2004 Dow LBV

[Jeremy E]

Still quite new to FTLOP, and this is my second TN, so I feel guilty about writing about an unfavorable one. But I feel that was my experience with this one. Still trying to write TNs...

As I'm still new to Port, I'm still posting ones I've had (and remember) in order of best to worse in terms of what I liked.

1963 Romariz Colheita
1996 Burmester Colheita
2003 Taylor LBV
Romariz Reserva Latina
Quinta de Ventozelo 10 Year Tawny
Fonseca Bin 27
Graham Six Grapes
Quarles Harris 10 Year Tawny
Sandeman Founder's Reserve

Bought the Dow's 2004 LBV at Total Wine here in Northern Virginia. $19. Along with it, I bought a 1997 Offley Colheita, which I have not tried yet, but look forward to.

Had it the first night at about 55F or so. No decant, just straight out of the bottle. Color was very dark red--purple really, enough to make a Cab envious. When I first got a whiff, I thought I might be in trouble. It had a scent of chlorine and that new plastic smell, in addition to concord grapes. I was starting to worry. On the palate, I must say, it had the taste of grape soda with alcohol. While there was nothing offensive about it per se, it really wasn't good in my mind. I turned to my wife and she said "Tastes like Manischewitz. I'd give it a C-."

Tried it again tonight (night two). The chlorine scent was gone, but I swear, new plastic was still there. And definitely the spiked grape juice/soda taste. Perhaps I got a bad bottle? I don't know, but I would say that if this were my first port, I would have said "no thanks," especially at the $20 range. The Taylor 2003 LBV was great, so I'm not sure what happened. Perhaps Dow is not to my liking. I would rate this with Sandeman Founder's Reserve as my least favorite. Sandeman's is a few bucks cheaper, however. 78 points.

[John M.]

Hi Jeremy;

I've had this a number of times and it is a favorite LBV...I suspect you got an off bottle since your notes do not correspond with mine. I'd try this again--perhaps try a different source.

If you get a bad bottle, save the remaining contents and return it to the store. They should provide a replacement if they are reputable & decent. Obviously, this is hard to do with a VP you stored for 20 years, but with a recently purchased LBV, you have nothing to lose.

[Eric Menchen]

I've had and enjoyed the 2003 Dow LBV, but haven't had the 2004. That aside, plastic and chlorine are the sometimes the result of chlorophenols, which trace back to chlorine or chloramines (harder to remove from water) being introduced into the bottle somewhere along the way. Perhaps the bottle wasn't properly rinsed before filling, in which case other bottles may or may not be o.k., or a fermentation vessel might have been improperly cleaned, in which case other bottles likely are also in trouble. I wouldn't rush back to the same source to get more, but I would try it again.

[Moses Botbol]

If you get a bad bottle, save the remaining contents and return it to the store. They should provide a replacement if they are reputable & decent. Obviously, this is hard to do with a VP you stored for 20 years, but with a recently purchased LBV, you have nothing to lose.

Good advice. I return bad bottles to my B&M as they appear. Most of the time, the wine guy gets a hoot out seeing a bad bottle. One new thing for him to keep in mind when recommending wine from their stock.

[Andy Velebil]

Could have been an off or bad bottle.

It could also have been glasses not totally rinsed out. Do you wash them in the dishwasher or by hand? Often times a "bad glass" can be the cause. Due to a dishwasher issue we had to re-hand wash over 400 glasses at a tasting as the dishwasher left too much soap residue and it contaminated all the glasses with a very foul stale soapy water smell.

If bad glasses aren't the case, take it back to your retailer (Total Wine is a big store and should take it back) and give it another shot.

[Jeremy E]

Thanks, gentlemen, for the advice. I think I will take your advice and try to return it to Total Wine (always an excuse to get something additional ). I may also try to return it to the one closer to my house since 1) it's more convenient and 2) they may have a slightly different stock of Dow's LBV on hand, in case a few cases got bad at the first store. I would hope with the business I have given them over the years they would take it back, especially with the bottle 80% full.

I don't think it was bad glasses, though that's an interesting thought. The glasses I used are port glasses I picked up at Crate and Barrel a few months back, and they say to handwash them, which I do. That does't mean I was perfect, but I'm pretty sure they were fully cleaned and rinsed.

Thanks again for the advice. I thought perhaps my notes were just a matter of preference, but I guess if there was a plastic nose, it's a good indication something was wrong. I have had the Taylor 2003 LBV and one other that I can't remember,and I liked them both a good bit.

On a more-or-less unrelated note (except that it involves alcohol), my wife and I finally got all the ingredients to make homemade tonic water, which I'm really excited about it, mainly because gin has been my real vice for years. It was pretty hard to track down cinchona powder (for quinine), but we finally found some on-line. Citric acid was also a bit tough.

[Jeremy E]

Just an update on this. I went back to the original Total Wine store (as it turns out, I was driving by it that day), and they happily took the 2004 Dow LBV back. The woman smelled it and agreed it didn't have a great odor. They said I could get a new one or something else. I looked at the other 2004 Dow LBVs in the store. Their Institute for Port Wine (I forget the Portugese name) ribbons all had very close numbers to my bottle (not sure if that meant they came from the same batch or not, but figured it was probably a good indicator that they might have).

So I balked, and decided to get a 2005 Offley LBV instead, especially since I know Andy said Offley has been doing good things recently. Will post a TN for that when I open it, which should be this weekend. Now that the quinine powder has arrived, I will make the tonic water, so I should have interesting aperitifs and digestifs this weekend.

[John M.]

Good luck that Offley good port (an old pun to be sure).

I purchased a bottle of Dows 2004 LBV yesterday and the label is totally different--more gold and white--whereas the others I've had have a more traditional Dows label--mostly black with white font. Anyone know why differing labels????