1955 Ferreira Vintage Port

[Andy Velebil]

This was the desert at a wine dinner last night. A friend brought this, which he said he bought about 25 years ago. I really wanted to use the tongs, but the restaurant wasn't to keen on that idea so I used the ah-so. The cork was soft and broke into two pieces, of which the bottom half stayed in the bottle.

After decanting through cheese cloth I tasted it, then formally about two hours later after dinner. Becuase we were eating and tasting through about 30 other wines I am going off of memory here. The only noticable change after 2 hours was the VA on the nose and palate blew off.

The color was a light tan with an orange hue. It was quite obvious that this was past its peak and had turned to the tawny side. I remember a wonderful light touch of fruit and nuts. Not the in-your-face of a VP in its prime, but very silky and subtle. The consistancy reminded me of glycerin, but without the glycerin taste. The tannins were gone at this point in its life. But, it had a very plesant warm finish that lasted a fairly long time.

Overall, this was obviously at least 10-15 years past its prime, but still a wonderful experience and fun to drink. This now ranks as the oldest VP I have had to date. I gave it a 94 pts.