For The Love Of Port

Andy,

Alex makes an excellent point.

If I were in your shoes I'd:

On a lazy weekend morning, plan to open all of the bottles at the same time ... if you have enough decanters to do so. otherwise instead of all four, I'd pair the Croft and Delaforce and later on do the Taylor/Fonseca pairing.

Pour into the decanter and remove the sediment. Pour two ounces of each into Port glassese.

Note the color of each, the aroma, sip it and note the body weight, texture, flavors, tannins and length of the finish. Do the same with one ounce of each, every four hours until you go to sleep. Before heading to bed, close up the decanter. In the morning start the same observations ever four hours with an ounce and do this until the bottles are empty. If you have a good friend who likes Port, invite them over for one of your "tastings" to see what they observe too.

Do the second pairing of bottles unless you have done so with all four at once. If you do this ... see if you can invite a small group of Port loving friends to join you either the first or the second day.

The evolution of these young pups will fascinate you and will be one of the greatest learning experiences you'll ever have with VP. Enjoy!

One key I forgot to mention: when I said "note" I meant ... write down your impressions. Of course, we'll expect a full report here!

Roy and Alex,

Thanks for the advice...I will probably try them sometime in January. If anyone is in the Los Angeles / Orange County (California, USA) area when I do you're welcome to come by and give them a try. I'll let you know when, but I will say now it will be a weekday, since my work schedule changed and I now work weekend dayshift.

I prefer mine about twenty years old or more, I have tried them young
just to find out what their like.At the moment I'm drinking old tawnies I would like to say the forum has broadened my outlook and made me want to try other styles of port other than vintage.Could anyone tell me if dela force still sell his eminence choice and whether it is available in the uk I found this a lovely port but have not drank it for at least fifteen years.

I cannot speak for the UK Simon, but I just picked up a Dela force 'His Eminence's Choice' 10 year tawny in Toronto Canada. Looking forward to trying it.

Cheers

Bernard,

Please do let us know how you liked (or not) this 10 year old Tawny.

Thanks!

I've still to get around to doing a tasting. Am moving within the next 2 weeks and as such have not had the time and the requisite relaxation period to do any real drinking/tasting. It is a bottle that I will be drinking once I am all packed however, and I will be posting then.

Cheers