Decant: 3 hours - Easy decant out of a bottle that a bright light easily shone through, came off some well settled lumps of sediment. Deep red colour, just transparent in the centre of the glass, vague hint of mahogany on the rim. Nose closed, dusty, with a hint of mint and chocolate underneath a fruit tone that took me ages to identify as sweet cranberries. Beautiful elegance into the mouth, restrained but full-bodied at the same time. Full of spiced fruit and dark cherries. Little obvious acidity but the tannins give a pleasing structure. The mid-palate makes you stop and think about how much is going on. The aftertaste is long and full of Christmas cake and dark chocolate. This is a great bottle of a good wine that is drinking superbly now but I believe might improve a touch with anothe decade of bottle age. Top quartile, but not at the very top, so I have awarded this a score of 8/9.
Interestingly, this was one of those very unusual wines that was superb to drink right from opening. The nose after decanting was of ripe damsons and was much stronger than when the tasting note was taken after three hours in the decanter. The damson theme carried through to the flavours in the mouth, although there you could also feel the tannins from the damson skins! 94 points
TN: 1980 Taylor Vintage Port
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