For The Love Of Port

Take the opportunity to crack some of these youngters while they are enjoyable in their youth!

I actually came to this forum to see if you had posted the "VT ideas for March?" thread yet, but looks like the topic has been chosen. Funny, because 2007 VP is exactly what I was hoping to suggest, seeing as how a lot of folks, myself included, seem to be scrambling for as much info/opinion on this new vintage as possible. Kudos on a great choice of theme!

I've already got a Quarles Harris 07 lined up and ready to go...

Cool, next week I'm attending a dinner/tasting with Rupert Symington and a bunch of 2007's

Since Lamont is taking the Quarles Harris, I'll probably open a Quinta Vale d. Maria, unless something else falls onto my lap. I've purchased a few others, but don't have them in my possession yet as I was waiting for warmer weather to ship.

Since there was a lot of talk about 2007 recently and have not have the time to post" the choose your topic" earlier, I thought it would be a good idea.

I'll be looking for some Silval 2007.

2007 Quarles Harris VP:

I found this at Trader Joe's in Manhattan selling for $34.99 and figured it would be a good choice to sacrifice for the VT. I drank it over a four day period.

Not quite inky in color, but an opaque purple showing some deep burgundy highlights on the bright rim. This definitely needed extended decant time as the nose didn't start to open up until 24+hrs and wasn't at it's best until 48+hrs. At that point the prominent note of sweet and tangy boysenberries was complemented by a lovely dark chocolate undertone, mineral notes, and something that kept bringing to mind root beer (birch bark, sassafras, liquorice root, wintergreen...). On day three I also found a floral aspect coming out.

The initial attack of sweet fruit is juicy and quite lush and again brings to mind boysenberry as well as blueberry and plum, with vanilla bean being noted on day 3. Although there is good richness and ample tannic structure, the overall impression is more of voluptuousness than brawn. There's good balance through the midpalate and the spirit seems to be very nicely woven into the wine at this young age. The medium-long finish gained a bit of length with aeration though even when showing at it's best it wasn't quite a long finish. That said it was about the only thing that held me back from scoring this higher. A delicious young VP that will probably be a very nice mid-term ager. I'd guess it's one to drink in the 10-25yr window.

If I had scored it each day it probably would have been 91/92/93/92, so for now: 92+ with good potential.

I'm happy to say that I have another couple of these to lay down for the future. At that price, definitely a steal.

A very fine price indeed, Mr. Huxley.

I have a pair lined up to evaluate and write about again, so I'll be tasting the Ramos Pinto VP and also the RP Ervamoira too and will be back with impressions.

Also posted in the TN section, but here for completeness:

Decanted at 8 a.m. Color is deep dark magenta. I hear a lot of young Port characterized as inky purple, but this was more on the red/pink side of the spectrum without enough blue to make it into violet or purple. Still, it was dark as I expected. First whiff was jammy fruit, then I noticed a hint of dried spice and later a little leather on a thick background. Later in the day I thought the aroma was of red fruit, and in the evening it had turned to berry, like a huckleberry or lingonberry. I couldn't quit place it, but it was not one of the more common berries like strawberry, raspberry, or blueberry, although of those three, closest to the blueberry.

D+14 hours: Aroma was fruity along with some menthol and eucalyptus or other dried leaf. In the mouth, WOW! I've never had a VP this young. I own 2005 and 2007, but prior to this the youngest I had tasted was 2003. This was huge. There is definitely a lot of tannin here, as after a glass I felt like I had been sampling Port all evening. However, as I was drinking it I didn't find the tannin so overwhelming because of all the fruitiness and the thick medium to heavy body. That eucalyptus flavor was big in the mouth too, although I couldn't quite place it. It was more of a herbaceousness. My wife said this one had a lot of grape skin flavor, and while I didn't disagree, I thought it was more of grape stem. Good finish, but I don't remember how long it was. I'll try to capture this in a subsequent tasting.

Score? I really don't know about this one. I've started scoring some Port where I have a basis of comparison, but I don't have that in this case. It was a pleasant drink, even at this age, so somewhere in the 90-94 range? I suspect it will be a nice drinker in the future, but I really couldn't tell you based on this tasting how great it might be or when.

I just had the Ramos-Pinto and Ramos-Pinto Quinta da Ervamoira. Both were good but still tanky and not yet in synch. I slightly preferred the regular bottling a drop more. These have still not really settled in and I am not sure what is going on, but neither is a top notch 2007 VP imo.

I did taste the Silval 2007 tonight.

I can't say I really enjoyed it. I found the nose very tipical for Silval with the pepper it always display but the fruit was underripe for this wine. The palate was thin, displaying some red berries flavours, dry tannins with hard edge tannins, finish on the fruit and pepper.15/20 We'll see how it goes... Silval normally delivers much more when its young.