When it comes to collectable wine, few categories offer so much as Port – so why aren't people buying more of it?
Port offers a lot to fine wine lovers: variety of styles, prestige, longevity, consistency and value – even at the top end, as we shall see.
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So why, then, are consumers not knocking down the doors of Port houses to add a few cases to their collections? Searches on our site for Port have been declining over the past decade. Not as fast as those for other fortified wines (particularly Sherry), but its a definitely downward trend, nonetheless.
As Port's older cohort of consumers have faded from the purchasing scene, there has been no wave of replacement Port drinkers to take up the slack, which is suprising, given Port's obvious merits. Indeed, it's hard to find a wine lover who does not readily agree that they love good Port, but even harder to find a wine lover with a decent number of bottles in their collection.
That's a shame, because Port offers not just excellent quality and astonishing ageability, but also real value. Even at the top end of the market, as illustrated in the table below, Port is nowhere near the price levels of Burgundy, or even Napa, despite being a wine that can happily lie dormant in a cellar for a century and still provide excellent drinking when it's finally opened.
It's telling that the most expensive Ports are more affordable than the corresponding list of most expensive Tequilas, although that probably says as much about the trendy Tequila market as it does about the less sexy Port sector.
With age comes wisdom, the old adage tells us, but in Port's case age is accompanied by beauty – few wines age as gracefully or as long, so it's no suprise to see some serioously old wines on our most expensive list.
The Most Expensive Ports on Wine-Searcher:
| Port Name | Score | Ave Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ramos Pinto Vinces Very Old Tawny | N/A | $9023 | |
| W & J Graham's Ne Oublie Tawny | 100 | $7535 | |
| Taylor's Kingsman Edition Very Old Tawny | 94 | $4826 | |
| Taylor's Scion Vintage Port | N/A | $4461 | |
| Taylor's Limited Editions 1896 Single Harvest | N/A | $4396 | |
| Taylor's Limited Editions 1863 Single Harvest | N/A | $3814 | |
| Quinta das Carvalhas Memories Very Old Tawny | 97 | $2900 | |
| Quinta do Vallado Adelaide Tributa | 96 | $2778 | |
| Niepoort V V Old Tawny | 98 | $1584 | |
| Ferreira Garrafeira | 95 | $1568 |
Notwithstanding talk of value above, there are some pricy bottles on this list, but context is everything. Half the wines on the list can trace their heritage back to the 19th Century – not the companies (which date back much farther), but the actual wine in the bottle. Understandably, these wines are rarities – another spur for collectors.
Consequently, there aren't many of these wines around. The most widely available is Real Compania Velha's Quinta das Carvalhas Memories, a bottling that includes wine made in 1867. There are 107 offers globally for that wine, while the others have 40 or fewer offers on Wine-Searcher.
That makes them prime candidates for collectors, as do the scores these wines have attained with the critics. The lowest aggregated critic score is 94, while Graham's Ne Oublie (a 650-bottle release from the 1882 vintage) is rated 100 by the critics. Add in the presence of wines from 1896 and 1863 from the Taylor Fladgate stable and we're talking serious levels of collectability.
Perhaps price is the issue – the wines on this list have all been remarkably consistent in global average retail price since they were released, with few of the peaks and troughs associated with other wine regions; maybe they simply don't have enough monetary attraction for investors.
But they certainly represent an opportunity for those who actually drink their collections to taste some of the greatest wines still available.
