For The Love Of Port

Roy's birthday celebratory fun has begun. Andy, Stewart and I are sitting at Stewart's house with several bottles of wine in front of us, tasting notes (and hopefully pictures) will follow in due course.



The first of the wines we are drinking is a Maury 1945. Maury is a region in South East France that makes a "colheita" style wine from late harvested old-vine grenache and cinsault grapes. This particular wine is from the Maury cooperative and was decanted for a touch under 3 hours when this tasting note was taken. 16% alcohol.



A deep brown colour, similar to a 10 year old tawny, slightly orange on the rim. The nose brings caramelised oranges, a slight touch of VA and a stewed fruit texture similar to the nose that I have experienced on vintage ports that have suffered Douro bake. Fairly neutral entry, a touch of brown sugar and lots of orange, tangerine and grapefruit flavours. The mid palate brings more tangerine and lemon and some herbal undertones - think basil and oregano. The aftertaste is dominated by alcohol at first but this fades away in a strange way leaving a hollow mid tongue but flavours of tangerine and brown sugar between the cheeks and teeth and at the back of the tongue. My personal rating for this wine at this point is 88/100.


More notes on the other wines and from Andy and Stewart will follow.

Alex

Dow 1985



Decanted about 9 hours ago.

Colour is well developed. Andy, who had the Dow '83 last week confirmed that the colour was more advanced than the '83.

Strange nose of cooked fruit, a little musty. Some discussion whether this was corked or not but a general agreement that something was wrong with the bottle - perhaps cooked or perhaps corked.

The palate clearly shows the wine is corked. Flat and lifeless but the wonderful aftertaste shows what this wine could have offered. Not undrinkable but will probably be the last wine we drink tonight. Not rated.

Alex

Since the three of us were together, we though it would be fun to do a group Virtual Tasting for the July Virtual Tasting Theme.

Porto Rocha Branco Lagrima:



The color on this a pale yellow with a brownish tinge. The nose was quite interesting. Very soapy nose with peach, apricot, and lemon. Although that sounds nice, we agreed it smelled like kitchen cleaner The palate was fairly mid-weight compared to other Lagrima's I've had. There is lots of citrus notes that quickly give way to a horrible lemon medicine finish. The finish was so bad Alex and I both spit it out as undrinkable. 73 points



Hmm, maybe this would be good as a sweet Tonic and white port mix OK, as I type this Stewart just threw a highball glass with mint, tonic, and this atrocity of a white port in my face. Sipping it, I must say not a bad drink to have on a warm day :twisted:

Happy Birthday Roy!!!!!

Morgan 1945


This was a bottle acquired from the recent Taylor's clear out of the old Morgan stocks that came when they acquired the company a short time ago. The bottle was ex-cellars and this tasting note taken 5 hours after decanting.



The colour is surprisingly deep, red centre with some orange at the rim. Less evolved than I was expecting. On the nose this is wonderful, full of candied oranges, marmalade and cloves but a slight hint of alcohol. The sort of nose that can be sniffed all night.

Smooth entry, liquorice and earthy herbs but then the mid-palate explodes into life with raspberry jelly, more liquorice, aniseed and mint. When swallowed the mint surges out and is quickly replaced with turkish delight that in turn fades away into a delicate chocolate that lasts for over two minutes.

This is a stunning wine that is astonishingly good for the fact that it comes from a shipper that was never in the top category. This is probably one of the top 5 vintage ports that I will drink this year so I will rate it a solid 10 and the good news is that this is not going to fade over the next ten, twenty or probably even thirty years so on Tom's scale this gets a 10/10. On a 100 point scale this gets 97/100 from this showing.

Alex

I had no idea it was Roy's Birthday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY Roy!! I will open something good in your honour this weekend!

Todd

Happy Roy Day!

I've had the Maury - gave it 89 points but too sweet for more than a glass or two or maybe three . . .
The house Maury is now a 28 whatever you call it when they keep adding stuff to the mix, Solera or Sombrero or . . .

Seriously, happy birthday Roy. As we say in Greek, Na ta katostesis (may you make a hundred)

We just took a break from our Port drinking to have some great steaks that Stewart grilled up and this Douro wine. Just a quicky note on this one as there is more Ports waiting for us.

2004 Dow Vale do Bomfim Douro Reserve



A very elegant floral nose of cherry and earth. A mid-weight palate with strawberry and cherry with some drying tannins. A moderate finish rounds out this very good QPR. Not a wine for long term cellaring, but a good $10 bottle for immediate drinking. 86

From Stewart: In order to bump up his post count even further, Andy has paid me to post our next tasting note under his username.... :)



We've moved on to a beauty of a wine - the 1970 Warre. Decanted 6 hours. Still has some great ruby color.



On to the tasting...

Some liquorice, violets and black cherry on the nose. Exhibits that traditional Warre elegance. The approach of this wine is like velvet, evolving into a pronounced acidity that is beautifully balanced with evolving tannins on the slightly clipped finish. 93 points

Alex B says insists that I add:
1) He picked up WHITE cherry instead of black
2) He gives it a "7 of 7" score (whatever the hell that means)
3) He gives it a 91/100 on a 100 point scale
4) He has no idea where I got the additional 2 points I awarded it.

Brits...sheesh....:blah:


NOT Andy V. but rather your semi-illustrious admin - Stewart.

Andy V. wrote:From Stewart: In order to bump up his post count even further, Andy has paid me to post our next tasting note under his username.... :)

Oh yeah, sure... help Andy out Stewart! He's already surpassed 2000 posts and is closing in on Roy... I have yet to reach 1000. Californians... Sheesh!

Stewart posting as Andy V. wrote:Alex B says insists that I add:
...
2) He gives it a "7 of 7" score (whatever the hell that means)
...

Is this perhaps 7/7 on the Tom scale? (7 for immediate drinking and 7 for future (10 year) considerations?

Todd

Happy Birthday Roy!

Kopke 1996 Colheita, bottled 2004



This is Alex writing this tasting note. Andy's not paid me to add further to his posting count but I'm simply too far gone to log him out and me in. This is the last wine for the evening and then we get down to the serious business of drinking what remains of the other ports.

2½ hours decanted off a surprising amount of sediment. Deep ruby in colour, a slight hint of orange on the rim. On the nose there is white pepper and meat juices with a rich prune sauce. The meat comes through in the mouth on entry, followed by a lemon juice structure and a lovely roasted raisin and Bisto midpalate.

A good length, dominated by raisins and sweet syrup.

Overall I would describe this as an "interesting" wine. I am not a great fan of, nor have a great deal of experience of colheitas but this is an intriguing mix of colheita and late bottled vintage since it was bottled only two years later than an LBV would have been bottled. My personal score for this wine is 87/100 or 3/3.

Alex

Thanks Andy for the tasting notes on the 2004 Dow Vale do Bomfim Douro Reserve. I guess on my way to k&L in Hollywood to pick some up. Do you need anything from there?

This is Stewart posting as "Andy" --- cha ching! $$$

We had a dinner of steak, grilled potatoes, shrimp Caesar salad, and we had the aforementioned Bomfim.

We were joined by my neighbors Rick and Anne, who are the proprietors of Wild Ginger and the Triple Door in Seattle:

http://www.wildginger.com
and
http://www.tripledoor.com



They sampled all of the previous wines, and then we convinced them to stay for my signature dessert - Poach Pears in a Port Wine Reduction.

I asked Rick what his favorite type of wine was, and he mentioned that he really enjoyed the Alsace wines - the closest I had in my cellar was a 2005 Scholss Schonborn Reisling Dessert Wine.



The acidity paired perfectly with the sweetness of the Pears and Port wine sauce, and while I won't post a tasting note here - suffice to say it was a nice finish to an astonishing evening.

Rick graciously volunteered to drive Alex back downtown to his hotel - for a few hours of rest before we start day 2 of Roy's 50th Birthday Weekend Extravaganza!

NOT Andy - rather your humble admin Stewart

[quote]Is this perhaps 7/7 on the Tom scale? (7 for immediate drinking and 7 for future (10 year) considerations? [/quote]

You are correct, but it wouldn't be any fun if I didn't give Alex grief about something that ISN'T a 100-point scale rating!

waaahaaahaaaa :)

Al B. wrote:Morgan 1945


This was a bottle acquired from the recent Taylor's clear out of the old Morgan stocks that came when they acquired the company a short time ago. The bottle was ex-cellars and this tasting note taken 5 hours after decanting.

HAPPY 50 TH BIRTHDAY ROY!

I've just tasted exactly that Morgan 1945 VP, a year ago and it's my oldest VP record!
It has the name of my dog!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROY!

Alex, excellent notes and well done on the choice of Ports and wines!

Look, I appreciate all the kind words and sediments here ... but PLEASE let me enjoy being 49 for another 20 hours and 38 minutes! No need to rush me. :help: :blah: :joker: :wall: :wall:


After today where you folks posted 150 times, I wish I could thank each and every one by having you here for this weekend. Now that would be quite a fun time!

You can't take 'em with you and this weekend, I'll clear some significant space in the cellar.

Tonight we started with a less than stellar bottle of Vinho Verde which was so memorable I didn't even remember to write it down.

Tonight was the actual lead in for the weekend, with a cellar-purchased 1999 Hamacher Pinot Noir from the W.V. of Oregon (my favorite OR producer).

Followed by a fine example of the 1972 DRC LaTache. Thanks to my brother Mitch! Afterwards my wife went to bed and the 2 brothers sat and drank 3 more bottles ... well almost.

It was time to have just desserts, with a 1966 Moreira Colheita Port, a 1977 D'Oliveiras Terrantez and we ended with a 1999 Vin de Constance from So. Africa's Klein Constantia.

Two of us did most of the drinking and decided to quit midway through the uber-sweet SA sticky.

Each of the next three days will be progressively more insane and decadent with a few dozen Ports going back just about 200 years. I haven't organized something like this in 4 years and only a few of the same individuals will be here for this one.

My sincere thanks to all the members of this site who have posted such interesting TNs, boosted the presence of the Madeira Forum to new heights and put a fantastic goal of 20k posts within reach of my turning 50. No need to wait though.

Respectfully,

Roy

Happy Birthday, you youngster you . . . .