2007 Quinta do Vale Meão Vintage Port -- (Cask Sample)

[Glenn E.]

Tasted blind at Roy's house, June 16-19, 2009. Preliminary report here.

Bottle #1: 2007 Croft Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #2: 2007 Martinez Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #3: 2007 Quinta do Vale Meão Vintage Port (Cask Sample)

Day 1
Color: inky dark, with purple and lavender tones, fading evenly to pink near the rim. Again similar to Bottle #1, but slightly darker. Bottle #2 and Bottle #3 show less transparency near the rim than Bottle #1, making them seem more opaque overall.
Nose: massive, rich fruits. Almost overpowering. Faint sour note (which I consider good - it adds volume and richness), and a hint of dried mustard.
Palate: red and black fruit, but no purple. Hugely powerful. Tannins are present but hidden behind the massive wall of fruit. I got a vague notion that this is the best Port of the three, but not for drinking now. It's going to age for decades, though, and will likely out-live Bottle #1 and Bottle #2 by a fair margin.
Finish: heat, faint black fruit, some tannins... and then it's abruptly gone. But that's still 20-30 seconds. It's not a "wow!" impressive finish, but it's a good one.

Initial score: no clue. It's too big for me to fully grasp.

Day 2
Color: Slightly bluer than Day 1, meaning that it's a slightly darker purple than before. Still the darkest of the three.
Nose: Still a monster. Sour note is fainter and more integrated.
Palate: the red fruits have fled (or been crushed) - all that remains are massive walls of black fruit. Tannins are more pronounced, which gives them better balance now. Some attempt at milk chocolate, but can't quite get there because the fruits are too powerful. Welch's grape juice.

New score: It's really good, but still beyond my meager ability to judge.

Day 3
I didn't taste on Day 3, but thought I should make a note of it so that the timeline is correct.

Day 4 My initial posting refered to this as Day 3.
Color: no change from day 2, which is to say that it's still a bit bluer (a deeper, darker purple) than on day 1.
Nose: a bit of alcohol showing now, but it's just there (not bad). Still has a good sour note that is starting to remind me of Elmer's glue. Faint blueberry and a couple of tart purple berries like marionberry and boysenberry.
Palate: purple and black berries, thick and chewy tannins, and a heavy water mouth feel. By which I mean that it feels a little heavier than water, but not heavy enough to call it cream or even half & half. Some black currant provides a nice tang to close the deal.
Finish: long & strong, dominated by the fruits. It fades evenly and cleanly. Very late there's a hit of tart apples.

Final comments: Epic. It's such a monster that I couldn't even score it for the first two days - I just couldn't figure out where to place it. Not something you'd want to drink now because it's far too big... but it's a Port that is clearly going to last for decades and mature into something very special. Right now it's like a massive thunderstorm on the horizen - dark and ominous. In order to finally reach a score I had to try and picture what it's going to be like in the future, and the Ports that came to mind were the trio of massive 1994s from Taylor/Fonseca/Vesuvio, the 1985 Fonseca, the 1970 Taylor, and even the 1966 Fonseca. Yeah, epic. I've never had a Nacional, but they have to be something like this.

Final score: 95-98 points.
Anticipated peak maturity: 2049-2059 and quite possibly even later than that. Buy a couple cases and lay them down for your grandchildren.

Reveal: 2007 Quinta do Vale Meão (Cask Sample). Quite a surprise for both of us, but a very pleasant one.

[Glenn E.]

Tonight I am finishing off the bottle which Roy so graciously allowed me to take home. Unlike the other two, I'm not sure this one is past its peak yet even though today is Day 6. I really do think this will end up being one of the "steals" of the 2007 vintage... provided it's not hit with multiple 95-98 point reviews before we can lock in our pre-orders!

[Roy Hersh]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! :wall:

[goncalo devesas]

Hello Roy,
I don´t know if you remember me saying that from those that I have tasted, the 2007 VP Vale de Meão it was my favorite, I´m glad that you have published this article, and of course, I´ll keep some for my daughter

[Glenn E.]

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! :wall:

Ack! Uh... what I meant to say was... uh...

It's a nice effort from a lesser-known producer, but... uh... not something that most people should worry about buying.

There, how's that?

[Andy Velebil]

DOH!!! :help: :joker:

[Derek T.]

DOH!!! :help: :joker:

Andy - we should buy the entire stock of this in VNG later this week and sell it to Glenn and Roy for a small fortune :devil:

[Roy Hersh]

I am already sitting on 3 cases, what are you talking about. Need any?

[Eric Ifune]

Suckling liked it as well. Rated it 93-95 in the new "Wine Spectator."
"Structure with harmony. Long and medium sweet, with creme de cassis and wet earth."
So I guess it's not such a secret anymore.

[David Spriggs]

I can't yet find a single place (outside of Germany) that is offering this wine pre-arrival.
-Dave-

[Eric Menchen]

I can't yet find a single place (outside of Germany) that is offering this wine pre-arrival.

Here's one in the UK. http://www.boweswine.co.uk/default.cfm/ ... dindex.122
But no US listings yet.