Mr. Symington started out by showing a short video from the winery and the vinyards and explained how the port was made. Very informative, and he was generally a very good speaker, managing to bring the port down to earth in a no nonsens way while presenting the wines.
10 Y Otima
Lovely golden color with a very powerfull nose. I really like this tawny.
1995 LBV (b 1999)
Dull nose, and not much taste. Neither fruit or wood was noticable. Very anonymous and not interesting in my opinion. Had a sort of dusty taste which I wasn't too fond of. This represented the old-style LBV's according to Mr. Symington.
VP 2003
Dark red color, but not entirely black/purple as I would've expected. Soft fruity nose, not very powerfull. Taste was also fruity with a bit of tannins and alcohol in the back of the mouth. Wouldn't drink this now, but nice to try it so young.
VP 1997 (magnum)
Dark red color, with lighter color beginning to show along the edges. Much more structure and character than the 2003. A very nice port I think.
VP 1980
Very similar to the 1997 in both color and taste. The 1997 was maybe a bit more powerfull. Mr. Symington surprised me by saying that in his opinion the 1980 vintage was very underrated and could actually be the vintage of the century. This one tasted young vhen compared with the 1997 and the 1977 so maybe this one has many years ahead of it.
VP 1977
Quite a change from the 1980 with only three years difference. Golden color and much more nose and flavor than the 1980. This VP was supposed to be in a closing phase and Mr. Symington beleived that in 5 years it would have a darker color than it did now. Tasted excellent.
VP 1966
My oldest VP so far, and it's nice to get confirmed that this stuff is worth storing for many many years. Darker in color than the 1977. Tasted wonderfull but for me it wasn't easy to distingush it from the 1977. Should be able to hold for at least another 40 years according to Mr. S.
Overall a very interesting tasting which gave me a lot more insight into how VP's age. Still not convinced that I'd prefer a VP over a well aged colheita or an old Tawny (which will not go down well in this forum I guess :? ) , but I guess I'd need a side-by-side comparison of e.g. a 1966 VP and Colheita
After the tasting I asked why they started using black bottles instead of the dark green which you can see through. According to him they would like to have dark green transparent bottles, but the bottle producers wouldn't make them. Strange, but that's what he said.
-Lars