10 Year Old Tawny Port by Delaforce His Eminence's Choice

[Moses Botbol]

Not sure the exact name of this port, as it was a rush pick to enjoy last night. We drank it in my back yard and it was dark out, so I can’t go into detail on the color, but it did appear to be medium tawny color and perfectly filtered clear. It has a pronounced vanilla and coffee flavor. So much vanilla notes, it reminded me of Dominican Rum, and was present most on the nose and finish. The alcohol was not as smooth as I would’ve liked. Curious to try their 20 year; maybe the smoothness is there and notes are more balanced?

[Jay Hack]

We had the same port on the same night at the Acker Merrall Condit boat cruise and wine tasting. It was one of a hand full of highlights of a somewhat disappointing collection of wines. I did not find the alcohol to be overpowering on the nose, but the wine had been in the bottle and shaken up by pouring for two hours by the time I got to it. My description was nutty with a bit of chocolate and figs in the background. There was also a bit of creamy vanilla, a Dr. Brown's cream soda type vanilla. A friend who was there thought that the figs predominated. I think this is a very pleasant wine and a good value for the money, especially if it's just a few ounces to top off an evening. Not as intense as the Taylor 20 from 2 weeks ago, but less than half the price. My friend rated it WOTN. I would say it was tied for second with the 2005 Savigny les Beaune. First place was the 2005 Mueller Cattoir Gimmeldinger ?Garten Auslese.

[Todd Pettinger]

"Delaforce His Emminence's Choice 10 Year Old Tawny" is the full name I believe. I went searching on the site here for my own TN on it, and after nearly 20 minutes, realized that I had been tasting it from a remote location, hadn;t officially recorded the TN where I normally do, and had to go search it out in my email inbox (sent it to myself to remind me to post it here on FTLOP - and then forgot so thanks Moses for "reminding" me to post this! :))

The TN is as follows:

For the first time ever in recollection I believe I can taste the brandy that was used to stop the fermentation process. I taste distinct notes of oak and that excessive alcohol burn that I only associated with the higher alcohol (40% and up) brandies and whiskies. I would be extremely interested in learning what they used as an aguardente as there is a distinct after-taste of this.

Aside from that, a smooth, much more dry than many, Tawny that has less of the excessive brown sugar and crème brulee that I am accustomed to tasting in the majority of the aged tawnies. Slightly nutty, I would guess this would go down very well with some Sharp (Aged) Cheddar and walnuts, although I am saddened that I have neither at hand at the moment. I will have to pick some up and try this before the bottle is empty.

For those of you who like the dryer style of ports, with less sweetness, His Eminence's Choice may be a good choice for you if you have not tried it yet. I actually am discovering that I swing to the sweet side, but will definitely buy this again for a "horizontal" of sorts with all 10 Year Aged Tawnies I am trying to organize.

Todd

[Lars F]

Todd wrote:

I would be extremely interested in learning what they used as an aguardente as there is a distinct after-taste of this.

I thought the aguardente was always the same (colorless and taste neutral). Is that not so?

-Lars

[Moses Botbol]

My description was nutty with a bit of chocolate and figs in the background. There was also a bit of creamy vanilla, a Dr. Brown's cream soda type vanilla. A friend who was there thought that the figs predominated.

Right on with the creamy vanilla. I guess I could imagine the fig notes too.

[Moses Botbol]

"Delaforce His Emminence's Choice 10 Year Old Tawny" is the full name I believe.

His Emminence is a man of taste, so this port has to be good, right?

It was on the drier side for sure, and was probably the reason the bottle disappeared so fast between the the three of us. Sort of like a Madeira bottle... "It's already empty????"

[Todd Pettinger]

Todd wrote:

I would be extremely interested in learning what they used as an aguardente as there is a distinct after-taste of this.

I thought the aguardente was always the same (colorless and taste neutral). Is that not so?

-Lars

I was under the same impression Lars. I only mention it as it certainly had a brandy-like taste present which could have simply been excessive spirit manifested on my palate that day as 'brandy.'

I have never experienced such a strong spirity taste before in all the port I have tried.

Todd

[Eric Ifune]

On the Fortification Tour, we had a chance to try some of the different aguardente being evaluated at Fonseca. Very interesting and there was considerable difference between the samples.