NV Churchill Club Tawny Port

[Glenn E.]

This was a sample sent to me by Justin Kneeshaw in Ireland. The Club Tawny came from Churchill's Port Club which is currently only available in the UK. It's not available at retail - only through the Port Club. I was told that this was made to honor someone related to Johnny Graham (though I've forgotten who... possibly an uncle?) because that person thought that a 20 Year Old was too tawny, but a 10 Year Old wasn't tawny enough. Ergo, 17 Years Old is perfect. It is also supposedly aimed at producing an old-fashioned style of tawny Port as was common before the 10/20/30/40 categories came into being.

I tasted it blind.

NV Churchill Club Tawny
bottled 2021

Color: medium dark tawny with significant red notes, very clear.

Nose: rather faint, possibly due to temp (pulled from fridge 30 min ahead of tasting). Nose has more ruby notes than exhibited in the color. Lik-a-Stik. Light strawberry with some faint caramelized notes. Faint whiff of Biscoff cookies.

Palate: tastes like a young colheita or possibly a 10YO blend, though it does seem older than 10. I.e. still showing a significant amount of ruby, while definitely headed toward tawny, but not exhibiting enough age to be a 20YO. Smooth, then decent acidity and some faint tannins. Sugars are nicely balanced with the acidity putting it in the off-dry to medium range. (Not medium sweet.) The most prominent fruit seems to be cranberry, with some less-than-ripe raspberry backing it up. There’s also a background note of caramelizing fruits, but not yet caramel.

Finish: pleasant, fairly short, some bitterness from latent cranberry flavor.

Score: 91 points. This is a nice Port, but for my taste it is sitting in that strange realm between ruby and tawny that I generally avoid. Another 10 (or 20) years in wood, please!