For The Love Of Port

Purchased September 2010 at Kopke, Gaia, on our very first FTLOP Harvest Tour.
Bottled 2009 = 52 years at bottling. 63 years when consuming.
Decanted 30 minutes. T-cork broke into two pieces at opening the bottle. Upper part of the cork was dry. No signs of cork in the taste. Medium dark brown colour, but still transparent. At start the aroma was dominated by alcohol (after abt 40 minutes it had blown away), and also some citrus and oak. Full body. Powerful, but in a modest way. Super elegant. Citrus, oak and minerals. Distinct and nice tannins. Nice acidity/sweetness-balance, and the structure was good. Some bitterness towards the end. Very long aftertaste. Solid old colheita. 93 pts.

Nice review, Rune, thank you. I've been curious about this Port as it's from my birth year, but the price is a little dear in the U.S. The cheapest that I've seen it for in the U.S.is $370. If I'm going to spend that kind of money on a bottle I want it to be a "wow" bottle. Maybe one of these days I'll find one at auction for a little less.

It was a very nice bottle, but I must admit I had hoped it would have justified a couple of more points. As this was the first bottle we purchased during our five FTLOP Harvest tours, we have kept it and kept it, and ... in order to find an occassion to drink it. Although I am not 100 % sure, I got the impression that the time from bottling to consuming was too long (11 years). The bottle has been in our temperature controlled wine cellar since purchase September 2010.

My suggestion is that you try to find a bottle that has a more recent bottling year than our bottle.