For The Love Of Port

Tasted 2 separate days, 2nd half vac sealed and tasted after approx 6 hours.

Dark purple in color, opaque. Lovely arromas of grape concentrate and blackberry with an appealing herbiness in the background. Full bodied with medium thickness. Smooth and silky in the mouth with a 45+ sec finish where the tannins show up (a little fuzziness).

note: I find most good VPs are full bodied but I enjoy the ones which are thick and almost gooey with lots of concentration and intensity.

At $58 cdn this is an excellent value, I'll be getting a few more bottles to taste over the next 5-10yrs (if I can be that patient!).

SC/Ronnie, I'd be interested to see what you two think of this compared to the 01 Fonseca G. For the money I think this is the better bottle (FonsecaG 01 $44cdn 375ml).

Roy, great tn, thanks for the recommendation!

It was my pleasure and glad you liked it. Now I just hope that you get feedback from the other gents as well.

Nice tasting note. Not quite sure, are you saying this is a bit light on tannic structure?

I've been keeping my eyes open for this around here, but have yet to see it locally, or anywhere on Wine Searcher. But if they have it at the LCBO, I can get my buddies in London to grab some for me

Cheers,
Alan

Alan,

The Niepoort importer, Martine's is in your backyard in CA. That would be my suggestion. Call them and ask where they have this at retail.

Roy, good idea, thanks!

Alan, thanks for the comments. I found the tannins showed most on the finish. This is not to say they weren't there nor is this a comment on the structure of the wine, just my observation. I've had a few VPs recently which puckered my mouth/cheeks, big tannins, this VP in my opinion is excellent and very drinkable now.

note: my "wine friends" would say I have a high Tannin tolerance, I like the big bruiser wines, so drinkable for me might be 5 yrs for some others.

I'm no pro so I don't comment on structure on longevity as it don't have the experience to do so!! But I'm working on this!

I hope you're able to find a bottle, pls post your tn if you do.

Cheers, MW

Thanks for the TN mwaters. I haven't tasted this yet, so wouldn't know how it compares to the Guimaraens. I have tasted the '99 and '00 though and like the secundum style very much.

I have also not tasted the 01 Secundum - but the Guimaraens IS my favourite of the vintage (of the Ports I've tasted so far). Pricing on the Secundum is better than on the SEcundum, though...