For The Love Of Port

1977 Fonseca Slightly more purple in color than the Taylor. More of a "mulberry" than a cherry red in the light. Much more opaque, mainly due to sediment. Lilac and cranberry. Yellow curry on the nose and in the mouth. Maybe a bit of cocoa in there, but not nearly as much as the Pride Mer...

1977 Taylor A pretty clear ruby red when held to the light. Really nice color. An immediate wash of mustiness on the nose, but I don't think the bottle was corked. It didn't have that wet cardboard smell I'm sensitive to and know as TCA. Just beyond that was pencil shavings, ink, star anise and che...

For the record, if you see any other Halerzes on any online forum, we're likely related as well, though the only one I can think of that would spend time reading and posting about alcohol is much more likely to do it on Beer Advocate or Ratebeer :D Either way, Tony will be getting an email from me v...

I didn't post TN's on the Outpost stuff because my brother works there....but the are very tasty 8) Wait - you and Tony are brothers? I've noticed the unusual last name for both of you on the eBob for a long time and seriously wondered if you were related, but never thought to actually ask, figurin...

Ah, gotcha. I was just making the comparison between the two bottles. I was getting more individual smells/flavors from the Taylor than the Fonseca. I suppose I could interpret this as "the Taylor was more complex," but I'm not sure that was the case either. It just had more things I was a...

Alan, A list of individual smells and/or tastes collected from my notes posted above. Taylor 77: Pencil shavings, ink, star anise, cherry, cotton candy, licorice, black pepper, cinnamon, marmalade, brown sugar, molasses, rose. Fonseca 77: Lilac, cranberry, yellow curry, cocoa, raisins, five spice. D...

Go sharpen a pencil and then smell it (careful not to poke yourself in the nose!). I didn't know what else to call it. Maybe others would say "graphite?" This wasn't one of those "stretches" either...several looks were shot in my general direction after they stuck their noses bac...

My Day Two notes... The Taylor has opened up even more. Rounder now. Whiff of marmalade, brown sugar and a touch of roses on the nose. More licorice in the mouth, and molasses that wasn't coming through last night. Really nice, long clover honey finish. 30+ seconds. I just can't imagine this bottle ...

Todd, I'm glad the notes were helpful. I'm also glad I don't tend to put numerical scores to things, as I'm apparently a *very* tough grader (when forced to score things) and neither of these bottles would have seemed like they were at all worth the money :) I just don't believe in handing out 90+ s...

My wife's grandmother makes a curried fruit dish that I pretty much had in mind with my curry note. Sort of a yellow curry/golden raisin treatment to the various other fruits. Sounds like an odd combo but is pretty tasty. It just reminded me a lot of that. I hope that I *am* able to pick up more of ...

As promised, (semi-lengthy) impressions on the 1977 Fonseca and Taylor. Now, my birthday isn't actually until Saturday, but *this* was the night our best friends were available to help consume, so bottles needed to be opened now. I grabbed a couple empty 375mL bottles late morning, marked off 6oz li...

Andy, I didn't realize that I needed to put location into another field in my profile to make it show up in the forum. Changed that. I'm up in Ann Arbor, MI, where it's 65 and sunny today, but is calling for 40s and snow tomorrow! Thanks for the b-day wishes! I hope to be able to try these bottles a...

Thanks for the advice! Definite tasting notes after the weekend for both bottles. I have small concerns about one of the bottle's condition, but the place I got it from (last year) told me that if there was a problem they would take care of it. I'd be posting more TNs on a regular basis, but frankly...

I'm planning on opening one of each of these this weekend for my b-day. Very much looking forward to both bottles and want to make sure I get close on the decant time so they're showing their best. Now, I've seen Roy's general suggestions for VP decant before (though don't have them handy) and have ...

I'm planning on opening a 77 Taylor and a 77 Fonseca for my b-day in early April. In your opinion, should I go for 12+ hours in a decanter? Or, pop the cork and just let them sit overnight?

I just have one bottle of each, so I want to get the most out of them...

The Trader Joe's by me has a few Quarles Harris Ports for good prices. I've tried the Tawny (mediocre), grabbed a bottle of the 10yr Tawny (haven't tried yet) and will go back to check out the 2000 LBV at some point ($9.99 I think?). Even though the 1980 VP is a totally different animal, I'm glad to...

Costco has TJ's beat in 10 cat for sure with their Kirkland brand 10 year. Haven't tried this yet (actually haven't seen it in our area). What's the price point on it by you? As a side note, I was at TJ's just a couple days ago and they still had a decent amount of the 87 Morgado @ $9.99, plus the ...

Here's one of the links from the eBob:
http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/sho ... ht=morgado

This is one of the threads that got me wondering whether this was Offley Boa Vista...

Mike, Welcome to the forum, glad to have you posting here. My TJ's only has the cheap tawny, no VP or 10 yr old. I was just there today shoping, and am keeping my eye out for the '87. For that price sounds like a great "house" VP. Thanks Andy! Group buy? :D I'm headed to TJs in the next d...

There was a thread on the eBob a while back about the 87 VP, which at least one member suggested was Offley Boa Vista VP that TJs had bought and rebranded. By me, the Morgado 87 VP was $9.99 (!!) and we also have a ruby (either $5 or $6), tawny (same price) and 10yr tawny ($11) available. The 87 VP ...