TN: 1989 Cruz Vintage Port

[Al B.]

Decant: 3½ hours - Light ruby colour, very similar to the colour of a ruby or ruby reserve port. Suffered from slight bottle stink on decanting but this had blown off by the time the wine was tasted. On the nose this had a slight vegetal tone from the bottle stink, a touch of heat and a hint of rhubarb. Sweet impact into the mouth with little flavours. Mid-palate development is good and brings some cough sweet style fruit on a number of different levels but with some distracting bitterness. Aftertaste takes a long time to develop, but eventually comes through nicely and last a decent time. A wine like this would not have created a "worst port experience" in any port drinkers career. While not great, it is worthy of more than just emptying down the sink. Scoring - a wine that is likely to be one of the 5 worst VPs that I drink this year and won't improve over time so I rate it as a 0/0 on Tom's scale. Would I buy this again at the bargain price of £8? Probably not, I'd rather spend twice as much and get something significantly better. 72 points