1966 Sandeman Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

Tasted in NYC on 2/19/2010 in a flight of 5

1960 Sandeman Vintage Port
1963 Sandeman Vintage Port
1966 Sandeman Vintage Port
1970 Sandeman Vintage Port
1977 Sandeman Vintage Port

1966 Sandeman Vintage Port

Color: Deep garnet, 2nd darkest (out of 5). Very pretty in the glass.
Nose: Dusty, with slightly sweet raspberries. Somewhat closed nose.
Palate: Smooth, with good tannins and good acidity. Sweeter than the two older bottles, but still dry to medium dry. No real primary fruits to taste, but several secondary flavors that were pleasant. As with the others, light bodied.

A close call between this and the '77 for 2nd place, but I scored the '77 slightly higher. The '66 is a fine Port, though, despite finishing 3rd overall. 89 points.

[Henrik Lilja]

I disagree - you must have had a bottle with some sort of errors.
Nothing dusty with the one I had. Very light in color - rasperries indeed - but the one thing I remenber the most was liqourice - a lot of it.
I would rate 92/93.

[Glenn E.]

I disagree - you must have had a bottle with some sort of errors.
Nothing dusty with the one I had. Very light in color - rasperries indeed - but the one thing I remenber the most was liqourice - a lot of it.
I would rate 92/93.

You may be right, Henrik. To me, the three oldest Ports at this tasting were all much drier than expected and borderline hot. The 1963 was pretty clearly flawed or damaged in some way, and the 1960 and 1966 showed some similar notes. So it wouldn't surprise me of all three of them were slightly damaged. Others at the tasting would disagree with me, though, as at least two people picked the 1960 as their WOTN and as I recall one person picked the 1966.

The 1970 and 1977 were much more closely aligned with what I expect from a Vintage Port, so it should come as no surprise that they were my first and second choices respectively for the evening.