For The Love Of Port

4 p.m. It just entered the decanter and will be enjoyed in a few hours with dinner. This will be a first time for me, as I have 5 others that have never been touched.

Initially this has a magenta color with a cranberry edge and is incredibly opaque. The nose is tight with a brambly blackberry note and some creosote, while the palate shows little love but it is really obvious that this youngster needs a few hours and will deliver when the time comes. It is still cellar temperature for now, so I am sure warming up will help too. More later.

I am now taking the last sips of the bottle. It went well with our steak dinner this evening, but I am enjoying this more as a sipper to really get a good read on it. It is 6.5 hours after it was initially decanted.

The color is about the same, dark crimson. It is medium to full-bodied but not a real heavy weight contender. At about two to three hours open, the nose was at its most prominent. It showed more secondary characteristics and the dark berry fruit really stood out with road tar and a nice note of freshly tilled soil. Hours later the nose has shut down a bit although I sense dried flowers and vitamin pill. There are almost no tannins to speak of, although still present and very gentle on the early part of the sip. The fruit tends toward the dark side of the force with black berry and some cherry juice and a hint of mint. The finish is rather short and that takes away some of the pleasure for me. A nice quaff and I will be happy to explore this again and probably not decant the next bottle as long. 88 points