For The Love Of Port

At FTLOP's 12th Anniversary party in late July of this year, one of the 3 events included a broad horizontal of 30 bottles of 1997 Vintage Ports. Another was older Ports ending in "7" with 1967 the youngest entry. And the last event of the weekend was a 1977 VP horizontal tasting.

Not coincidentally, there are quite a few tastings going on across the Portusphere this year with 1977 themes, lots more with 1997 and a few with 1957/1967 and even one or two with 1927 as the theme. All of these are Vintage Ports and I am sure somewhere, 1937 Colheitas are being explored. I remember we had nine of them at one of our tastings a few years ago. That was a lot of fun!

Earlier this year I met the Wine Spectator's James Molesworth at a Port event we attended. He seemed like a very nice young and knowledgeable man and I recently found an article he wrote on a WS tasting-panel evaluation of 1997s at twenty years of age. I hope you will enjoy the read and I also look forward to comments from those who have tried 1997 VPs to see what they think.

http://www.winespectator.com/webfeature ... ting-54400

I am pretty light on that vintage. I'm pretty sure I have a few mag's of '97 Taylor, but I think that's it. Not sure why I did not buy more of that vintage considering the amount of '94 and '95 I have.

Members-Only Content
PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION

Well that was a quick read.

Eric Menchen wrote:

Members-Only Content
PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION

Well that was a quick read.

Very! Does anyone have access that give a short recap of his views on them?

Do you think providing just scores and not the meat of the TNs would be ok? Sorry about that, I didn't realize this was only "premium content".

Roy Hersh wrote:Do you think providing just scores and not the meat of the TNs would be ok? Sorry about that, I didn't realize this was only "premium content".

Yes or just an overview. A summary/recap would not violate any copyright laws.

I'm always surprised at how mature 1997 appears to be when I drink one. They have a sort baked cherry flavour which I always associate with ports that are 20-30 years older than the 1997 vintage. Don't get me wrong, I like the 1997 ports it's just that I'm surprised at how easy to drink they are when I compare them with 1994 or 1992. More on a par with 1991.

Al B. wrote:I'm always surprised at how mature 1997 appears to be when I drink one. They have a sort baked cherry flavour which I always associate with ports that are 20-30 years older than the 1997 vintage. Don't get me wrong, I like the 1997 ports it's just that I'm surprised at how easy to drink they are when I compare them with 1994 or 1992. More on a par with 1991.

yikes... who want's to come over for '97 Taylor mag?

Moses Botbol wrote:

Al B. wrote:I'm always surprised at how mature 1997 appears to be when I drink one. They have a sort baked cherry flavour which I always associate with ports that are 20-30 years older than the 1997 vintage. Don't get me wrong, I like the 1997 ports it's just that I'm surprised at how easy to drink they are when I compare them with 1994 or 1992. More on a par with 1991.

yikes... who want's to come over for '97 Taylor mag?

No need to panic yet, I don't think the vintage has reached "drink soon" status.

I don't disagree with Al. But 1997 Taylor isn't in the middle of the pack, and a magnum at that isn't something I would worry about opening any time soon. See my recent tasting note: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... 12&t=40564

Eric Menchen wrote:I don't disagree with Al. But 1997 Taylor isn't in the middle of the pack, and a magnum at that isn't something I would worry about opening any time soon. See my recent tasting note: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... 12&t=40564

Well, I'd still like to open it when some FTLOP members come to visit Boston... and some other vintages as well.

Moses Botbol wrote:

Eric Menchen wrote:I don't disagree with Al. But 1997 Taylor isn't in the middle of the pack, and a magnum at that isn't something I would worry about opening any time soon. See my recent tasting note: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... 12&t=40564

Well, I'd still like to open it when some FTLOP members come to visit Boston... and some other vintages as well.

I think 1997 Taylor's is one of the better of the vintage so you should be in no hurry IMO.

While I didn't take part in the FTLOP 1997 tasting recently (darn work got in the way), I did try a lot of them while in Portugal this summer. There were a lot that had varying issues of VA, reductive, bacterial, or were just not very well made. I have no idea why this declared vintage seems to have so many issues. But one can get a sense there are issues when at various producer/importer/distributor tastings for the trade and the public 1997 VP's are rarely put out to taste. Perhaps it would make a good question for a future "A Question For The Port Trade" in a newsletter.

Andy Velebil wrote:I think 1997 Taylor's is one of the better of the vintage so you should be in no hurry IMO.

While I didn't take part in the FTLOP 1997 tasting recently (darn work got in the way), I did try a lot of them while in Portugal this summer. There were a lot that had varying issues of VA, reductive, bacterial, or were just not very well made. I have no idea why this declared vintage seems to have so many issues. But one can get a sense there are issues when at various producer/importer/distributor tastings for the trade and the public 1997 VP's are rarely put out to taste. Perhaps it would make a good question for a future "A Question For The Port Trade" in a newsletter.

I still need to post my TNs from the event, but a quick look-through shows:

95: 3
94: 2
93: 7
92: 6
91: 6
90 and lower: 6 (including one so badly riddled with VA that I didn't rate it)

Out of 30 bottles, we had 2 with VA, 1 was corked, and 2 that seemed like they were probably slightly heat damaged/baked (the Messias Cachao and Portal were funky in ways that I couldn't really explain, so that could also correspond to the bacterial problems you noticed). Other than that, everything was pretty solid.

i have a 1997 Passadouro and 2 DOW's. but i didn't taste any 1997 yet.

I have actually had a few of them over the last year Taylor's, Dow's, Sandeman Vau, Graham's of the top of my mind. I find that they are all drink well at the moment and especially the Dow's I am very fond of.

For those of you whom are subscribers, there is a set of 20 year old Tawny Port tasting notes in the newsletter (#93) that was released yesterday. In all there are about 60 of my TNs in that edition plus our blogger, Fernando Correia did his article w/ TNs on Barbeito Madeira bottlings and my friend Henrik Lilja did a fine article on Krohn Colheitas. Lots to read.