2003 Osborne LBV Port

[Lamont Huxley]

Traditional (unfiltered), bottled 2008.

I decided not to decant this time and the bottle has been opened for a little over 24 hours at this point.

Medium purple color with burgundy highlights. The nose gives a very primary and straightforward concord grape smell. Interestingly, when I was first drinking this last night after about an hour of being poured the nose seemed to have more to it - a tangy boysenberry aspect and some subtle chocolate behind the grapiness. Today all I get is grape jelly. Could it have lost a step so quickly? It's not unpleasant, just very simple. The palate basically follows in kind with primary dark fruit up front, fairly sweet, and a little peppery heat kicking in on the midpalate. There's enough acidity to keep it balanced, mild tannins, and the finish is on the short side but not clipped. A tasty LBV but reminds me a bit more of a basic ruby in style. Perhaps a few more years in bottle will add a little interest? 85 pts, Tasted 2/11

Edit: On night 3 this has kicked back up a notch. There's a little more depth and weight to the palate and I detect just a hint of that chocolate on the nose that was there on the first night. Not drastically different, but I feel like I short-changed it a bit so I'll bump my score up to an 86. Solid LBV.