NV S. Leonardo "60" Very Old White Port
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 3:15 pm
Expedited directly from Quinta do Mouro for the 1st meeting of the Sammamish Port Club. Many thanks to Ayesha Trump of D'Ouro Vino for the help!
S. Leonardo "60" White
bottled 2017 (edit: correction, bottled 2016. oops!)
Color: Medium tawny. If served blind, you'd never guess this was a white Port, though you'd be hard pressed to decide whether it is an "older" looking 20 or a "younger" looking 30 as the color isn't quite deep/red enough to be a 20 nor dark/brown enough to be a 30.
Nose: Citrus honey, bourbon vanilla, bourbon whiskey. Very powerful and expressive. The bourbon whiskey on the nose is unmistakable once someone has mentioned it.
Palate: Tahitian vanilla, some indistinct and light tropical fruits. Very, very smooth and sweet entry, but enough acidity to eventually tame the sugar. Improved noticeably with time in glass - so much so that I'd recommend decanting for an hour in the future.
Finish: Incredibly long and silky. Lingers forever - at least 10 minutes, but that was the longest I could go without taking another sip of something. It isn't quite as stunningly amazing as the "60" Tawny, but it's in that realm. Far beyond anything else you've probably ever tasted unless you're one of the lucky ones who've had access to those mid-1800's Tawnies with fancy names like Scion and Tributa.
Score: 97 points. I started out a point lower, but the very noticeable improvement with time in glass made me reconsider. Comparable to the best White Ports I've ever tasted - 1952 Dalva Golden White, 1917 Niepoort - though ultimately just behind them along with the 1971 Dalva Golden White. (Which I prefer over the 1963 Dalva Golden White.) The palate doesn't quite match those first two, though the finish is extraordinary.
The packaging of this particular bottle was very nice - I hope this is what they all look like!
S. Leonardo "60" White
bottled 2017 (edit: correction, bottled 2016. oops!)
Color: Medium tawny. If served blind, you'd never guess this was a white Port, though you'd be hard pressed to decide whether it is an "older" looking 20 or a "younger" looking 30 as the color isn't quite deep/red enough to be a 20 nor dark/brown enough to be a 30.
Nose: Citrus honey, bourbon vanilla, bourbon whiskey. Very powerful and expressive. The bourbon whiskey on the nose is unmistakable once someone has mentioned it.
Palate: Tahitian vanilla, some indistinct and light tropical fruits. Very, very smooth and sweet entry, but enough acidity to eventually tame the sugar. Improved noticeably with time in glass - so much so that I'd recommend decanting for an hour in the future.
Finish: Incredibly long and silky. Lingers forever - at least 10 minutes, but that was the longest I could go without taking another sip of something. It isn't quite as stunningly amazing as the "60" Tawny, but it's in that realm. Far beyond anything else you've probably ever tasted unless you're one of the lucky ones who've had access to those mid-1800's Tawnies with fancy names like Scion and Tributa.
Score: 97 points. I started out a point lower, but the very noticeable improvement with time in glass made me reconsider. Comparable to the best White Ports I've ever tasted - 1952 Dalva Golden White, 1917 Niepoort - though ultimately just behind them along with the 1971 Dalva Golden White. (Which I prefer over the 1963 Dalva Golden White.) The palate doesn't quite match those first two, though the finish is extraordinary.
The packaging of this particular bottle was very nice - I hope this is what they all look like!
- 2017-01-25 18.31.25.jpg (220.86 KiB) Viewed 575 times
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