1967 Taylor Fladgate Quinta de Vargellas Vintage Port

[Glenn E.]

From the 2012 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament tasting in NYC.

There are two significant versions of the 1967 Vargellas. This one is an example of the English (BBR in this case) 1969 bottling. The other version is an Oporto 1970 bottling.

Color: medium and soft red. Not terribly interesting, but pretty enough.

Nose: strong wintergreen almost overpowers the violets, which is saying something because the violets are strong in this one. Some soft cherry is still present though hard to find. There was some discussion that the minty note might be eucalyptus, but I remain firmly in the wintergreen camp.

Palate: strong wintergreen here, too, which pulls the flavor too close to cough syrup. Otherwise nice body and decent acidity. Tannins are not strong enough in my opinion, but they're present. Good acidity. It's difficult to pull out much else due to the mint.

Score: 91 points. Easily the most interesting Port of the night due to the very prominent wintergreen, but that was also part of what dragged the score down. I have had a better example of this Port before, but the one I had was Oporto bottled in 1970. Perhaps that is an important difference?