1997 Taylor Vintage Port

[Lamont Huxley]

A good friend of mine and I decided to open up a couple of young Taylor's VPs for a head-to-head comparison: 1997 and 2000. Both bottles were given 5-6 hours of decanting and were then (mostly) consumed over the following 3-4 hours. There was a good glass of each left over which I drank on the following night. Here are my notes on the '97:

Dark burgundy in the glass - just opaque but not inky - moderate color for a young VP. The nose is fairly high-toned showing boysenberry, dried fig and red cherry fruit with a spicy/earthy edge that I called ground ginger on day 1 and on day 2 reminded me more of dried chiles (not a note I can remember picking up in a VP before but it was a nice aspect). Even on day 2 though, the aromatics were fairly hard to coax out of the glass. The palate offers smooth berry fruit up front giving way to an upswelling of black pepper, baking spices and spirit. The finish is long and lingering but with some spirit carrying through it. Overall seems somewhat out of balance compared to the first time I drank this VP (2008) when I scored it 97 points and was really blown away. The length was there but I didn't get the deep, meaty quality and excellent balance this time around. This bottle was certainly enjoyed but based on my previous experience it was a bit disappointing. Perhaps it was a sub-par bottle or perhaps the wine is just in a wacky phase - I can't say. This time, 92 pts, Tasted 11/11