For The Love Of Port

3rd bottle from a case of 6 purchased 2 years ago - 1st note I have taken on this wine.

Cork broke in half - not even Alex could have saved this one as the bottom half shattered into a million pieces

Decanted very easily off surprisingly little crust. A deep purple colour in the decanter. The nose was initially very spirity.

+1 Hour Still some spirit on the nose but now some black cherry breaking through. The entry is very smooth but quite light in the mouth. A huge burst of black fruits developed into a small amount of heat and then came a nice long mouthwatering finish. A very promising start. More later....

Derek

.
.
.

+4 Hours The nose is now very sweet and the spirit has almost gone. Mouthfeel is much thicker than before and the initial fruit burst is quickly replaced by some big tannins that linger into the finish. This is a far more robust proposition than at opening so I am back on the dry red for a couple of hours to see where it's going 8)

+6 Hours The tannins have softened a litte but still dominating as they did at 4 hours. Now a nice big chewy mouthfull of dark chocloate cherry truffle - yummy 8)

I give this a 6-7 on Tom's scale at this stage. One of the better drinking ports I have had recently and the robustness sujects to me it has more to offer in future than it does today.

+24 Hours All of the things from before but now some mint in the finish. Less tannic as you would expect at 24 hours and now a lovely drinking port. Score stays the same as before.

Luckily I fell asleep just after the 6 hour note so there is 3/4 of a bottle left. It will not see 48 Hours



Derek

I’m going to start a policy of encouraging those posting TNs to accompany them with a picture of the bottle.

Unfortunately I don't have a web resource to post them on

Derek

Derek, you can open a free account at e.g. Flickr.com and put the pictures there.

If Derek is like me, I know how to put pictures in a Post, but theres a problem. Stewart has acknowledged it and says he is working on a Snych Error type thing!
Fingers crossed.

Alan

Here goes.........




You will see that the label has suffered precisely the sort of damage that Tom describes in his recent "Tip of the Day" thread. This is pure coincidence, and just a bit spooky

Derek

Derek

Great picture.....Dodgey tiles!

Alan

Trying desperately to retain continuity despite multiple hyjacking ....

3rd bottle from a case of 6 purchased 2 years ago - 1st note I have taken on this wine.

Cork broke in half - not even Alex could have saved this one as the bottom half shattered into a million pieces

Decanted very easily off surprisingly little crust. A deep purple colour in the decanter. The nose was initially very spirity.

+1 Hour Still some spirit on the nose but now some black cherry breaking through. The entry is very smooth but quite light in the mouth. A huge burst of black fruits developed into a small amount of heat and then came a nice long mouthwatering finish. A very promising start.

+4 Hours The nose is now very sweet and the spirit has almost gone. Mouthfeel is much thicker than before and the initial fruit burst is quickly replaced by some big tannins that linger into the finish. This is a far more robust proposition than at opening so I am back on the dry red for a couple of hours to see where it's going 8)

+6 Hours The tannins have softened a litte but still dominating as they did at 4 hours. Now a nice big chewy mouthfull of dark chocloate cherry truffle - yummy 8)

I give this a 6-7 on Tom's scale at this stage. One of the better drinking ports I have had recently and the robustness sujects to me it has more to offer in future than it does today.

+24 Hours All of the things from before but now some mint in the finish. Less tannic as you would expect at 24 hours and now a lovely drinking port. Score stays the same as before.

Luckily I fell asleep just after the 6 hour note so there is 3/4 of a bottle left. It will not see 48 Hours

Derek

Marvellous picture — thank you. Link to that “Tip of the day”.

Nice tasting note Derek and interesting photo too.

But what are you doing drinking 3 bottles of your 6 so young? Isn't this against being a British citizen, drinking these before they turn 25? I am surprised that Alan is not ranting here, since he does not condone this type of Port drinking behavior.

BTW, did you save any to taste the 2nd day to see how it showed?

Roy,

But for purposes of accuracy, this was my quote from 'My Rant'

We currently have the 60's,70's and 80's VP's to enjoy

.

So Dereks fine.
(I'm worried though, could you be getting that Al-Johnsons Disease? :) )

Alan

.....Dodgey tiles!

- Perhaps Derek likes them!!

...and they probably look totally different without the reflection of the photo flash...

Tom

Now I've got the hang of pictures again, and your all drinking the good stuff, here's my 'ordinary' current tipples


If you cant see, and you might not want to... Its a 89 Cruz Vp (Decanted) and a Grahams LBV 2000.

The Cruz is rather nice!!!! And I was expecting petrol. I've had to apologise to Deb who got it me as a weekend treat, and I told her what you'd all said. The Grahams is very pleasant, but Deb picked the Cruz above the Grahams in a Blind 'Sip'.
I did then search the Forum and found that AlexB had a similar experience with a 87(I think), what he said rang true. No great shakes but like a very pleasant LBV. So I'll stay clear of the Ruby Cruz and the reserves etc, so there'll be a few folk on the Forum who dont run for cover at its mere mention!

Alan

Roy Hersh wrote:Nice tasting note Derek and interesting photo too.

But what are you doing drinking 3 bottles of your 6 so young? Isn't this against being a British citizen, drinking these before they turn 25? I am surprised that Alan is not ranting here, since he does not condone this type of Port drinking behavior.

BTW, did you save any to taste the 2nd day to see how it showed?

Roy,

My reaching maturity benchmark for what I would describe as non-classic years (1983 being one) is 16 years so I expected this to be more evolved. As I say, I didn't take notes of the other 2 and couldn't remember drinking them so didn't really know what to expect from this one. Having tasted this one I will be packing the other 3 off for at least 5 years before opening another unless I come across more at a very good price. I think this wine is in it's drinking window but will contine to improve a little from where it is now.

Alan,

You have just reminded me that I really need to re-decorate my Tasting Room - those tiles throw a strange light that sometimes affects the perception of the colour of the miniscous

....and stop hijacking my SW83 thread to promote your own rant and give publicity to Cruz VP (Vintage Petrol)

Derek

Derek,

Apologies for the hijack. But here I go again....
I can be a bit of a windbag (No, really! ), and I love words I've not heard of before. So 'Miniscous' had me thinking. Was it a small liverpoool chap? Or a plate of stew in a famous 60's car?
Off I scurried to the dictionary, only to find the nearest was 'Meniscus', which had one of its meanings as

the convex or concave upper surface of a column of liquid, the curvature of which is caused by surface tension.

So I admit defeat, could you explain?

Alan

Alan,

You guessed right - I keep a small scouser in my cellar to keep the spiders off my bottles - because of the almost constant darkness he is a strange greenish colour and is therefor almost invisible when standing in front of those tiles. If you look closely he is just to the right of the bottle in the picture above

Derek

Just in case Alan is serious the meniscus is the equivalent of the edge or rim when looking at the color of a Port or wine. It sometimes can lend a hint when trying to guess the age of a VP. I use it frequently in my TNs.

Alan,

Nice photo..

...dodgey plant

Tom

Tom,

Touche, (sorry, cant put the french thing over the 'e')

but I had to rise to the challenge. Note the tree shape, the green-ness, the healthy-ness, and then maybe, even though its from a distance, you can name it? (I'll give you a clue, its not called Eric)

This is my back garden, I may have to bow down when it comes to Port knowledge, but if your stepping into the world of gardening...this could become fun!!!

Alan

Go on Alan - show them that classy number late on your car

Derek