lilypoo

I am going to Lisbon soon and would like to buy a really good bottle of port wine for my brother who is a wine connoisseur. Does anyone have any suggestions? How about a good red wine?

Lydio

Just buy a good vintage port. One nice idea is to buy one from an important year for him - like the year of his birth/birth of child etc...but obviously this does not mean that its a good vintage.

ira

Hi L,

I think the best person to ask is your brother, the wine connoisseur.

lobo_mau

Try the Port WIne Institute. They have thousands of different varieties. You may sample a few (not too expensive, but not free) and if you don't arrive to a conclusion, just tell the staff what you are looking for and they will give you their advice.

ekscrunchy

All vintages of Port are good vintages. If the winery in the Duoro does not consider the wine to be worthy, they will not declare a vintage.

So you can be safe buying any vintage Port. Keep in mind that these should be aged for years before drinking; if you want to drink right away, look for a Late Bottled Vintage Port or an aged Tawny Port.

There are also some wonderful red wines from Portugal.

ekscrunchy

ooops...inexcusable spelling mistake:

the Douro River, not the "Duoro."

PalenQ

And Porto, the commercial home of Port wine, is just a few hours north of Lisbon by train or car.
The port 'factory' tours here on the Douro River offer visited and tastings. There are several clustered together.
Porto to me is one of Europe's finest old-world atmosphere towns, something relatively lacking in Lisbon.

kleeblatt

Vintage, vintage, vintage.

I went on a port wine tasting tour once. We had tried port wine in Porto, then up the valley, then back down. Don't have a list of all the places we went to but I do remember that vintage is the best even though it's more expensive. Definitely worth paying more because the younger wines just aren't as good.

lilypoo

Thanks for the info!