1991 Dow Late Bottled Vintage

[John Danza]

• 1991 Dow Porto Late Bottled Vintage - Portugal, Douro, Porto (2/16/2014)
  Popped and poured. A decent amount of sediment upon decanting. Brownish red in color. Palate of plums, pomegranate, and cassis, with only a little alcohol heat that quickly dissipated. Unmistakable Dow dryness with at best medium sweetness. Very interesting for what it is, a 23 year old LBV that is usually consumed with a couple of years of bottling (in this case, 1997). It's a very pleasant drink. It would be fun to do a side-by-side with the 1991 Dow vintage port, which I'll do someday soon. (88 pts.)
  

Posted from CellarTracker

[Bradley Bogdan]

Very interesting, thanks for the note! Interesting as well that this was bottled after 6, not just 4, years.

[Moses Botbol]

Pretty sure they filtered their LBV back then.

[John Danza]

Pretty sure they filtered their LBV back then.

Yes, probably so although the back label had no statement about it. This threw some fine sediment along with three or four large (quarter sized) purple flakes that you usually get in a VP.

[Glenn E.]

Pretty sure they filtered their LBV back then.

Yes, probably so although the back label had no statement about it. This threw some fine sediment along with three or four large (quarter sized) purple flakes that you usually get in a VP.

Yeah, filtered usually isn't mentioned on the label. These days filtered is the standard and unfiltered is the cool kid on the block that deserves special mention on the label. I suspect that was true for 1991 LBVs as well, but don't know for certain. (The cool kid back then might have been called "Tradicional" on the label instead of unfiltered... I don't recall when the various label changes occurred with that notation.)

[John Danza]

Day 2 showed noticeable improvement, with the nose coming on and the palate showing more fruit. The sweetness is coming on a little more. The color has also taken on a bit more red. Overall, quite unexpected and pleasing.

[Roy Hersh]

So with an initial 88 points, where did you wind up after day 2, John?

Glenn is correct that back at the time of bottling in 1997, Traditional or Tradicional was the norm. Nobody really used Unfiltered back then, that I am aware of.

[John Danza]

So with an initial 88 points, where did you wind up after day 2, John?

I'm probably at 90. I was really surprised that it took on some weight and complexity. This somewhat long-term experiment with LBVs is going to be fun. I have two 1992 Dow LBVs and a 1994 Dow LBV as well. I'll need to open all three for a mini-vertical sometime soon.

[Andy Velebil]

Was it sealed with a driven cork or a t-cork?

[John Danza]

Was it sealed with a driven cork or a t-cork?

It's a T-cork Andy. Photo below. As you can see, the bottom quarter inch was a deep purple, but there wasn't any wine past that. The cork held very tightly. At first I thought it was going to break on me, but then it came out. I'm not sure what the branding is.

[Andy Velebil]

I would guess this was probably filtered due to the t-cork. Though lightly filtered and not cold-stabilized if through some sediment.

And has anyone else noticed how dark t-corks get stained where the Port touches it, compared to regular driven corks? I wonder why the color difference?....Hmm', time to post that as a separate question.