For The Love Of Port

Intrigued by Andy's note and our subsequent discussion, I decided to open another one of my stash of 1987 Souza. Just to get an outside opinion, I served it to Roy blind. (From opposite ends of his massive dining room table, so safely socially distanced!) This particular bottle came from the first FTLOP buying opportunity with Porto Souza. Most of my remaining bottles come from the second.

1987 Porto Souza
3.5 hour decant, which in retrospect was too much. 1.0 to 1.5 hours max. It does need some decant, but not a lot.

Color: Cloudy, dusty purple. Fades through dusty rose to an otherwise clear rim.

Nose: Slightly minty with some weak, soft, VA. The VA does more to add depth and complexity than anything else. Soft ripe strawberry. Very faint plum, possibly also some very faint black cherry.

Palate: "Soft" is the word of the day. Soft purple fruits that give the impression of being tertiary (which usually implies red fruits like strawberries). Soft tannins that are still present, but almost gone. Even the acidity is soft, providing just sufficient counter-point to the slightly-off-center-toward-dry sugars. There is some spirit showing, but not enough that you'd call it warm (and certainly not hot). This is a pleasant Port, but not a great one. Easy to drink, but also worthy of slower and more contemplative consumption.

Score: 91 points. Roy had it a point higher; both of our scores were in our normal ranges for this Port.

If this bottle is representative, then my opinion of this Port is coming closer to Andy's. It has reached its peak now and is on its plateau. I do still give it more life left than Andy does, I think, but I've revised that downward to around 10 years before it starts a more significant decline. There is a lot of complexity in the palate, but it takes time sitting and just sipping the Port to find it. It's a subtle complexity that is easy to drink past.

What worries me, based on both of our experiences, is how fast it is starting that slide from the last time you had it.

Andy Velebil wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 3:16 pm What worries me, based on both of our experiences, is how fast it is starting that slide from the last time you had it.

I don't recall exactly when these 2 buying ops were, but around 5 years ago seems roughly correct for the 1st one and maybe 3 years ago for the 2nd one?

If that's roughly correct, then I don't think this is all that precipitous of a slide. If 5 years ago I thought it might still have 5 years left to peak and then 10-15 years on a plateau, and now 5 years later it feels like it has reached its peak and should stay on this plateau for 10 years, that's actually pretty consistent.

Regardless, at least for me it doesn't matter because these will normally only get consumed once per year to celebrate our Anniversary. For us the point isn't to open a great Port, it's to have something from 1987. And with the stock of Kopke Colheitas that I have combined with a case plus of these, we're set for a good long time!

I revisited this bottle over the course of a week, and it held up very nicely. In fact it might have been better at the end of the week than it was on the first night, which makes decanting time difficult to figure out. 3.5 hours on the first night really did feel like too much decant, but then it just held on and was very nice for an entire week.

I have over a case of these left (possibly as many as 18... I'd have to look to be sure) and usually only open 1 per year to celebrate our Anniversary, so I guess I'll get to see just how long it lasts.