For The Love Of Port

Had a bunch of work colleagues at my place last Friday for a little Port and cheese night. This was a nice rehearsal for February, no furniture was damaged and no one starved or died of thirst



Didn't have time for fancy notes as I was a little busy hosting, but here goes:

Gould Campbell 77 - Medium red, this was slightly disappointing as there was quite a lot of alcool heat on the palate. Wonderful aromas though. 3rd time I've had this, the other 2 were a lot better. Still a great value port though. Decanted 4 hours.

Graham 83 - Very dark red. Incredibly smooth, sweet and silky, fantastic aromas of leather and fruit. This was my favorite of the evening. Drinking super well now and has a long way to go. Are the 83's better than the 85's??. Decanted 4 hours.

Warre 85 - Also very nice and drinking well now. Lighter in color and in depth than the Graham, it is still an excellent value from an underrated house. I liked the 83 I had month ago a bit more. Decanted 5 hours

Niepoort 2000 - Wow. That was the educationnal part of the evening. This is a stunning young port. Almost black, fantastic aromas of leather and crushed dark fruit. My teeth are still blue from drinking it This will outlive me for sure, was a very good deal at 60$ a bottle. Decanted 14 hours

Barros 83 Colheita - A bit of a disappointment (I am a big fan of their 20 tawny). A bit hot and simple, nice smell, but the alcool took away from that. Maybe served too warm.

Warre 76 Colheita - Never had a Warre colheita before, so this was very interesting. Great aroma of tobacco and leather, a little drier than most 30 tawnies I've had, but well integrated and little alcool heat. Fantastic desert with the dark chocolate

Steve

Steve,

Glad to hear no furniture was broken All kidding aside, sounded like a fun evening. It was nice to read about the Warre's Colheita. Don't hear much about colheita's from them and an interesting one to add to the line up.

I agree the Niepoort '00 is a great VP that will last a long long time. I had the Graham's '83 about 1 month ago, from 1/2 bottle. Your experience was a bit better than mine, but I think that was mostly due to a short (2hr) decanting time and a slightly more advanced bottle.

I have recently picked up a couple of '85 Warre's so your notes on it were perfect timing. A question though..do you think it would have been better with a longer decant? Just curious as I have not tried mine yet.

Steve

First of all - I love that picture. What a great evening that must have been. Wonderful choice of wines too.

Interesting what you say on the Warre '85. I believe that this wine is more developed that some (most?) of the '83s and on balance I probably prefer the '83s out of the two years. However, this is not to knock the Warre '85 as I think it is a really enjoyable wine - its just that I would drink these before my Warre '83s.

Thanks for posting the notes.

Alex

Hmmm I can't wait!

Greate notes. I don't know why but 3-4 years ago the Colheita of 77/82/83 from Barros were great ones but today, I tend to agree with you on the 83, they lost that touch that made them so interesting. Too old? Different blender or blends? The best barrles have been used? I don't know but there is definitively something wrong there.

Andy V. wrote:I have recently picked up a couple of '85 Warre's so your notes on it were perfect timing. A question though..do you think it would have been better with a longer decant? Just curious as I have not tried mine yet.

Andy,

There was a bit of the Warre left over at the end of the evening, so I had a glass the following day (around 24 hours after opening, with at least 8 in a decanter). It was still very enjoyable and well integrated, the alcool barely noticeable. My notes (and memory) are not good enough to compare with the previous evening, but I tend to like VPs more on the 2nd day anyway (when there is some left ).

Steve

Andy V. wrote: I have recently picked up a couple of '85 Warre's so your notes on it were perfect timing. A question though..do you think it would have been better with a longer decant? Just curious as I have not tried mine yet.

Andy, I think that 5 hours is probably about right for the Warres 85. As Alex suggested, it's more mature than you might guess.

Jay

Thanks, guess its time to start drinking those.

Great spread and selection.

Steve,

Nicely done and thanks so much for the tasting impressions. I have always enjoyed the 1977 Gould Campbell and feel that more than any other VP in your lineup, it would have significantly shown better had you allowed for considerably longer decanting time. This is still a rather young pup.

Roy Hersh wrote:Steve,

Nicely done and thanks so much for the tasting impressions. I have always enjoyed the 1977 Gould Campbell and feel that more than any other VP in your lineup, it would have significantly shown better had you allowed for considerably longer decanting time. This is still a rather young pup.

Well, I split a ’77 Gould Campbell today and my impressions were the same as the original post. It had a lot of alcohol to nose and taste. It did taste quite young considering it was a ’77. The last glass in the bottle did start to show some promise. I can’t say I am big fan of this vintage….

Andy V. wrote:Steve,

Glad to hear no furniture was broken All kidding aside, sounded like a fun evening.

Obviously, Andy hasn't visited Montreal as of yet...parties easily get out of hand :twisted: .

Is the February event a public or private tasting?

It is a private tasting organized for members of the Forum. If you'd like to join, you are welcome.

Steve,

What cheeses or sides did you have with the ports?

David

DavidG wrote:Steve,

What cheeses or sides did you have with the ports?

David

David,

This was a bit of a free for all evening, so there was no official port-cheese matching. Actually, I think cheese and VP is generally a pretty bad match, most people had wine or beer while we ate the cheese and paté, then we went on to tasting the vintage ports. The only food I enjoy with VP is dark chocolate and fruits (we had raisins and raspberries).

With the 2 colheitas, we had 4 year old gouda and a stilton type blue (both of which were quite a nice match) and also dark chocolate and almonds.

Most of the cheeses on the table were local. Artisanal cheese in Quebec is really good, that's the thing I miss the most whenever I have to go to the US for any length of time...

On the subject of cheese, am I the only weirdo that thinks that (good)beer is overall a much better match than wine??

Steve

davidpg wrote:Is the February event a public or private tasting?

David, if you want to come, send me a PM with your e-mail and I will put you on the list. I will get in touch with everybody in early Jan for details.

Steve

Steve, about cheese I do like old chedar and old parmesan with port. No creamy cheese with wine for me. Though I find the best match with cheese are dry white wine with high acidity so it can clean the sticky fat on your cheeks efficently.

I think we can find it in most of the local store, the Old cheddar Perron imbued with port. Perfect mixt for me.

I also like some goat cheese. Even though it is creamy and can be spread it is not as fat as cow cheese so it does go well with port.

One thing I've learn in Portugal is to put marmalada(quince jelly) on your chease to enhance the taste of it and it is easy to mix with Port too.

Frédérick Blais wrote:Steve, about cheese I do like old chedar and old parmesan with port.

I like parmesan with port as well. Most suggest Stilton, but I am not a fan of Stilton in general and find it too rich to have with port. Parmesan has dry taste that goes with the sweetness of port.