I dont know about you guys but Im seeing some scary price increases in stores. These are regular prices, not the falsely inflated stuff that then goes 'half-price' the following week.

Was in Waitrose at the weekend, St Hallett Gamekeeper's Reserve is now £9.99 a bottle, Vina Sol £7.49, CyT Cab £7.99.

These used to be regular £4.99 wines with the occasional £1 off.

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Yep, Im still here.

GK, Yeah - So I opened another bottle of the Fragoso chardonnay, and momentarily put two fingers-up. When they're gone, I'm hoping you'll have found another price beater - cheers for now.

BTW, I'm also ploughing my way thru an old bottle of LBV port from M&S at Christmas. It's quite decent, some peppery cut, and with a bit of nice grouty texture...... So, may have been made from a good vintage year. Not too sweet, I dunno ? It may be a 2004 LBV, given the time it's been in the sideboard !

Is LBV made from a mix of vintage years, or single ? GK, you know this detail.

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Duncan

Tis my understanding that LBV is a kind of 'imitation' proper vintage port, and therefore is single vintage and should be dated on the label.

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Four wheels move the body - 2 wheels move the soul.

As I understand it, and in brief....

LBV is single vintage, left to age for longer in the barrel (4+ years) and released when ready to drink.
VP is aged in the barrel for around 2 years and then bottled, the wine then continues to age in the bottle.

The LBV wines originally started out as VPs, but when demand was low and the producers failed to sell all the wine it sat around in barrels for longer, aged quicker and was sold ready to drink, 'late bottled'.

I seek out the unfiltered or traditional LBVs as these will continue to improve in bottle.

On the subject of, I opened a 6yo bottle of homemade elderberry port at the weekend, the wife wanted something nice to poach some pears in for after dinner. Incredible flavour, I’m glad I have several more bottles to enjoy in the years to come.

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Yep, Im still here.

Thanks for this port information.
I shall look-out for that crusted Graham's port again at Sainsbury's. With inflation running so damn high, particularly food prices south of Watford, coupled with the 20% hike in energy costs - There has never been a better reason for sipping Port occasionally.

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Duncan