2003 Royal Oporto Vintage Port

[Lamont Huxley]

Upon arriving at the wine shop where I work a few days ago, I found a generous pour of this VP awaiting me. A sales rep had brought a bottle in earlier that day for my friend who owns the shop to sample, and as he knows that I'm a port fanatic, he made sure to save me a glass - thanks Nick!

I'm not sure how long this bottle had been opened when the glass was poured but it had at least several hours to air out before I sipped it:

A plummy purple color turning to burgundy at the rim. A pleasant, slightly medicinal nose of cola, tar, dark fruit and espresso bean. Initially rather sweet blackberry fruit on the palate which gives way to some alcohol showing through on the mid-palate and ends in a medium length finish which is surprisingly dry considering the sweetness of the fruit up front. A bit rough around the edges at this stage, but with a sturdy enough structure and a pleasing dark flavor profile. I would guess this will be a nice little port for medium-term aging. 87/88 pts.

I don't have a lot of experience with Royal Oporto VPs (the only vintages I've had previously were the '82 and '85 which were both pleasant though light and mature when I had them) but this seems like a fairly impressive VP for a producer that usually sells for half the price of the premium labels.

[Andy Velebil]

Lamont,

Definitely a VP you don't hear a lot about, yet from one of the largest Port companies. Do you know what this retails for? From your note, seems if the price is right it would make a nice "anytime" bottle to enjoy in the near to mid term.

[Lamont Huxley]

Lamont,

Definitely a VP you don't hear a lot about, yet from one of the largest Port companies. Do you know what this retails for? From your note, seems if the price is right it would make a nice "anytime" bottle to enjoy in the near to mid term.

Andy,

Indeed, it's interesting how little info there seems to be out there for such a large producer (a check of the TN database turned up surprisingly few notes). I asked my friend at the shop what the pricing would be but he doesn't remember off the top of his head, though he said he would let me know, so I'll post a note here if and when I find out (I'm interested to know myself).

That said, every time I've ever seen one of their wines on the shelf in a shop it has always been priced very low relative to other ports. I recently found a local shop that has 1/2 bottles of the '04 VP for $17.99 so I'll probably pick one up soon to see how it's drinking and whether it would be worth picking up a couple to cellar.