1983 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port
Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:59 pm
Decanted for about 1.5 hours, then sampled again at about 3 hours. Not much left now ![[cheers.gif]](./images/smilies/cheers.gif "Toast")
Color: Bright for 1983. Looks like a bottle of 200x red wine, with slight bricking at the edge.
Aroma: First whiff was hot, but this faded with time. A little spice and faint cherry. Not real strong. Some dried leaf.
Flavor: Some heat in the mouth, but nicely integrated. Still a fair amount of juicy fruit and a mild bit of tannin. Earlier in the evening I detected a little smokiness, but not now. The warmth follows through in the medium finish. Slightly above medium sweetness.
Empty glass - more dried leaf aroma and some fig.
Empty decanter - licorice.
A wonderful bottle and a very pleasant surprise. I liked the 1985 SW a lot so I thought I'd give this a try and picked up three bottles for $40 each. I would definitely buy more at that price, and drink them now or maybe for the next five (to ten?) years. I liked this much more than 1983 Graham's, but I say the same thing for 1985, so maybe that's just my style.
Color: Bright for 1983. Looks like a bottle of 200x red wine, with slight bricking at the edge.
Aroma: First whiff was hot, but this faded with time. A little spice and faint cherry. Not real strong. Some dried leaf.
Flavor: Some heat in the mouth, but nicely integrated. Still a fair amount of juicy fruit and a mild bit of tannin. Earlier in the evening I detected a little smokiness, but not now. The warmth follows through in the medium finish. Slightly above medium sweetness.
Empty glass - more dried leaf aroma and some fig.
Empty decanter - licorice.
A wonderful bottle and a very pleasant surprise. I liked the 1985 SW a lot so I thought I'd give this a try and picked up three bottles for $40 each. I would definitely buy more at that price, and drink them now or maybe for the next five (to ten?) years. I liked this much more than 1983 Graham's, but I say the same thing for 1985, so maybe that's just my style.