'78 Taylor Crusted and '85 Croft
Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:01 am
Last night Sean and Hector came by for a “casual” port tasting. I thought it was just going to be Sean and one bottle of port and a cigar, turned into two bottles of port and 2-3 cigars each; one of which was the Montecristo A! :devil:
We started out smoking and drinking at the same time, so proper notes were not taken. The line up was 1978 Taylor Crusted and 1985 Croft.
1978 Taylor Crusted had a little TCA going on; first one in about 6 bottles I have had so far. Both Sean and I picked it up immediately. Hector is new to port, but could taste it later on after our discussion on TCA. Fairly syrupy and sweet, unlike one would think of Taylor. Little spirited, but everyone was enjoying it. The Taylor was in the decanter depletion lead for the whole evening; initially by lot and then the Croft caught up.
1985 Croft has been somewhat of a disappointment in the past. 1985 being such a great vintage in general, one may hope more from Croft. This bottle was quite grapey at first. Got better over the next 2 hours, the nose was full of fruit, and then towards the end of the decanter, Sean and both said at the same time, “I think this is stewed…” Weird how the port went from young and grapey, to quite nice and rich, to stewed in 3 hours… This port has been one of our “go to” ports for a while.
My living room still smells like an ashtray from cigars all night. I was hearing it from the girlfriend this morning.
Even our corgi, Camber was smelling like ash. 
We started out smoking and drinking at the same time, so proper notes were not taken. The line up was 1978 Taylor Crusted and 1985 Croft.
1978 Taylor Crusted had a little TCA going on; first one in about 6 bottles I have had so far. Both Sean and I picked it up immediately. Hector is new to port, but could taste it later on after our discussion on TCA. Fairly syrupy and sweet, unlike one would think of Taylor. Little spirited, but everyone was enjoying it. The Taylor was in the decanter depletion lead for the whole evening; initially by lot and then the Croft caught up.
1985 Croft has been somewhat of a disappointment in the past. 1985 being such a great vintage in general, one may hope more from Croft. This bottle was quite grapey at first. Got better over the next 2 hours, the nose was full of fruit, and then towards the end of the decanter, Sean and both said at the same time, “I think this is stewed…” Weird how the port went from young and grapey, to quite nice and rich, to stewed in 3 hours… This port has been one of our “go to” ports for a while.
My living room still smells like an ashtray from cigars all night. I was hearing it from the girlfriend this morning.
Even our corgi, Camber was smelling like ash. 
I need to get my arse back out there soon, but I'm afraid with my schedule the next few weeks that probably wont happen until after I get back from Portugal.