For The Love Of Port

Taylor and Niepoort ’99 were surprisingly similar in many ways including their mid-deep crimson colours. Both had not very attractive quite chemically aromas with the Niepoort’s being far tighter, and both had rich, creamy, lingering and blackberry flavours. This tasting note is one of several relat...

Dow ’98 was a mid-deep brick red colour and the third darkest after the Noval and Graham. It had a muffled and fruity nose followed by very smooth and lingering black fruit flavours.

This tasting note is one of several related tasting notes. Click [here] to see the original note in context.

Graham ’98 was slightly darker than the others (except Noval) and brick red with a slightly alcoholic nose and lighter sweeter cherry flavours.

This tasting note is one of several related tasting notes. Click [here] to see the original note in context.

Noval ’97 stood out for me straight away as it was the only wine which was opaque. It had an opaque deep crimson appearance whereas the others had mid to deep brick red-crimson colours. It had a wide, open, cool, blackcurrant and blueberry nose preceded the palate of light, exceptionally smooth and ...

Taylor ‘95 had been open for over a year (!) and unsurprisingly had a deep brown appearance and a hot alcoholic molasses nose. The rest, thankfully, were new bottles.

This tasting note is one of several related tasting notes. Click [here] to see the original note in context.

I recently had a delivery of what should have been 1970 Graham VP out of storage and amongst the bottles were one bottle of Taylor 1970 VP and 2 bottles of Grahams Finest Reserve 1970. I am happy about the Taylors but does anyone know what the "Finest Reserve" is? Is this VP under another ...

I can't remember if it is inside or outside but at The Don restaurant in London ....

QUOTES
“George Sandeman is so chuffed with The Don he has returned the original signage from Sandeman’s Oporto business to its former home.”
Daily Telegraph"

http://www.thedonrestaurant.com/index.htm

Private Reserves which is part of Goehuis and Co charges a similar price to BBR and allows you to store cases which are not bought through them for an extra receiving fee of c. £3/case. I found them after Jancis Robinson recommended them (among others) in an article in a British wine magazine about ...

I guess as I'm sitting on 7 cases it would be a good chance to compare them. I just hope Taylors and Grahams aren't my top ports as these are the only 2 top ports of the vintage I don't have! Tasting 2003 ports after wines from the 60's was a bit of a struggle a couple of months ago so I ought to gi...

The 8th May sounds grand. As I've pm'd I'd rather bring a bottle and pay a lower fee as Roy suggested above. As for venue, have you considered The Don in St Swithins Lane? I went there for lunch at the brasserie a few weeks ago (and next week) and it was very good. It has a brasserie (in the cellars...

Glad to know these are at the top end of pricing. I know Richard Mayson gave the vintage a 1 star rating and only comments on the Taylors Vargellas. I'll just wait and see till one of these comes up at a sensible price.

I've been researching 1969 birth year ports and have found the following for sale in Europe: Warre colheita / reserve tawny £35 Dow Colheita £35 Dow Reserve £69 Niepoort Colheita £76 Q do Castelinho colheita £59 Rocha VP £69 Kopke colheita £66 NB. prices are before shipping to the UK Has anyone ever...

Another Grahams 70 as per the recent London tasting (I have a limited cellar!) It will be good to focus on one port all day this time rather than 16 ports as we had on that great day. MAnd as Simon's broadened it out a bit, I may also open a 1928 Maury recently bought from Farrs - we'll see how thin...

Thanks Alex - I have ordered one from Amazon. I'll just need to open some port now for an excuse to try it out!

Thanks Roy - I think I'll get a Monopol one from Amazon.com and pay for shipping to the UK. I too have heard these are pretty indestructible in normal use being made from an aluminium alloy. What on earth were you doing with it??????

Does anyone know where can I buy one of these in the UK? There seem to be a few US vendors on the web but I cannot find any for sale in the UK.

1. 1966 by a mile (oh, that Fonseca!) 2. 1970 3. 1963 Comparing the 66s and 63s it was amazing to see how much younger the 66s looked when there was only 3 years difference. As for the 2003s - what an experience! I don't know if the dark grey teeth and black lips look will catch on though. I couldn'...

This was the first time I had tasted such old ports and what a fantastic experience. As Linden said the difference time made to many of these ports was huge - those that were hot and spirity on first taste tended to calm down to the creamy smoothness which the others showed. I was amazed how well th...

Graham 1970 has just been decanted and is looking and smelling good! Two more hours till the train .......

Last weekend my father-in-law and I tasted the following LBVs against each other blind: A Graham 1998 B Taylor 1999 C Taylor 1995 D Noval 1997 E Dow 1998 F Niepoort 1999 Taylor ‘95 had been open for over a year (!) and unsurprisingly had a deep brown appearance and a hot alcoholic molasses nose. The...