What's in your glass today?


maverickdrinker

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Thought that I would start this off for the new year. Good to see what people's favorite or current libation is. Tonight, The Balvenie Portwood 21...

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I'm feeling better today,  Not as dark, tense, and angry as I have been the past several days. Today was better. Chores around the house, building a new humidor, repaired a door frame, and just being

10 hours ago, SirVantes said:

Taking @BrightonCorgi’s lead. A hit with Vacherin Mont d’or and blue cheese.

'85 Fonseca is probably single best vintage of the decade.  Will age another 30-40 years no problem.  I recently won a case at auction.

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16 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Thanksgiving was severely scaled back due to our guests all getting Covid before the big day.  It was just Elys and I so we kept it reasonable for the day.  Here's the two we drank.  Saw black friday special on Heidsieck today, but all spent out on wine this week...

You're inspiring me to open my Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve by Christmas. I probably will!

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On 11/26/2021 at 5:13 PM, JohnS said:

You're inspiring me to open my Charles Heidsieck Brut Reserve by Christmas. I probably will!

I read the price is jumping up on a lot on next years, so buy some more if you can.

A local wine shop has for $42 USD.  No sales tax either.

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Last night I needed a leftover turkey break (ended up having turkey either way) and wanted to try out a recently case of wine; 1997 Monsanto Il Poggio Riserva.  Monsanto is my go to favorite Chianti and they have stayed traditional and can age really well.  '97 may not be the best vintage, but Monsanto managed to produce a winner.  Some wine critics say, "to see how great a wine producer is, drink poor vintages and see how well they do."  They did well!

 

1997 Monsanto.jpg

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7 hours ago, SirVantes said:

How was it? Just entering the drinking window?

Always enjoy this wine and it’s my sixth from this vintage. Tough to have full enjoyment as due to high winds we lost power for about six hours. So steaks on the grill were fine but we had to improvise on the sides and eat by candlelight. Some may call that romantic, but I call it stressful 😂

I think it’s been drinking well for a few years and really noticed the color change due to age more on this bottle than any previous. I’d probably guess it has a few good years in it but not sure how much past that. 

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10 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Had a fun night of cigars and port.  A friend came to visit and we usually go heavy on port and few cigars.  This season is was 1960 Taylor.  Had another one in 2019 and forget we had it then.  The 2019 was a British bottled.  I think this one may be a Portuguese bottled version.  The 2019 was much darker and clearer.  This years was cloudy.  Both were excellent but this year's was a couple of points down.  2nd port was 1963 Niepoort.  Absolute stunner.  Doesn't get much better for the vintage.  Have had this port a few times and always a home run.  3rd was 1963 Fonseca....  Have had this port at least a dozen times and always consistent.  Real stunner.  Had a little more precision to it than the Niepoort and slightly longer finish.  Half point difference between the Niepoort and Fonseca.  After we killed those three bottles, we need something else for a pop and pour.  1995 Vesuvio to the rescue.  Wow, that was a great one too.  Seems like 1995 is younger today than 1985 was ten years ago.

 

As for cigars, I started off with an Esplendidos and then Sancho Panza Belelux regional.  My friend with an original release Behike (said it wasn't very good) and then a Siglo II.

Here's a during picture and nice one of the bottles the next day

 

20221211_Cigar_Night_v1.jpg

20221211_Cigar_Night_v2.jpg

i'm always interested in how much older Neipoort you have access to. it was very rarely seen out here for many years. a good importer now. i remember some colheita from 63 and then i got some 94s at auction (still have them - might be time to dig one out), but almost never saw it. what i have seen, i think Dirk has the wines at a level above anything previously. which is not to suggest that there were not good wines previously. 

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3 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

i'm always interested in how much older Neipoort you have access to. it was very rarely seen out here for many years. a good importer now. i remember some colheita from 63 and then i got some 94s at auction (still have them - might be time to dig one out), but almost never saw it. what i have seen, i think Dirk has the wines at a level above anything previously. which is not to suggest that there were not good wines previously. 

Niepoort is rare in US.  I don't have access to much, honestly.  There is little distribution in the North East.  More on the west coast.  More Niepoort dry wines in around than fortified.  Their ports were more common in the 90's around here.  Dirk does little to promote in New England.  One of the largest Portuguese communities in the US is in MA.  Colheita and Garrafeira are the styles that really set Niepoort apart. 

Have you had the 1900 Colheita? Or the Coche white wine?  Could be Portugal's finest white!

I know they had a bottling issue for quite some time.  Bacteria they couldn't remove on the bottling line (or something like that).  90's ports can be iffy.  I think I have some 94's; they sell pretty cheap.   Had a Niepoort '94 at restaurant a few years ago in Raleigh, NC with a cigar.  Broadbent use to import a Douro Reserve made by Niepoort in '07 I have a case or so of.  Broadbent offered it one year, but competed with Crasto too much.  Now he no longer imports Crasto from what I heard. 

I am not big fan of Crasto ports, but adore their dry wines.

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58 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Niepoort is rare in US.  I don't have access to much, honestly.  There is little distribution in the North East.  More on the west coast.  More Niepoort dry wines in around than fortified.  Their ports were more common in the 90's around here.  Dirk does little to promote in New England.  One of the largest Portuguese communities in the US is in MA.  Colheita and Garrafeira are the styles that really set Niepoort apart. 

Have you had the 1900 Colheita? Or the Coche white wine?  Could be Portugal's finest white!

I know they had a bottling issue for quite some time.  Bacteria they couldn't remove on the bottling line (or something like that).  90's ports can be iffy.  I think I have some 94's; they sell pretty cheap.   Had a Niepoort '94 at restaurant a few years ago in Raleigh, NC with a cigar.  Broadbent use to import a Douro Reserve made by Niepoort in '07 I have a case or so of.  Broadbent offered it one year, but competed with Crasto too much.  Now he no longer imports Crasto from what I heard. 

I am not big fan of Crasto ports, but adore their dry wines.

we still don't see much here but a local bloke is excellent with spanish and portuguese wines. brings in most of the top stuff. the port houses, the traditional ones, been here for many decades. 

i found myself in a tasting of their colheitas and others back to the very late 1800s in oporto once (might have stopped at 1900). amazing stuff. it was some portuguese wine exhibition. very strange. friend and i were asked if we'd like to join a tasting first morning. 60-80 local wines. turned out to be the comp for portugal's best wine. but they insisted on taking our notes and i never found out what the wines were and what won. some terrific stuff, though. no idea why we were asked or who they thought we were. 

at the colheita tasting, which a local friend had got me into, when we were leaving, she was talking to the organisers who came up and asked if we'd come back tomorrow. she whispered to us - 'tomorrow, we are doing the old wines'. when you've just gone back to 1900 or so, the mind boggles. but she was right. next day was a tasting of ferreira VPs, half a dozen different vintages back to the 1847. all from the House's cellars. some in magnums. i don't have the notes with me but i think also 1893, 1947, 1917? and a couple of others. but they had opened heaps of bottles - crazy. so the two of us travelling and my local friend were asked to help drink them now that they were open. we spent 3-4 hours trying to drink the old VPs (we'd wave our hand and say, 'another 1847, i think' - completely surreal experience) before we had to get to an organised dinner. we were horribly late and messy. a very old bloke (who was still around when i was there a couple of years ago, came up and asked if we enjoyed the 1847 - turns out his grandmother made it. when i said very much, he was pleased. seems he has a few more bottles in his cellar). 

i have always quite liked the crasto wines, ports and dry wines. that same friend who got us into these tastings convinced me to stick around one year - not the same year - and said she'd sort accommodation. next thing, i get dropped off at the Crasto House for 4-5 days. talk about how the other half live. they were fantastically hospitible and generous. really lovely people. but the money!!!!! i believe the owner's brother owns, or is the main shareholder in sporting lisbon. i think the same might apply to the family where i stayed and the oporto team. i think both brothers own banks. i remember spending one afternoon with a great bottle of port up at their infinity pool. when i say up, i mean it. it is built at the top of one of the very high hills overlooking the duoro. truly magnificent. the greatest views you could imagine. i floated around and enjoyed the port and smoked a superb SLR DC. those were the days! 

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Have you been to Quinta do Portal?  They too are a wealthy family that sounds like the way you describe Crasto.  Portal is also a beautiful property and one I'd love to spend a few days at the next time in the Douro.  Crasto has that epic view though as you mentioned; really special.  Quinta de la Rosa has quite a majestic view too, but the accommodations are not as fancy.  Their reserve wines are amazing.

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13 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

Have you been to Quinta do Portal?  They too are a wealthy family that sounds like the way you describe Crasto.  Portal is also a beautiful property and one I'd love to spend a few days at the next time in the Douro.  Crasto has that epic view though as you mentioned; really special.  Quinta de la Rosa has quite a majestic view too, but the accommodations are not as fancy.  Their reserve wines are amazing.

i have not.

small world. this morning i got a query about a lunch which is on friday with one of the guys wondering about bringing a magnum of 2011 quinta do vale meao meandro. which was made by the very chap i was talking about whose grandmother made the ferreira. 

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10 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

i have not.

small world. this morning i got a query about a lunch which is on friday with one of the guys wondering about bringing a magnum of 2011 quinta do vale meao meandro. which was made by the very chap i was talking about whose grandmother made the ferreira. 

Vale Meao Meandro is a great wine.  Their 2nd wine I believe.  Costco use to sell it for like $22 and I bought a lot of it.  2007 Vintage and I still have about 4-5 bottles.  Usually it's about 10 years on base Douro wine, reserva's about 20 years before starting to fade.  The Meandro is still going strong.  Meandro could be one of the Douro benchmark's for regular wine along with Ramos Pinto Duas Quintas.  I use to include Symington's Altano, but they've changed styles for the worse.

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