Tom Archer wrote:The only drawback was the ridiculous price it has been achieving...until today!
Hundredpointitis...
T92 is a big wine that is still hugely immature - but 100 points? - who can say..?
Paul Symington once observed that you really can't tell where a vintage port is going until it's at least 25 years old - an opinion I readily concur with.
One can sometimes be greatly impressed by a young port, and be very optimistic about it's future prospects; but certainty that it will emerge as a classic is impossible during it's formative years, and it is not hard to find glowing reports on young wines that have subsequently failed to make the grade.
Conversely, some VPs that were poorly received, or expected to have an early demise, have also confounded their critics..
So when a published wine writer accords a 100pt score to a young VP, my mind focuses on a single word...
..Idiot!
While I agree with much of what you say, I also think that this port is something pretty special. I've only drunk it once, this year so with 20 years of maturity behind it. While a single tasting hardly provides me with a strong base from which to comment, when I put my experience into the context of others such as Parker, Robinson, Hersh, Wine Journal and Decanter who have all been impressed, I come to the conclusion that this is an outstanding port with huge potential.
As of writing this, I have only ever scored one port as a 100 pointer; that was the Nacional '63 at the age of about 46. I tend to score ports that I drink for their drinking experience at that time, not for their future potential. Perhaps if I am still around in another 25 years time I might be able to decide whether I feel that the mature Taylor 1992 is as good as the Nacional is today.
Time will tell whether Parker was right to give the Taylor 1992 100 points, but for the moment all I can say is that in my opinion it is up there with a number of other modern day classics such as the Vesuvio 1994 and Noval 1997. A great port, with a great reputation sadly comes with a hefty price tag - and there doesn't seem to be a lot of it around. Does anyone know what was the production volume?