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EVENT: 1970 Ports (Fonseca, Graham, Taylor, Warre) - tasted Blind

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:08 pm
by Alan Gardner
TASTING OF 1970 PORTS (FONSECA, GRAHAM, TAYLOR, WARRE)
13 FEBRUARY 2008
This tasting was semi-blind. All participants knew which wines were featured – but not the order of pouring. The ports were opened and decanted, starting about 2 hours ahead and finishing just before the tasting. Approx 80 participants, ranging from novice to reasonably expert so the results are probably significant. The tasting was led by me – from an information perspective, but the identities were not revealed until after the group had ‘voted’ on their favourites. The order of pouring was ‘random’ – but the following notes have been ordered to make them easier to follow. To summarize, both British and Portuguese bottlings of Fonseca, Graham, Taylor Fladgate and Warre were served. The wines were poured in the order A through H – but there was no requirement to taste in order – all were prepoured (as background information we’ve noticed a ‘slight’ bias in that wine A rarely comes top and wine H seems to rank first more often than statistically expected). No other biases are known. Also note that one of the wines was defective, so identifying the houses was complicated as one unknown wine was ‘removed’ from the equation. The wines were sourced separately at auction, so no storage conditions known prior to acquisition. The Warre samples were acquired as a mixed case, so they MAY have been stored identically. The wines were acquired over a period of roughly 15 years, most recently 2003, but starting in the 1980’s

1970 Fonseca (English Bottled by Berry Bros); Poured as Wine B.
My note: medium colour (garnet/plum) with even edge; nose of fragrant roses with alcohol noticeable; Very good complexity on palate with spicy curry notes of cardamom and black pepper. Noticeable “grip”. Very long but dry finish. My guess Warre or Fonseca. I placed this port 3rd overall. Group ranking 2nd overall.

1970 Fonseca (Bottled Portugal); Poured as Wine C.
My note: medium garnet colour – edge seemed much lighter; nose explosive deep blackberry fruit, very seductive; on palate the same black fruit even more concentrated. Intense grip – and finish went on forever. A great port with still reserves of fruit to evolve further. My guess Fonseca. I placed this 1st overall. Group placed it 3rd.

1970 Graham (English Bottled by Avery’s of Bristol); Poured as Wine A.
My note: medium garnet/plum. Even edge; very fragrant plums on nose with a hint of chocolate and hint of roses; very pleasant fruit up front with some soft tannins at end. But a little ‘soft’ in centre without a lot of complexity. A very long finish. I guessed Taylor. My 4th best. Group rated it 1st.

1970 Graham (Bottled Portugal); Poured as wine D
My note: Deep plum colour with even gradations through to lighter edge; nose very deep with notes of tar and pepper; on palate huge fruit up front and very sweet with a touch of alcohol hotness. But wine fades in the middle leaving just a hot finish. My guess Taylor. I placed it 5th overall. Group also placed this 5th.

1970 Taylor Fladgate (Scottish bottling from Matthew Gloag); Poured as wine F.
My note: colour of a medium light tawny – appeared very mature; Nose shows defective aromas. I got acetone (nail polish remover) others got mothballs; I guessed a microbial problem and checked other pourings – was able to detect similar issues in 3 different samples from around the room – but all to a different extent. Clearly defective, but I valiantly tasted this in order to complete some notes. Predominant flavour was walnut skins. Unable to guess what this was, as no house characteristics present. However, by elimination I suspected Fonseca or Warre. I placed it 8th overall. Group did similarly!

1970 Taylor, Fladgate (Bottled Portugal); Poured as Wine G.
My note: lightest colour of the non-defective wines, with edge showing tawny rather than red; alcohol dominant on nose, backed up by tar and canned cherries; on palate sweet but simple. Still showing good acid but lacks complexity. My guess Graham. My position 6th. Group ranking 7th.

1970 Warre (English Bottled IECWS – also known as ‘the Wine Society’); Poured as Wine H.
My note: Deep garnet colour with a pink edge; on nose extremely sweet with ripe plum aromas; on palate perfectly balanced, both dry and spicy, showing good depth and complexity. Finish a little too alcoholic. I guessed it as Warre. My ranking 2nd. Group ranking 4th .

1970 Warre (Bottled Portugal); Poured as Wine E.
My note: deep garnet-plum colour but a watery edge; Syrupy sweet on nose with notes of elderberry; on palate huge fruit up front, but then seemed hollow and 1-dimensional. Still some tannin at end but lacked complexity overall. I guessed Graham. My rank 7th. Group rank 6th overall.

So, what did we conclude;
Fonseca (2nd and 3rd with group) was the preferred house, followed by Graham (1st & 5th), Warre (4th & 6th) then Taylor (7th & 8th).

English bottlings were 1st, 2nd and 4th – with a Scottish bottling 8th (and the Portuguese were 3rd, 5th, 6th & 7th). So England wins at something!

All-in-all a great tasting (with 1 exception) and we had 1 bottle of each left over to be tasted another day by one of my other tasting groups.

Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 10:02 pm
by Jeffrey Karp
Alan,

Thank you very much for the tasting report. It sounded like a lot of fun!

It is very interesting to read tasting differences between the Bristish bottlings versus the Portuguese bottlings.

Thanks again for providing such a thorough and informative report.

Best regards,

Jeffrey Karp

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:11 am
by Roy Hersh
Well done Alan. Having done a 1970 horizontal tasting exactly a week ago, with 10 producers ... I found your write up of your own tasting, fascinating. Thanks for the great details.


I must say it is also a pleasure to have Jeff Karp, Port lover extraordinaire here to provide his brilliant insights. Good to see you on FTLOP!!!

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:41 am
by Ronald Wortel
Thanks for posting your notes Alan. A pity that both of the Taylor's didn't show as they should, but other than that it looks like it was a very pleasant event!

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:18 am
by Alan Gardner
Just a comment here on Taylor 1970. I've had this many times, and about 75% of the time it has been relatively light, weak and alcoholic (compared to other 70's - not in absolute terms). The remaining 25% have been much darker and still with plenty of life.
Other than a possible intervention by Mr Hyde, why would there seem to be two 'incarnations' of this port? Is it possible that it was bottled more than once at different times (I'm referring to the Portugal bottling)?

Incidentally I've also noticed two different 'bottles' for the Warre 1970 (Portuguese bottling). Although both have the same 'crest' on the bottle, they are easily distinguished as one is taller (and presumably narrower). But that could be explained by more than one production run - still it does seem strange that Warre wouldn't know how many bottles to order.