Where Do You Buy Your Vintage Port?

Dumb question (and I did a search for the answer, which I couldn’t find)…

Where do you all buy your vintage port? Right from the producers? Retail?

I tend to acquire a few bottles a year at auction, but wish to get a bit more serious about it.

What’s the best place to buy 3-6-12 bottles on release?

And what about older vintages?

Thanks in advance!

I get mine from K&L but any good local shop should have a selection from the big houses. If you want smaller, family run wineries, you’d have to go to Portugal.

Retail, either local or on the web, for old and current release.

Auction is a good source for older bottles since:
a) prices tend not to go up much with age (unless you’re chasing legends), and
b) Port is robust enough to survive less than ideal storage.

I’ve never bought direct from a producer.

+1 for K&L

Also bought many bottles direct from the houses on a visit to Porto.

Auction. It never really seems to go up in price from release to 40 years old…a 1985 is same price or less than a 2016.

I’ve noticed that as well. But I bet the price has gone up a lot for the 1985 compared to its release price, as will the 2016s 30+ years down the road. But for me, if you want birth year wines for your kids, your only way to assure it is to get them on release.