1995 Quinta do Infantado Vintage Port

[Lamont Huxley]

This was a cheap bottle, $19.99, that was marked down to $17.99 because the label was stained so I figured it was worth a blind try.

The cork seemed firm when putting in the corkscrew, but when I tried to extract it the bottom half crumbled and I had to push part of it into the bottle. I have a feeling this bottle may have been standing upright on a shelf for a bit longer than it should have.

After decanting through a cheesecloth last night, the wine was very muddy and hazy looking - seemed to be a lot of sediment in it. When I washed out the bottle I saw that it had in fact thrown a huge amount of sediment. I sipped a couple glasses and then this morning I emptied the decanter back into a clean bottle, cleaned the decanter, and then re-decanted the wine through an extra-thick cheesecloth. This seemed to help as the port now looks a good deal clearer, though it still has a ruddy/hazy look to it.

A ruddy, hazy burgundy color with an amber rim. On the nose I noted cherry cough drop, damp leaves, raisin and caramel. Smells tired. The palate reveals a similar profile - dried cherry, raisin and a caramely sweetness at first, medium sweet, very mature tasting but not really in a good way - feels sort of heavy and over-the-hill. The sweetness carries into the midpalate but then fades leaving some mellow heat, ending with a rather clipped and dry finish. Sippable but disappointing.

Edit:

I opened another bottle (a Quinta da Eira Velha 97) that I bought the same day from the same store which also had a dried out cork that crumbled on opening and the same hazy, cooked quality as this did, although even more so. I'll refrain from giving this a score as it probably wasn't a fair example of the port.