever find the right situation to justify partaking of its 130 year vintage.https://www.taylor.pt/en/port-wine/1896-single-harvest

barrkel: I've tasted madiera-style wine from Crimea IIRC from the 1800s. It was in an Enomatic machine in Hedonism Wines in London. I could not say it was appreciably better than something more modern.On the other hand, I've had a glass of tawny port from the 1970s that Chez Bruce had on the menu at one point that kicked off a fruitless search into every barrel aged fortified wine I could get my hands on to recapture. It had a caramel taste that lingered for 30 minutes or more after the last sip. Amazing stuff.

jimnotgym: A couple of tangential commentsFirstly, even if you find fortified wines like port a little rich, please don't discount the other wines of the Douro Valley. They make some fabulous reds in particular and are good value.Secondly, for history buffs, I hand you a rabbit hole. Why do so many of the great port brands have very British sounding names?

ericmay: Champagne has an interesting tie to the UK as well.Agree with you about Douro Valley. The oldest port I’ve had was something like a 1928 Seppeltsfield (don’t recall the exact year). The nose was incredible and at that age, not very sweet at all. How was it served? About a spoon’s worth, dip your finger in and rub on your lips haha. You can find the bottles though, it’s not super expensive. Really cool if you haven’t had something like that before.