Multi: 1995 LBV Ports x 22

[Steven Kooij]

A project of mine (and with the help of my friends Ronnie and Lady Roots): to taste as many LBV for 1995 as possible. The follow TNs are of the modern / filtered LBVs from that year, with the occasional ringer added. These TNs were originally posted on the WS-forum; I’ve added the date of posting (usually one of two days after the tasting). Almost all of these are “modern”, filtered LBVs.

03.03.2003:

One year ago, I found out that I had 6 different Late Bottled Vintages from 1995 in my collection. I thought it would be a fun project to try to collect as many LBVs from that year as I could find. I now have some 25 different ones, so time to start tasting! RonnieRoots and Lady Roots kindly offered their assistance, and last Friday we tried the first 5.

This first tasting included:

Don Pablo (by C. da Silva, bottled in 2001) ($6)
Fonseca (WS 86) ($22)
Martinez ($15)
Porto Almiro (by Manoel D. Poças Jr.) ($12)
Taylor (WS 80) ($14)

The results (in reverse order of preference):

1. Extremely dark, almost purple. Very concentrated, even the legs were coloured! Nose: alcohol, nothing more. Very sharp. Full bodied, but without balance. Very sweet, some raisins and quite tannic. Finish is long an very hot and bitter. Yuck! This must be the Don Pedro, right? Nope, this was the Fonseca. Shocking!

2. Very light, with just a hint of brown; almost the colour of a Spanish rose. Not a very powerful nose, just a hint of alcohol. Very light, almost no tannins left. Sweet and artificial, short finish. This is bad stuff. Martinez, shame on you!

3. Dark ruby red. Also quite alcoholic, but less than the nr. 1. Fruity, but light bodied. Well balanced, with nice round tannins. Short, slightly hot finish. Nice, if this were a ruby. Could this be the Porto Almiro? No, this is the Taylor. Hmmmmmm.

4. Dark, almost black. Nice legs! Fruity on the nose, with pleasant berry aromas. Lots of ripe red fruit on the palate, slightly jammy. Round and warm, with a medium finish. Very nice! Yes, this was the Porto Almiro.

5. Oh boy, this looks good. Dark bodied, slightly brown on the edge. Good nose, with dark cherry and raspberry. Full bodied, with a nice ripe tannic structure. Medium sweet, with a hint of bitter adding an additional layer of interest. Finish rather sweet and warm, with dried fruits. Yes, this was the Don Pablo! Amazing.

Well, this tasting sure showed that labels aren’t everything. What’s more, if it weren’t for me collecting them, I would NEVER have bought either the Don Pablo or the Porto Almiro. I should be more opened minded, I guess…
It should be noted that the two winners of the night were closed with a “proper” cork, instead of the mushroom kind used on the other three. This, combine with age and provenance, might have caused these unexpected results of this tasting.

18.05.2003:

I had planned a different line up of wines for this second tasting, but decided to change it, as Ronnie Roots was anxious to try his Quinta de Baldias. Who am I to complain? And as we also have a large stock of Burmester ’95 Vintage (we recently bought 7 bottles), we opened that one as well. The selection for this tasting:

- Burmester Vintage (WS88, 16 Euros, bottled 1997)
- Delaforce (15 Euros, bottled 2001)
- Quinta de Baldias (bought at the quinta for 9 Euros, bottled 2000)
- Real Vinicola (9 Euros, bottled 2000)
- Rozès (WS88, 15 Euros, bottled 2001)

The Burmester was decanted 2 hours in advance. Wines were tasted blind. In order to be able to correctly identify the wine, I provided Ronnie and Lady Roots with the WS tasting notes on the Burmester and the Rozès. The Baldias is aged in the Douro instead of in V.N. de Gaia, so it should show the “Douro bake”. We never tasted a Delaforce LBV, but expected a medium quality wine. The Real Vinicola should be pretty bad, this house does not have a good reputation. So far for theory; do these wines show?

The results (in reverse order of preference):

1. Ruby red, with a brown touch. Smelly. Very sweet and artificial. Some raisiny fruit. Finish as very bad, the consensus was that this tasted like vomit. We all identified this as the Real Vinicola. Avoid like SARS.

2. Bright and clear ruby red. Not a very powerful nose. Bright blueberry flavour on a medium body, slightly bitter. Very smooth medium finish. Not a bad wine, just not very exciting. Delaforce? No, this was the Quinta de Baldias. Slightly disappointing, we had expected more of it.

3. Quite dark. A bit alcoholic, but fresh as well. Sweet, with red berries, some pepper and a refreshing acidity. Medium finish, fresh, but with a bitter touch to it. We weren’t sure whether we liked that, but a nice glass of port. Better then we had expected: Delaforce.

4. A dark port, with dark cherry and alcohol on the nose. A solid body with jammy blackberry flavours, and a metallic touch to it. Big but smooth tannins, this one pack a punch. We all like the warm, smooth finish. Very close to our favourite of the evening, and good value for money: Rozès.

5. Dark red, with a purple edge. Quite alcoholic, with sweet cherry aromas. A hint of earth. Big bodied, this shows cherries and dark plums on the palate, with some spices. Lots of tannins. A bit closed. Long, warm finish. We thought this to be the Burmester, and we were right. Vintage wins!

Again, a fun tasting! A bit of a pity that my LBV collection is diminishing in size, but I hope to get some more when we visit the Douro in two weeks…


11.12.2003:

The wines of this tasting were:

- Barros (9 Euros, WS 79)
- Cockburn “Anno” (14 Euros)
- Croft (14 Euros)
- Kopke (12 Euros, 77 WS)
- Quinta do Portal (16 Euros at the quinta)

Wines were tasted blind. All these wines are “modern” (filtered) LBVs, and the quality ranged from the undrinkable to the “not TOO bad”. Yes, this was a tasting that I did not enjoy much…my brief notes:

Barros 1995 LBV: Tellingly, this WS 79 pointer was the best of the bunch (I use the word “best” in a very loose way). Rather dark colour, with a mature edge. Reasonable nose with some dried fruit. Medium bodied, a bit creamy and a touch of liquorice. Decent finish with some grip. Quite drinkable

Cockburn 1995 “Anno” LBV: Light red, broad pink rim fading to colourless. Light nose, with some artificial strawberry aromas. Medium bodied, very sweet and hot. The medium finish burns. Yuck.

Croft 1995 LBV: Ruby red, thin mature rim. Plums and some smoke on the nose. Light bodied, some berries and a bit metallic. Very hollow midpalate. Short finish, a bit hot and bitter. Boring!

Kopke 1995 LBV: Colour is off, way too light (more like a 10YOT). This Port smelled of pulpy apple juice . Very thick, glycerol-like body with a dusty taste. Horribly acidic finish. To give this wine 75 points is way too flattering for this vomit-inducing excuse of a Port.

Quinta do Portal 1995 LBV: Good colour. Rather weak nose. Reasonable body, with some red berry and a nice balance. Quite smooth. Short, hot finish. Average at best.


Our “favourites” of the evening: Barros and Portal. Let’s hope the next episode of the LBV horizontal will be better! The line-up for the next time: Calem, Dow, Freitas, Graham’s and Rabelo’s.


05.02.2004:

The fourth episode of our tastings of Late Bottled Vintage from 1995, and the last one to feature “modern” (filtered) LBVs. TNs of the previous tastings have been posted as well.

I had just 5 modern LBVs left, and it was time to pull some T-corks. The wines: Cálem, Freitas, Dow, Graham’s and Rabelo’s. Both the Freitas as the Rabelo’s are made by Silva & Cosens, the house that is famous for Dow. As usual, I provided the WS-tasting notes (when available) and the Ports were tasted blind.

Cálem 1995 LBV: Unclear, like muddy water. Dark in colour, with an orange rim. Heavy alcoholic nose, with bubblegum and rotting fruit aromas. Medium bodied, with watery, diluted flavours with a chemical sweetness. Aggressively hot, carried over to the long, sticky and bitter finish. Blegh! 72 points.

Graham’s 1995 LBV: Very dark, with a thin mature edge. Nice warm nose, with red cherries, sweet and fresh. A bit thin bodied, but with decent cherry and berry flavours. Medium sweet, nice and smooth. The finish is just a bit hot and has some bitterness to it. I thought this to be the Dow; the characteristic Graham’s sweetness wasn’t there. A decent glass of Port: 80 points.

Rabelo’s 1995 LBV: Nice colour, if a bit light. Showing its age. Alcohol dominates the nose, along with dusty and chemical aromas. Medium bodied, quite sweet, with strawberries dominating the palate. A medium long finish, sticky that fades to show some raisins. Not good, but not really bad either: 77 points.

Freitas 1995 LBV: An epic Port…is the worst possible way. Yes, this wine has the honour of receiving the lowest rating I’ve ever given to a wine. The nose alone was enough to induce mild headaches (and I AM being serious here), and might even have induced minor brain damage, as we actually tasted it as well. Glycerol-like body, a burning sweetness, this is BAD. My only comment on the finish: offensive. To write more about it would be giving it too much credit: 65 points.

Dow 1995 LBV: Colour remarkably similar to the Graham’s. An slightly alcoholic nose (again!), with sweets and something like a hospital waiting room-smell. Odd, but not altogether unpleasant. Medium bodied and very sweet, not much fruit but loads of liquorice. A tad hot. Very sweet finish. 79 points.

…and that about wraps it up for the modern LBVs. A good thing: I’m sure some of these might have shown better had we drank them earlier. Comparing my TNs on all 19 of them (we had one Vintage Port in one of the tastings), I think my favourite would be the Rozès.


24.05.2004:

The recent gift of a bottle of Romariz 1995 Late Bottled Vintage Port prompted the Roots’ and myself to hold this mini-horizontal, the 5th in our ongoing tastings of LBV from 1995. On the table this time:

Cabraça 1997 LBV, bottled 2003 - modern – 13 Euros
Quinta de Heredias 1995 LBV, bottled 1999 - traditional – 17 Euros
Romariz 1995 LBV, bottled 2001 – modern - gift
Rozés 1995 LBV “Limited Release”, bottled 2000 – traditional - 15 Euros

As usual, the wines were tasted blind, with the Cabraça double blind (for me).

Cabraça 1997 LBV – According to the IVDP this is a B-label of Porto Cruz. Ronnie added this a ringer. The youngest looking Port of the 4. Nice fruity nose, not too powerful, and a bit warm. Medium bodied, rather fresh. Not very much fruit here, but tasty for sure. Some grip. Medium finish, warm and sweet. 83

Quinta de Heredias 1995 LBV – Oh dear, something is SERIOUSLY wrong here. Brown. Very offensive nose, alcohol, putty and VA. So hot it numbs the tongue. Some chocolate and raisin flavours. The one good aspect of this Port is the finish: it’s short. I hope this was an off-bottle, as I still have one in the cellar. 68

Romariz 1995 LBV – Rather “old” in appearance. Cloudy. Not a nice nose: alcoholic, glue, bubblegum fruit. Glycerol-like in thickness, but watery in flavours. A bit bitter, and again quite hot. Boring, short finish. 73

Rozés 1995 LBV “Limited Release” – The “regular” LBV of Rozés is filtered, but this is a reserve, unfiltered bottling. The regular version was very impressive, almost as good as the Burmester ’95 VP, so I was quite interested to find out how this one would show. Not decanted, but we should have: this way much better after some hours of air.
Quite alcoholic, but with some freshness. Light fruit aromas. Very thick, with lots of liquorice and nice grip. A good dark fruit structure. Finish on the short side, and a bit too sweet. 81 initially, upgraded to 85 later in the evening, 87 points the next day. Jummy!

[Roy Hersh]

A fabulous read and my sincere thanks for posting it here. This is the type of content that will provide a good reason for Port lovers to pour a glass and enjoy the read.

Great job Steve!

[Steven Kooij]

My pleasure, Roy!

[Tom Archer]

Like most people, I have regarded LBV's as a drink that doesn't descend the cellar steps unless I have nowhere else to put it - ie it gets drunk more or less straight away.

But I wonder...

The so-called "traditional" unfiltered LBV's (although as far as I can make out they only appeared in about '74, and post dated the filtered version) should have some scope for bottle maturation.

Has anyone taken the trouble to lay some of these down, and taste them year by year to see how they develop?

[Ronald Wortel]

8)
Vry nice to read all the TN's in one post Stevie! Brings back some rather mixed memories...

uncle tom: some LBV's are quite capable of ageing: Niepoort is a good example. I recently tasted the '84, and although it was clearly old, there still was enough joy in it. I've also enjoyed Qta. da Romaneira LBV '86 and '89. The oldest LBV I've tried was a '67: Guedes. It had nothing to do anymore with a ruby type port, but it evolved into one of the best tawnies I've ever had!