For The Love Of Port

This is one of the four bottles I bought in Dublin just before Christmas. This time the bottle had been standing for a few days before I decanted it, there was a lot of very fine - almost metallic looking - sediment in the wine and the very fine particle size made it hard work to decant.

9 hours after decanting I tasted the wine.

Deep and opaque red, very slight hint of purpling at the rim.

Gently fruity nose of blackcurrants and vanilla.

Soft into the mouth with an immediate taste of sweet fruit on the front of the tongue with a hint of mintiness. Balanced acidity and very soft tannins. Midpalate develops more fruit and acidity until you have to swallow.

Long aftertaste of over a minute. Starts with fruit and changes quite quickly to chocolate and then slowly fades.

Lovely wine, very good now. My experience in tasting young ports is not enough to be able to predict if this wine will improve but I can say that it has plenty of life ahead of it. It is great to drink now. 92/100.

(It must be good as my glass has gone down by half as my wife has been reading my tasting note over my shoulder as I type :? )

Well, I decided to join you - even though it's rather against my creed to tackle VP's that are under 16.

Mindful of your problems with decanting, I took great care to not to shake the bottle - but what a tight cork! My preferred method is an old T bar corkscrew, with the bottle between my knees - gradually increasing the strain - but I couldn't budge it!

Had to resort to a levered corkscrew, yet when it did come out, I found the cork was unusually short!

The problem I found with decanting was the lack of a clear dividing line between liquor and sediment - it began to haze a little as I got towards the end - I may have been a little late calling a halt

I dumped the remains of the bottle into a glass - purple soup!

This is one very dark wine - the first sip revealed the full force of the tannins - indecently young.

I will re-visit later.

How much did you pay for this Port? I have a local wine shop selling both the 95 and the 96 for £32; the 97 costs £44. I wonder which one of these would you recommend? I have very little experience with VP, and cannot find anything older than this for the amount of money I am willing to spend...

How much did you pay for this Port?

I have quite a lot of this and can spare a case if you're interested - six bottles in polished wooden box (complete with brass fittings etc..) - £120 + whatever delivery costs.

PM me if you're interested

Tom

My first proper encounter with this wine last night left me with mixed feelings - a tannin rich fruit bomb without doubt, but neither the bouquet nor on the palate did it seem very composed.

24hrs on and it has pulled itself together very nicely - opulent, rich and assertive. I feel this is a wine for those who work hard and play hard - ideal for a dinner at a golf or cricket club.

But where will it go from here?

This is the great intrigue with Vesuvio, as its distinctive style was only conceived half a generation ago.

Despite '96 being a lesser year overall, I think someone forgot to tell the Vesuvio vines - this wine comes over as very robust, and seems unlikely to fade for another generation at least - fortunately, I have enough bottles to chart its progress in some detail...