Multi: Tasting: 1995 Churchill's Quinta da Agua Alta Vintage Port + Moscatel

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Ronald Wortel
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Location: New Plymouth, New Zealand

Multi: Tasting: 1995 Churchill's Quinta da Agua Alta Vintage Port + Moscatel

Post by Ronald Wortel »

This Friday we had some friends over who had been travelling South America for the last 8 months. Their return called for a good dinner, and since they were longing for some Portuguese wines, LadyR and I were happy to help, and cooked some Portuguese food to match. :)
Stevie also came by to accompany us.


We started off with some cooling portonics (using Kopke Dry White).

With the starter (spicy shrimp beignets) a bottle of Castello d'Alba Branco Reserva 2005, followed by lomo, typical Portuguese tomoto/onion salad and oven roasted potatoes (the wine was CARM Reserva 2001).

In between the main course and dessert Stevie opened a bottle for us to taste blind:

J.M. de Fonseca Moscatel de Setubal 1966
Very citrussy and full on the nose, with lovely nutty flavours, again citrus, caramel and raisins. Full, fairly sweet but really light on its feet due to a spectacular acidity. Very, very good stuff. Both LadyR and I guessed this to be old Setubal.

With dessert (a chocolate 'mousse' that turned out to be a bit more solid than I expected...) we drank:

Churchill's Quinta da Agua Alta 1995 Vintage Port
Rather evolved colour. Nose of tar, chocolate and some leather. Fairly light bodied with sour berries, again some chocolate and some old tones. Tannins have pretty much disappeared. Spirity on the finish. Not a bad glass of port, but already too much evolved for the vintage (and producer) and rather dull. 84 points.

I don't know if we encountered a bad bottle or if this port just isn't as good as I hoped.

I'm sipping the remains of the port at the moment. The spirit has blown off, but it is now just a rather old glass of VP, with a structure that is more akin to a LBV than a VP. Actually, I think the '86 Niepoort LBV I had last week showed younger than this port. :shock:
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Roy Hersh
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Post by Roy Hersh »

Sounds like a great celebration Ronnie. I love the Moscatel de Setubal. I have some 1962 hanging around but have never had the '66. Thanks for the impressions on your wines. I believe that Churchill's only started to make really good Port with the 1997 and even more so, the 2000 VP. As mentioned, Johnnie Graham originally called his Port (along with his two brothers) Churchill Graham's. The Symington's who had purchased Graham's from the same 3 brothers in 1970, requested that they drop the Graham's so as to not confuse the public and so it simply became Churchill.
Ambition driven by passion, rather than money, is as strong an elixir as is Port. http://www.fortheloveofport.com
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Steven Kooij
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Post by Steven Kooij »

Thank for posting the notes Ronnie - it was indeed a fun evening! The Churchill was disappointing, but the JM de Fonseca made up for that - tasty indeed. Just a correction: it was the '65 we drank, not the '66. The '65 is much more concentrated than the otherwise also rather tasty '66.
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Ronald Wortel
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Location: New Plymouth, New Zealand

Post by Ronald Wortel »

Thanks for the correction Stevie! I couldn't find the bottle anymore and had somehow reminded '66.
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