LBV question

[Andy Velebil]

All

You may have already tried them, but very nice Tawny's which might make you more interested might be:

Ferriera Duque de Branca 20 Yr
Ramos Pinto Quinta do Ervamoira 20 year old

Jay

I do like these...especially the Ferriera, one of the best 20 years IMO

[Tom Archer]

Oxidative aging occurs when the wine can breathe a little through the wood of a barrel, Reductive aging occurs when the wine is trapped in a bottle.

Vintage and Crusted have little oxidative aging, aged tawny has nothing but.

LBV's fall somewhere in between, depending on the practice of the producer. Early LBV's were bottled from pipes that allowed plenty of oxidation. Some mass market LBV's now appear to be stored in bulk tanks that allow little or no oxidation at all.

Tom

[Alex K.]

Yes - decant your unfiltered and crusties. The decanting is to get rid of the flotsam and jetsam that are hanging around.

I like tawnies.

I agree that unfilterd LBV needs a new name. I think that we should start a thread on it. Ermmmm... OK, I will.

[Evangelos M.]

After trying the Noval unfiltered LBV 1999 (bottled in 2005) I think I preferred the Churchills crusted 2000.

I sampled them weeks apart (possibly had something to do with it) and decanted each for 4 hrs on first taste and then 24 hours on next taste. The crusted seemed softer and more enjoyable. Maybe it's just me.

For clarification:
LBV by definition is a vintage port (call it surplus) that was left in the barrel longer and a crusted is a blend of vintage ports (I assume not over aged). Am I correct here?

Also, maybe I should cellar my unfiltered LBVs for a bit? (it says to on the label on back of the bottle, will improve with age)

[Andy Velebil]

Vange,

If the LBV is unfiltered then yes ageing it will improve it, so long as the raw juice is quality. I've had one 24 year old filtered LBV recently that was still very tasty, although nowhere near a top notch VP or unfiltered LBV.