I just opened my first bottle of Port Wine - Warre's Warrior Port - I just loved the taste. It was pretty strong though, but still good. My question is about how long can you keep an opened bottle of this on your wine table? Also, how long can you keep an unopened bottle? It does not have a vintage date on the bottle, so I'm thinking a year or so???.

Thanks a million

Peaches

I myself have not been able to warm up to Port. Some people just love it.

quote:

Originally posted by spo:
I myself have not been able to warm up to Port. Some people just love it.

Spo,

I was middle of the road when it came to Port until I had a mind blowing tasting with a vintage Port.

It was a 1853 Vinage Port that blew me away.

quote:

Originally posted by spo:
I myself have not been able to warm up to Port. Some people just love it.

Same here. Too sweet for me.

Open wine will be good refrigerated for about 3 days. Closed bottles...stored properly, will stay good for decades sometimes...but each wine has what you call a drinking window. Meaning it's better enjoyed now, in 1-3 years, in 8 years etc...You will often see in the tasting notes, recommendations to drink now, hold for 3 years, etc...Some wines are better with age, while others are more fragile and better drunk now. At least that's my understanding.

If you are not aging anything, just keep your wines at a cool, constant temp. (but not in the fridge) and they should be fine for a couple years. Extreme heat will damage them though, so if it's warm in your house, I'd say, don't keep them longer than a few months.

quote:

Originally posted by Peaches:
I just opened my first bottle of Port Wine - Warre's Warrior Port - I just loved the taste. It was pretty strong though, but still good. My question is about how long can you keep an opened bottle of this on your wine table? Also, how long can you keep an unopened bottle? It does not have a vintage date on the bottle, so I'm thinking a year or so???.

Thanks a million

Peaches

Port is a fortified wine, so if you put it in your fridge (not on the counter top, or table) it will probably keep for a minimum of a week. Non-fortified wines will oxidize much quicker. There are all sorts of "tricks" to extend the life a little (Vacu-vin, inert gas, pouring int a 375 bottle) but that is another discussion.

A NV wine is meant to be drunk upon release. While they can hold on for a few years (assuming you're not keeping them in 70+ degree temps), they will certainly not get any better.

I did purchase a wine vac and so far I have been able to keep opened red wines for a couple of extra days. The "Port Wines did not come with a actually cork per say. It was a pull-out cork that did not seem to be tightly sealed; thus, I wasn't sure if I needed to just replace the original top without sealing the bottle.

I did a little trial/error last night and the Port wine taste just as good yesterday as today without vac sealing. Now tomorrow may be a different story. I like my red wines room temperature so, I do not refrigerate after opening.

Thanks a million everyone for your suggestions.

Peaches

Peaches, a few things.

Keeping them in the fridge is better for the wine than the counter top. If you like your reds at room temp, you can pour yourself a glass (or just take the entire bottle out of the fridge) about 30 mins. before you plan to drink it. If you don't have 30 mins., you can always nuke it for 10 seconds on a low power setting (try 3 if your microwave goes from 1-10).

quote:

Originally posted by mwagner7700:
Peaches, a few things.

Keeping them in the fridge is better for the wine than the counter top. If you like your reds at room temp, you can pour yourself a glass (or just take the entire bottle out of the fridge) about 30 mins. before you plan to drink it. If you don't have 30 mins., you can always nuke it for 10 seconds on a low power setting (try 3 if your microwave goes from 1-10).

Thanks for your advise - I wasn't sure if the cooling/warming would be good or bad for the opened bottles. I guess I could try the microwave warming. I barely have enough time to drink the wine these days let alone wait for it to warm-up. Except on weekends of course... Thanks Again - mwagner7700

Peaches

Oops - missed this one altogether and so did the real Port-heads.

Warre's Warrior is at the bottom of the pile of a mid-high-level Port house. If you liked that then you are in for a wonderful time when you get to the better stuff. I like Warre's.

There are basically four types of Port - Ruby, Tawny, Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) and Vintage. Ok, there's white, but we don't talk about that.

Ruby covers a multitude of sins such as Reserve, Special Reserve and Vintage Character. It is at the lowest price point and the lowest standard but there are some good ones out there and Warrior falls under "better than average" in my book. These will keep for a while in the bottle, but stikc them in the fridge like mwagner says. Unopened they will last a few years before deteriorating significantly.

Tawny is a blended Port that is made from different vintages and made with a different profile in mind. they take on a nutty flavour and are lighter. These have an age rather than a vintage, such as Ten Years or Twenty Years, representing the average age of the wine inside. Colheita is a specific type of Tawny, which represents the best of this style, and normally gets a year associated with it but it is NOT Vintage. These will last longest after opening, at least a week, quite often more. It is also the best one chilled. It will not improve nor deteriorate significantly unopened in the bottle.

There are two types of LBV: Filtered and Unfiltered (or Traditional). The best are Unfiltered but they also cost more - Warre's and Noval are the best of the easily available. For filtered, see Ruby, although I had an old one that went tawny on me. For unfiltered, this will improve in the bottle over a number of years, dependent on producer and vintage. 1992 and 1994 Warre's LBV is still lovely.

Vintage is the top stuff. These are broken into two types - Single Quinta and the full declared vintage.

Single Quinta means that the wine all comes from the same vineyard, the big houses will create these in non-declared vintages where certain vineyards have been better than others. A real classic in this is Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas, but Graham's Malvedos is also top quality. Some producers only make a Single Quinta port, which will be their top wine. Some producers bang together a blend in lesser years and give it another name, like Fonseca Guimaraens.

Vintage is normally a blend from many vineyards from a specific producer. These are the top of the tree and the most expensive. When they are good they are pretty much unbeatable. The top producers are Taylor, Graham, Fonseca, Dow, Croft, Sandeman, Warre, Noval... .... dum te dume te dum. The aforementioned Portheads can fill in the blanks. This will deteriorate quickly after opening but will mature for decades in the bottle. The 1966 bottles that have had have all been absolutley superb - that's Sandeman, Taylor, Graham, Croft and Fonseca. Just wondrous nectar.

StevieCage, Ronnie Roots, Lady Roots, bman, Tsunami and Blobby are all more serious and knowledgeable than me.

quote:

My question is about how long can you keep an opened bottle ofthis on your wine table?

the warrior looks be made like a tawny with only 5-6 year cask insted of the minimum of 10y for a tawny.

anyway it is cask-aged, stabilized and filterd

so it should keep nice for at least 30 days, it can hold up nicely for 60 days, and keep but with loss of freshness and finearomatic withhin 6 month.

quote:

Also, how long can you keep an unopened bottle?

since it is stabilized and filterd, it can be kept for qutie long...
but it makes no sens!

quote:

It does not have a vintage date on the bottle, so I'm thinking a year or so???.

ports like this are not from one vintage, and are blended.


@ killerb,
you do to mutch understatement

Nice to see you back Tsunami, I put the names in to grab attention from the truly serious imbibers. I can do the basic stuff on Port but the knowledge on a wide range must be left to the likes of you. You can even recommend White Ports!!

Kller B...awesome response - well done my man (or my lady??? can't tell from the name, sorry)

Just checked - I'm a man.

Thanks zblang, nice to be appreciated.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by KillerB:
The 1966 bottles that have had have all been absolutley superb - that's Sandeman, Taylor, Graham, Croft and Fonseca. Just wondrous nectar.


Ok Killerb - I never got a chance to thank you and others for your suggestions - I have invested in several bottles of Vintage Port wines "Taylor, Warres etc.." problem is I have to cellar them for about 20 or more years. I am too busy to attend auctions and barely have enough time to send this post - It's 1:59 am and I am still working... So, Where can I get 1966 bottles of Vintage Port Wines?

Thanks,

Peaches

PS. I also purchased some LBV Taylor Port - haven't opened yet, but probably will on Christmas. Merry Christmas