For The Love Of Port

I had the pleasure of attending a port tasting of the likes I will probably never experience again. Roy Hersh was in town and led 13 of us through a group of 13 beautiful ports.
Roy is such an educator. He gave historical background from the era as well as the individual producers. He is articulate and such a fun guy.

Charles and Trip Johnson were kind enough to set it up at Charles’ house. Bill Graves supplied over 160 Riedel stems for the event. Bravo guys.

The four hour first exploration began with a group of Coheita ports.

1853 ( Coheita ) Reserve King Pedro V bottled by Dirk van der Niepoort

Gorgeous color. Deep brown almost mahogany color. The nose is maple syrup and spice. Very complex. The palate is quite sweet but there is significant balancing acidity which keeps it from being cloying. A long finish. This wine gained intensity with time. Wow!

1870 Royal Oporto Coheita

Light amber color. A very high toned nose with maple syrup character but significant nuttiness. Like Black Walnuts. The palate is very light. More like Madiera to me. Green nutty flavors and a shortish finish. This one did not budge with aeration.

1896 Royal Oporto Coheita

Cloudy amber color. The nose has a slight off putting note. Musky. The nose and palate show stronger brown sugar types of character with good acid to balance it. Pretty good finish.


The Reserve King Pedro V was so youthful. Roy discussed the fact that this was found in cask in 2001 by the people that own and run Quinta do Noval. It had only been in bottle for a couple of years. The wines tend to shed sediment in the bottle and weaken. In cask they tend to caramelize with the barrel vanillin to produce a thicker and more youthful looking Coheita as they age. Very interesting.


First Flight of Vintage Ports

1927 Cockburn

This is so detailed on the nose and palate. Very elegant. Great caramelized dark fruit that is loaded with incredible spice. Almost like Botrytis. The transparency of the underlying depth of spice and fruit here is like a Burgundy. Penetrating and held up for several hours in very good shape. Profound! Wow!

1945 Taylor

This one has a funky note on the nose. The palate is incredible. Absolutely stunning. Deep caramel laced fruit that is so aggressive but seamlessly integrated with the underlying structure. Assertive and bold. Profound despite the off putting nose. Wow!


Second Flight of Vintage Ports

1955 Taylor

Assertive nose of dark caramelized fruits and some spice.
An herbal note of Eucalyptus that is prominent. The palate is very bold and takes you by storm. There is a seamlessness of structure to fruit to alcohol in this older wine that lets you know what aging port is all about. Profound.

1955 Grahams

Holy cow. This is good. Sexy fruit that is so elegant on the nose. Caramelized. Not a lot of spice. Less assertive than the Taylor. The palate is seamless again with lots of caramelized fruit. Sexy wine. Profound.

Third Flight of Vintage Ports

1963 Taylor

This wine is VERY assertive compared with the prior ones.
Again, some Eucalyptus here that is very noticable. Beautiful nose that is all about the fruit here. Grabs you and doesn’t let go. Integrated alcohol with some air. A little heat at first. With time this is a profound wine.

1970 Grahams

Oh my! This is the sexiest port I have ever tasted. Seamless mix of caramelized fruit that is presented in such a sexy way. Silky in the mouth. A finish that goes on and on.
Profound and one of my favorite wines of the night.

Fourth Flight of Vintage Ports

1963 Fonseca

Very nice mix of spice and caramelized fruits. The palate is seamless. A combination of assertive fruit with a very elegant structure. One of the best finishes when first tasted. Profound. This wine faded after dinner but was still excellent.

1965 Fonseca Guimaarens

An off year port which shows medium concentration and a rather simple palate compared to all the other superstars. Very very nice finish here. Suffers only in comparison.

1966 Fonseca

Very hot on opening. The alcohol took a great amount of time to integrate here. Very assertive aggressive wine with lots of caramel notes mixed with the fruit. Significant spice. You can tell the house style here but this is a really stubborn port.

1970 Fonseca

Gorgeous. Seamless. This one shows a little youthfulness in the fruit but lots of spice. A long blistering finish that just improved as the night went on. Profound. This one is also one of my favorites of the night


Roy spent significant time going through the historical perspective of the releases of these ports. It made ALL the difference in understanding the wines. Knowing that the 1927 is a special bottle. All the 1927 juice stayed in underground bunkers in barrel in London through WW II because of the Great Depression. Most of it was destroyed by the Germans. To taste one of these ports and understand its placement in history is just a mindblowing experience.

Thanks Roy. You are a master teacher!



Don

Wow! I am jealous!

I wondered where Roy had been!?

My father and I hosted this event, and it turned out better than we could have ever anticipated. The collection of Ports we tasted were the result of very generous people who are all fans of Roy and wanted to make this event a special one for him.

As it turned out, Roy did most of the work and the rest of us just drank great Port as we listened to Roy teach us about the history behind every bottle and vintage. This is the first tasting I've ever attended that I wish had been taped so I could replay Roy's talk and refresh my memory on all the fascinating details.

The 1853 Reserve King Pedro V was my WOTN. It was very sweet with a viscous caramel taste and searing acidity to balance it all. I was stunned at how youthful the wine tasted. Not bad for juice that had been sitting in a barrel for about 150 years. . .

Roy was extremely generous to bring his 1927 Cockburn to share with us. It was wonderful, of course, but in a restrained feminine style that made you focus on the subtle balance and flavors rather than the bolder style of the 1945 Taylor we had in the same flight.

Thanks, Roy, for coming all the way across the country to hang out with us for a while. We all truly hope you will do it again sometime! Cheers.

Trip,

I also wished I had taped the night. I don't think I opened my mouth for the first hour or two, as I was so entranced. Most people don't see so quiet, although many have wished it :).

Don,

Thanks so much for such vivid notes. I love seeing your takes on the wines, and others, as it helps refocus my own memories. Which observations did I share, which did I interpret differently, etc. Really great of you to do so.

I have more personal notes to you both, but I'll send them to you rather than embarrass you online :).

Nick

I plan to eventually do an article on this fantastic tasting, so I will not be posting TNs here, but for those the are recipients of my FREE newsletter (http://www.fortheloveofport.com and go to Newsletter and there is a "sign up" button), you will see my pictures, impressions and tasting notes).

My sincere thanks to Dr. Charles, Trip and Cathy Johnson for organizing this event. Having the foresight to include 13 glasses per person, made for an incredible sight when I first looked at their dining room table. When the glasses were filled, it was even more impressive.

I was hoping that the participants would all ante up some great wines and offered them a challenge to break out their best, to make this one of the best Port tastings held in the USA during 2006. We are less than 3 weeks into the year and I can honestly say, that it will be very difficult if not impossible to organize a Port tasting of this magnitude and besides two vertical tastings of Nacional, I would have to go back to 2003 to find a Port tasting that was this comprehensive and educational. I applaud all of the participants for the great wines you put forth, but far moreso, the thought provoking and challenging questions you posed. I do quite a number of Port tastings and would have to say that this was one of my very favorite, for that reason. The interest shown and the enthusiasm by all, was outstanding. I truly look forward to my next visit to your hospitable city.

I will make a few more specific comments directed towards the wines when everyone who attended has had an ample opportunity to put in their two cents. Until then:

The only bottle that was not in perfect form was the '66 Fonseca, which stemmed from disjointed alcohol.

As a matter of fact, I started decanting all of the Ports from youngest to oldest at 11:30 a.m. and finished with the last bottle, 1853 at 2:55 p.m. So the 1970 Fonseca which was the youngest wine of the day, had 3.5 hours for the first sip and was nearly 5 hours in glass by the time we got to the next flight. After we had all 13 wines we went to dinner and much later reconvened to taste each and every wine again, to see how they had changed with air time. I think this was a highlight for many, to learn the difference of extended decanting. Some wines had definitely improved ... others did not and still others, had deteriorated.

I hope that this tasting proved to some in the group that believed the rhetoric that Colheitas can not improve with bottle age. A few select members who showed up early were privvy to witness the sediment that had formed in the bottles of Colheita, contrary to popular belief. There are of course, exceptions to every rule.


Lastly, I do hope that some of the folks who have posted here, will provide their impressions or TNs of the specific Ports we had the opportunity to taste.

Thanks again to all of you for making this one of the greatest Port tastings in recent memory. You have set the bar very high for any other group to surpass the quality of Vintage and Colheita Ports that we were all fortunate enough to taste. You have my sincere appreciation for a superb tasting and a wonderful weekend!