I've heard from friends that one is suppose to store port standing up, contrary to the lay the bottle down philosophy. I have a few bottles of vintage ports and I currently have them laid down, but I worry if it might leak!

thanks!

Although some here have recently maintained that storing wines on their sides is not necessary, I wouldn't chance it. Store your port on its side. Do stand the port up for several days prior to opening and decanting to allow the sediment to collect in the bottom of the bottle. This lessens the likelihood of getting glop in your glass!

PH

TY PurpleHaze!

Welcome. What Ports do you have, anyway? If they're young I hope you are too.....

PH

An old age of 28. I've got a vertical of fonseca from 1977 onwards (minus the 1980 which was not pleasant and drunk already). A bottle of sandeman 1970, grahams 1977, 85 dow, few 03 taylors. Nice small and personal collection but one hopefully will go on the years of my life =)

Welcome g-man.

Store your VPort on they're sides.
When consuming, stand the bottle up a few days before your planning to pull the cork so all the sediment will settle on the bottom.
Careful Straining and Decanting is recommended.
You may find a slight sediment stain up the neck of the bottle (from storing on it's side), but its no big deal.

Good Luck.

quote:

Although some here have recently maintained that storing wines on their sides is not necessary,

PH, I feel I need to address your point as I think you may be refering to me. If the above is the impression you were left with from my post, I have either expressed myself poorly, or you have misunderstood my post.

I can think of no reason not to store wine horizontally. Sparkling wine (which was the subject of the previous post) is the exception, where the wine is protected by a layer of CO2 which is heavier than air, and the argument therefore goes you can store it vertically if you like. One might also argue that a Madeira no longer can be harmed by air as it has already been exposed to both heat and oxygen.

But this does not extend to port. I would - and do - keep all my bottles horizontally, including my sparkling wine.

Yes, Markus....I was referring to your post. Particularly where you stated:

quote:

I should point out that I'm not convinced by the entire keeping-the-cork-moist argument.

Modern corks are coated with a film of silicone and paraffin, both hydrophobic substances, and thus as far as I can understand a cork would not be affected by moisture unless that film is faulty.

I've had plenty of wines, even some of fairly recent vintage where wine has obviously permeated at least a portion of the cork and thusly has had some effect on keeping the cork moist.

PH

I do have a problem with the above supposition, just as I said, but it doesn't change the fact that there are more reasons than moisture content of the cork to keep the bottle horizontally as I wrote in the original post. I thus do not advocate storing bottles in any other position.

When you say that the wine has permeated the cork, do you mean permeated the cork or simply slipped past the side of the cork as between the glass and the cork? Because if it is the latter - which I see all the time - it has nothing to do with cork moisture or permeation, but rather with cork size and adhesion. To see that it has actually permeated the cork, one needs to cut the cork in half along the long side of the cork.

Yes, Markus, I've had corks where the wine penetrated past the surface of the cork. First discovered this when in a moment of clumsiness I managed to break a cork off while extracting it. The wine in this case proved to be sound (delicious actually.) If I recall correctly it had penetrated around 25% of the cork from the bottom end, and was quite stained throughout on the exterior as well.

PH

Interesting, PH. I guess to get any further in this I will have to prove how much of a wine geek I really am and start to clinically cut corks in half.

Frankly, now that you've brought this up, I'll do it more often myself. Details to follow.

Interestingly, there has been some discussion on the boards about the 2001 Costanti Brunello having "soaked" corks. Would be interested to hear more from those who have experienced this? I know Foghorn was one, and I think some of our Canadien friends as well?

PH

Markus,

I see it quite often in the older vintage of ports. I'd say almost every bottle of graham's 77 I've popped and a 70s sandeman had the cork soaked 25% of the way through just as PH described. Usually the cork did break in half (due to my clumsiness also) and you can clearly see the cork purple all the way through from then on. The wine was still fantastic though and the rest of the cork (if it didn't crumble) came out with a satisfactory little pop. And thanks tyee for the welcome =)

If your wine storage rack is truly horizontal, next time you are installing a new wine rack, or rearranging an existing one, try raising the bottle neck side of the rack just an inch or so (I tack a 1X2 under the bottom of the rack). That will tilt the bottle ever so slightly, but it will be enough to encourage sediment to drop to the bottom of the bottle while keeping the cork fully covered by liquid. This aids the spontaneous port drinker who has not planned far enough ahead to put a bottle upright.

BRILLIANT!

I've rarely had a bottle of aged (25+ years) port where the cork was not largely saturated, and it often broke on removal, which is find if one is straining, as I always do with vintage port.

BTW g-man, nice little collection you've got there For a moment I thought you were my best pal gman, but he's nearly twice your age and has different ports.

Yeah, and the elevated alcohol would probably do its damage on the cork as well, slowly wearing down the structure.

bman:


after a few bottles, everyone can be my best pal!