Vintage Declaration

*Wine update* Many porto houses in Portugal declared the 2003 year as a vintage year for porto wine. What does that mean? On average, only three times in a decade is a vintage year declared. The port wine has to reach a certain quality to be released as a vintage wine. The last year that was declared was the 2000 vintage. Understand what I'm saying? This is a good batch of wines. Now you might be asking, "Why are you talking about the 2003 vintage year now?" Well, the year is not declared until it is judged good enough which can't be done until at least 18 months after harvest. So, the declaration was pretty recent. The timing is due to the fact that I went to BevMo and finally, they were there. Those beautiful vintage ports which only constitute 2% of the grape production of the port houses' grapes. So, I bought a few. Here's the list: Fonseca Taylor Fladgate Croft's Graham's They'll be ready to drink in 30-50 years, so now I just have to sit back and wait. I'm glad I didn't decide to start buying when I turned 80. At that age, I might be pretty impatient.