For The Love Of Port

Deep dark red-purple. Dry gritty aroma with eucalyptus. Lots of tannin; berry, both red and black in the mouth. Decent long-ish finish. I think this has plenty of potential for the future. Score? Sorry, just my brief impressions this time.

Tasted at the L.A. Offline Oscar Quevedo Dinner.

As others have asked me to explain my "torrefacted" I would like to have a better understanding of what you mean by gritty aroma. Not sure exactly how to take that.

Anyone else who was at Andy's I hope you will weigh in here too. I want to see what the group thought of this, scores appreciated if you don't mind going out on a limb, but not required. Impressions are the most important. Thanks!

I have a bunch of TNs to post, which I hope to do some time this weekend. Next week at the latest. I even have a TN for a (by all accounts) heavily corked Port for you.

My impression was similar to Eric's. I had a dusty earthiness that might be what he's talking about.

Roy Hersh wrote:As others have asked me to explain my "torrefacted" I would like to have a better understanding of what you mean by gritty aroma. Not sure exactly how to take that.

Fair question. This is my own term, at least I didn't use it after seeing it used elsewhere, and I'll attempt to explain.

Let's start with fruit jelly. It has a very Jello-like uniform texture. In taste and aroma it is very clean, the pure fruit and sugar. Then consider fruit preserves, which have a little more texture. If you taste and smell these, they seem to have a little more dimension to them. They are rougher. For strawberry, you seem to get some of the skin and seed flavor, unlike the jelly which tastes more like it was made with just the pulp of the fruit. The next step in my mind is this gritty aroma. I'll come back to that, but for the moment will skip past it. Now think of vegemite. I haven't had it much, but I remember it being very pasty and gritty, and certainly rough for flavor and aroma. It is, in my mind, "gritty".

In Port, this gritty aroma I describe is fruit based, but has more too it. It is like the fruit preserves, but even rougher. It isn't totally gritty like vegemite, but it is like there is more there than just fruit preserves. It makes me think that you took real thick skinned grapes, maybe carved out and discarded some of the insides, and ground them down into a paste; and maybe you threw in just a little grape stem as well. Now imagine smelling the resulting gritty paste. Dusty earthiness, as Glenn mentions, might be a component of this, as well as herbaceousness.

Did that work?

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Now I have to see if I can find some vegemite to try, as I have never had it or even seen it and people have told me it is pretty foul ... but never having had it, I don't know what it even looks or smells or tastes like. Beyond that, I do get the gist and appreciate you taking the time.

Must eat vegamite with toast and butter. Make toast, butter it, then spread a very thin layer of vegamite. At least that's how the Aussies eat it.
I don't like it either.

OK, this is the ultimate thread drift and I do apologize ... but can you please explain what Vegamite tastes like?

To me, it's yeasty and bitter. Not the savory yeastiness of bread.

First, buy yourself a new pair of quality leather hiking boots. Make sure you break them in properly for at least a few days as you're going to be wearing them constantly for a while.

Next, go on a walkabout Down Under. It should be a good long one, at least a month or three, and you should see as much of the impressive landscape in Australia as you can.

Then, put your hiking boots in a blender and eat them. That's what vegemite tastes like.

Glenn E. wrote:what vegemite tastes like.

Are you sure we're not talking about Bandol?