For The Love Of Port

Last night, the Sammamish Port Club met again and the tasting was blind. Our host Sandy was very coy about the lineup, saying only that there was a theme and that it would be obvious after the reveal at the end of the night. He did also assure us that there were no ringers - these were all Portuguese Ports.

It was a fun tasting as we progressed through the three flights. Bottle #2 was off in a dramatic way, but no one could identify what the flaw might have been. The nose was a mixture of chemical notes like iodine, turpentine, and pine resin, along with some notes that might have been more appropriate for very old Tawny Port or even Madeira such as leather, cigar box, and aromatic woods such as cedar. Otherwise all 7 bottles seemed to show appropriately as we tasted through them. Flights were 1-2, 3-4, and 5-7.

The wine of the night was #7, but #5 and #6 were both popular for various tasters and so those three would have likely been the podium. (We try to keep it more informal at Port Club meetings, so didn't actually vote.) What made the tasting really interesting - after the reveal - is that it was mostly a duplicate of a prior tasting. Remarkably, most of us scored very close to the previous tasting. There were 4 exact duplicate bottles, but unfortunately one of them was the flawed #2.

1. 1966 Graham. In the original tasting, this was a 1963 Graham, so not an exact match. It was pleasant, but nothing really special. After the reveal we pretty much all agreed that this was not a representative bottle. I was ~6 points lower than normal. I commented that I'd be very happy to drink it all night long, but wouldn't want to go out and acquire any for my cellar.

2. 1977 Warre. Sadly, flawed and not rated. The first time around I gave it 86 points which is fairly normal for me. I'm just not a fan of how Warre Ports develop over time.

3. 1994 Offley Boa Vista. I scored this 92 the first time and 93 this time. A great Port, and a superb value for the money. But as great as it was, it wasn't the QPR winner on the night!

4. 1994 Vesuvio. This was an added bottle that wasn't in the first tasting. After the reveal I could match some of my notes to what I usually expect from V94, but there was a lot missing. So while this was pleasant (I gave it 91 points), it wasn't a normal showing for what's usually a Port that's in the running for wine of the night.

5. 2011 Quinta do Crasto LBV, bottled 2015. The easy QPR winner for the night, as these are $9 per half bottle. I gave it 94 points in both tastings. There were two half bottles this time around, and 5(b) seems slightly nicer than 5(a) - possibly even a point nicer. But I had 5(a) so I'm sticking with 94 points. Buy all of these you can find, as they're truly outstanding Ports, even more so for an LBV.

6. 2011 Fonseca LBV. 93 points in each tasting for me. Slightly drier profile than the Crasto, with some earthy/meaty notes in the palate. I gave it 93 points which also makes this a pretty fantastic QPR bottle, just not as great as the Crasto.

7. 2016 Fonseca Vintage Port. Another added bottle that wasn't in the first tasting. For me, the easy winner on the night at 95 points. 2016 has some pretty spectacular VPs so if you'll live long enough to enjoy them feel confident in stocking up.

After the tasting, Ruth had made caldo verde, salmon, and risotto for dinner, and brownies for dessert. Sandy opened an S. Leonardo "60" and a RWC Mr. Madison's Madeira (Malmsey). As good as the 2016 Fonseca was, the "60" of course blew it away.

While the tasting itself was great, what really made it stand out was going back to compare scores with last year's tasting. Most of us were extremely close in our scores, generally either scoring the same or being off by 1 point while tasting blind. That's both surprising and gratifying at the same time. We were rubbish at guessing what the wines were, but our scores matched up!

What a great idea. Got to try that.

For some additional context on just how rubbish we were at guessing...

I thought that the '66 Graham was likely a second tier producer and likely from a second tier vintage. Something like a '60 or '80 Ferreira, or possibly even a '75 (though I didn't have a producer for that year). When I said '75, someone thought it could possibly be a '75 Graham, but didn't think it actually was. I also had noted "Warre?" due to some heat, which I get often and don't really like in older Warres.

I didn't bother to guess or rate #2 since it was flawed. It tasted much better than it smelled, but that's not saying much. There was talk of giving it 70 points, which I assume would have been primarily due to the nose. It was drinkable if you didn't smell it, but not worth finishing in the presence of basically anything else.

Some discussion surrounding the '94 Offley had it as possibly being an '83 Ramos Pinto. I didn't think so - while it had some of the "pruniness" of the Ramos Pinto, too much else was wrong for it to be that Port. I toyed with a Gould Campbell, possibly 1977, but ultimately my guess was something from the Symington's from '91.

All I managed to guess for the Vesuvio was that I thought it was from 1997. Even in retrospect it doesn't seem like a '94 Vesuvio, so I think it might have been a slightly off bottle. There's just very little in my notes that resembles past notes for Vesuvio '94. I don't recall a lot of other discussion.

All I said for the last 3 was that they were all 2011 or younger, and that the last one was probably a 2016 but that was as much based on its placement in the lineup as on my notes. No one thought they were LBVs. There were a few guesses in the 2000-2003 range for the two LBVs. One person thought that the Fonseca resembled Noval Black, so thought it might be a Noval VP.

If you award 1 point for producer and 1 point for vintage, with 9 tasters and 7 Ports you have 126 possible points. We might have scored 5-6 total amongst us, though not everyone was guessing on every Port.