An Introductory Tasting

[Al B.]

I ran a tasting of 6 different red ports for a group of colleagues at work recently. The idea was that this was an introduction for them to some of the styles of red port that are easily available in the UK market. The wines were tasted blind (semi-blind by me) and the challenge to the group was to put them into order of price. The tasting notes I took are as follows:

Smith Woodhouse Ruby Port, £7 from Oddbins
Deep red, hint of brown at the rim. Warm fruity smell of blackcurrants. Smooth, sweet and fruity into the mouth. Slightly harsh taste but the fruit holds through. Some balancing acidity. Decent fruity aftertaste of good length, slowly fading to coffee overtones. 87/100.

Smith Woodhouse Late Bottled Vintage 1997, £9 from Oddbins
This was the general consensus for wine of the night from my colleagues.
Deep red, slight hint of brown. Subdued nose, some fruit, alcohol. Weak impact in the mouth, fruity but fairly bland. More body that the Ruby. Mid-palate remains fruity and develops some complexity. Slightly short aftertaste but chocolate notes hold for a long time. 89/100.

Quinta do Noval Unfiltered LBV 1999, £11 from Oddbins
Deep purple red, leaves red stain on the glass when swirled. Fruit laden nose, warm and inviting. Smooth, fruity entry. Slightly unbalanced in the mouth with a bitter undertone to the fruit. Tannic. Peppery aftertaste a little shorter than I would expect from the look of the wine. 84/100.
(NB:- this was MUCH better when I finished off the rest of the bottle a couple of days later.)

Dows Crusted Port Bottled 1999, £14 from Oddbins
This was my first experience of a Crusted Port. I suspect that the bottle was "tired" from having stood on the shelf in the shop for too long as I cannot believe that what I experienced is all that a Crusted Port has to offer.

Deep red into rim. Closed nose, work brings out sweet red fruits and alcohol. Acidic into the mouth, lacking balance with the fruit. Aftertaste is also too acidic, leaving a burning sensation rather than a pleasant reminder of the wine. Unpleasant. 82/100.

Tesco 1995 Vintage Port (Quarles Harris), £14 from Tesco
Rose colour, deep centre and pale rim with brown hints. Smell is bitter and unpleasant. Smells "off". Not balanced in the mouth, no sweetness, no fruit. Develops complexity in the mouth - but all the complexity is unpleasant. Short aftertaste. Poor wine. 80/100.

Cockburn 1983 Vintage Port, £48 from Four Walls Wine
Decanted for 5 hours. Pale colour, thinning and browning at rim. Hot alcohol on the nose with a musty taint. Is this wine corked? Smooth entry into the mouth bringing sweet fruit. Fruit builds up in the mid-palate with molasses and slightly too much peppery alcohol. Still tannic. Musty. Clearly slightly corked. Long aftertaste of chocolate and coffee and herbs. 87/100.


Alex

[Derek T.]

Alex,

I've had the same experience with the Noval LBV - I find this much better 1 or 2 days after decanting.

How did the challenge go? It would be interesting to know how port novices got on working out the cheap from the expensive. Not going to take any notice of your own results as you only had one eye closed on the blind tasting

Derek

[Al B.]

All the wines were bagged and labelled before tasting. I was semi-blind as I knew what the wines were. The others were tasting truly blind. The fact that a number of the wines were damaged in some way also did not help. The orders were (cheapest to most expensive):

Group: Tesco, Crusted, Ruby, Smith Woodhouse LBV, Noval LBV, Cockburns

Me: Tesco, Crusted, Noval LBV, Ruby, SW LBV, Cockburns

The Tesco wine was in very poor condition and was rightly ranked last. The Crusted port was very "flat" and I cannot believe that it was typical of the crusted style (so I have bought another one to try later). So overall, I would say the group got it right and I got it wrong as I had the Noval as cheaper than the SW LBV.

There were also some interesting comments about the Cockburns. Although it was slightly corked, people were still interested by the huge length on the aftertaste and its colour. However, the general group feeling was that while it was fun to be able to try a 23 year old wine, no-one was going to rush out a pay £50 for one. However, there were a few converts to LBV port...so the evening was a partial success.

[Andy Velebil]

Alex,

I think I may come over the water and work with you, just for the "benefits" . If I could only get my co-workers to try something other than Coors Light or Budwieser beer...

I have a 1997 Q do Noval LBV in the cellar. Based on your's and Derek's experience would you guys recommend a long decanting for this one?

Good notes, thanks.

[Frederick Blais]

I've tasted the 1997 LBV noval 3 times since its release. It was not as tannic and concentrated as the 99 is right now. It is drinking beautifuly, I still have 3 bottles and I'd decant it 30 minutes before drinking it but decanting is not really a necessity IMO.

[Andy Velebil]

Thanks Fred

[Al B.]

This was a "team building" event that I was asked to run for one of our legal teams. They wanted to do something different and knew of my interest in wine, so asked if I would run a tasting for them.

Since this was a team building event, my challenge was for them to taste the wines and make their notes individually and then to work as a team to come up with their suggested order.

I'm glad to report that the event was considered a success by the lawyers and a success by me - I got the remainder of 6 bottles of port that I had not tried before to take home with me (living in the UK, I can drive home with opened bottles of wine in the car!).

Alex

[Richard Henderson]

I am a lawyer and I helped as a team member last year for a colleague's wife's 50th. I found a 55 Taylor.
Your "team building" sounds like fun. Maybe I can get a "work visa" and help with the next tasting!

Also, the 83 Cockburn's needs another chance. That is good stuff , see Roy's thread.

[Al B.]

I was sensible enough to buy 2 bottles, the second lies in my cellar and will be opened at some appropriate time. Both Roy and James Suckling think quite highly of the Cockburn 83 - but both have been clear about the perceived high frequency of corked bottles with this particular vintage.

Annoyingly, when I decanted the wine for the tasting I did not pick up that it was corked. It decanted with a wonderful fruity boquet. Sadly, this degenerated by the time of the tasting and revealed the extent of the corking of the wine.

However, the corked characteristics were not overwhelming and you could clearly see that this wine had the potential to be fantastic. I really hope that my second bottle shows the wine to its true potential but also feel a little disappointed that the tasting group did not get the chance to see a great VP. The risk is that they are now put off VP as representing poor value for money....but at least the responses that I have had from them also make it clear that they really enjoyed the LBV's I showed.

Alex