The bottle has a standard Warre's label but is marked "Specially Selected by Peatling and Cauldron, Bury St Edmunds" with the word Oporto written on the left hand side of the label. Not sure if this is a UK bottling but the bottle is a very light green colour which suggests to me that it is. The cork is stamped and was removed intact.
On Decanting The wine came off the sediment very easily, the green bottle helped, and was a dark brownish red on decanting. A small galss revealed a nice bright red appearance with a brown rim fading to clear at the edge. A spirity nose seems to be disguising some nice red fruits. Good fleshy mouth feel but the heat is overpowering everything else.
+4 Hours Colour is now even darker and alchohol has mostly blown off the nose. Mouth feel is beautifully thick and smooth with lots of black fruits and no heat on entry. Very long sweet finish which ended with a tingle of mint and alchohol on the tip of the tongue.
+9 Hours Colour now a dark and bright red ruby. Spirity nose has returned slightly but the house is very warm. Still smooth and fruity with hints of cherry and mint. Superb chewy texture and now showing some tannin in the finish which remains long and sweet with the tongue tingle at the end.
+14 Hours Not much change from 9 hours, if anything the finish is more tannic than before.
Edited to add the following notes
+26 Hours More fruit on the nose with less heat. Still chewy and very smooth and sweet on entry. Short burst of heat which fades quickly into a long dry finish.
+36 Hours
Smooth and sweet vith very little heat now. Tannins still around but mouth starting to soften. Seems to be fading a bit now.
Reading back over my notes I think I may have missed the peak of this wine somewhere between 14 and 26 hours after decanting. This bottle hasn't given me the pleasure that my one and only previous bottle did but I still think it is a fabulous wine. With the heat that it has I wish I had saved it for a cold winter night.
Derek
TN: Virtual Tasting - Warre's 1970
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Derek T.
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Tom Archer's TN from another thread
25 August 06 - 3pm
English bottled - no label or any sign that it ever had one. Acquired some time ago from a Cambridge auction as ex. college stock - (I didn't prise open my recently acquired owc).
Identified by the capsule - the cork is so lightly branded, it is hard to discern the date. Bottler unknown.
Decanted 3pm. Came very cleanly off a huge sediment. Green glass is so much better then brown...
In the decanter, a noble ruby - typical for it's age.
First sip - only a hint of bottle stink - good on the palate, but not mind-blowing - finish is a bit fiery.
I think it will be better this evening and tomorrow.
------
9pm - a glass proper
In the glass it could hardly look better - a deep majestic ruby with just a hint of bronze and clear meniscus.
Bouquet is also superb - rich & venerable.
On the palate it slides down effortlessly, with a flash of fire on the finish, but is perhaps a little lacking in body and flavour - it's almost as though too much has come out of the wine and gone into that mountain of sediment..
But this is a class act, and in no way going over the hill. Indeed it might yet improve a little over the next few years, but whether it will plateau for a long time I am not sure - perhaps not enough beef for that.
This is certainly a good wine to enjoy now
Lets see how it develops...
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24 hours on and the wine is now very nicely developed - it comes over as having a little more youth and substance now, and I have more confidence in it's ability to stand the test of time.
Like the W77 I had last December, the passage of a day has added a flash of purple to the colour.
However, whilst there is good consistency of style, this is definitely the better of the two.
Tom
Disclaimer: Posted by Derek Turnbull, a self confessed suffer of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which caused me to copy this note to the VT Forum so that my own note did not feel lonely
25 August 06 - 3pm
English bottled - no label or any sign that it ever had one. Acquired some time ago from a Cambridge auction as ex. college stock - (I didn't prise open my recently acquired owc).
Identified by the capsule - the cork is so lightly branded, it is hard to discern the date. Bottler unknown.
Decanted 3pm. Came very cleanly off a huge sediment. Green glass is so much better then brown...
In the decanter, a noble ruby - typical for it's age.
First sip - only a hint of bottle stink - good on the palate, but not mind-blowing - finish is a bit fiery.
I think it will be better this evening and tomorrow.
------
9pm - a glass proper
In the glass it could hardly look better - a deep majestic ruby with just a hint of bronze and clear meniscus.
Bouquet is also superb - rich & venerable.
On the palate it slides down effortlessly, with a flash of fire on the finish, but is perhaps a little lacking in body and flavour - it's almost as though too much has come out of the wine and gone into that mountain of sediment..
But this is a class act, and in no way going over the hill. Indeed it might yet improve a little over the next few years, but whether it will plateau for a long time I am not sure - perhaps not enough beef for that.
This is certainly a good wine to enjoy now
Lets see how it develops...
------
24 hours on and the wine is now very nicely developed - it comes over as having a little more youth and substance now, and I have more confidence in it's ability to stand the test of time.
Like the W77 I had last December, the passage of a day has added a flash of purple to the colour.
However, whilst there is good consistency of style, this is definitely the better of the two.
Tom
Disclaimer: Posted by Derek Turnbull, a self confessed suffer of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder which caused me to copy this note to the VT Forum so that my own note did not feel lonely
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Derek T.
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- Location: Chesterfield, United Kingdom - UK
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....and a note from Philip Harvey from 26 Aug 06
I couldn't wait and opened my bottle on Thursday. Apologies Tom for cutting in on your note - impressions as follows:
On decanting No sign of any leakage and a nice solid cork which came out all in one piece - always a good start. Like Tom's sample, masses of gloopy sediment - the level of wine in my decanter is about 1/2 an inch lower than usual. Colour is a deep dark ruby with a slight tawny hint. Some bottle stink that should blow off. A small sip showing a lot of sweetness and hot spirit.
6 hours The bottle stink has blown off as expected and a glass proper shows a pretty, almost floral wine - a bit firery still.
Needs more time to unravel.
24 hours Nice mature bouquet now - a bit gamey even. Rich sweet plummy flavours and a texture as smooth as our week old baby's bottom. This would be a really lovely glass of port but for that finish which is just a bit too hot to make the balance really top notch.
48 hours Fading now, except for that finish which is as firery as when it was first decanted and which it still prickling my tongue well after the last swallow.
Overall, I agree with Tom that this is very good port but for me, it lacks that wow factor that would put it in the top drawer - the main culprit being the hot finish which never seemed to blow off, even after two days. Nice wine, I enjoyed it but I won't worry that I just drunk my last bottle.
Disclaimer: Copied here by the same OCD nutter who copied Tom's note
I couldn't wait and opened my bottle on Thursday. Apologies Tom for cutting in on your note - impressions as follows:
On decanting No sign of any leakage and a nice solid cork which came out all in one piece - always a good start. Like Tom's sample, masses of gloopy sediment - the level of wine in my decanter is about 1/2 an inch lower than usual. Colour is a deep dark ruby with a slight tawny hint. Some bottle stink that should blow off. A small sip showing a lot of sweetness and hot spirit.
6 hours The bottle stink has blown off as expected and a glass proper shows a pretty, almost floral wine - a bit firery still.
Needs more time to unravel.
24 hours Nice mature bouquet now - a bit gamey even. Rich sweet plummy flavours and a texture as smooth as our week old baby's bottom. This would be a really lovely glass of port but for that finish which is just a bit too hot to make the balance really top notch.
48 hours Fading now, except for that finish which is as firery as when it was first decanted and which it still prickling my tongue well after the last swallow.
Overall, I agree with Tom that this is very good port but for me, it lacks that wow factor that would put it in the top drawer - the main culprit being the hot finish which never seemed to blow off, even after two days. Nice wine, I enjoyed it but I won't worry that I just drunk my last bottle.
Disclaimer: Copied here by the same OCD nutter who copied Tom's note