For The Love Of Port

Poured from a freshly opened bottle and tasted at 30,000 feet so may be significantly different at ground level.

Deep rich red colour with an opaque centre and slight bricking at the edge.

Nose quite subdued but work brought out sweet and ripe damsons.

Smooth mouth entry with a backbone of acidity. Subtle flavours of blackberries. Simple mid-palate, not too sweet, no tannic structure. Short length.

Best thing that can be said about this wine is that it wasn't offensive. 84/100.


Alex

It's odd that the biggest letdowns in terms of LBV seem to be the big 3 of Taylor, Grahams and Dows (in that order). I guess Taylor must make their real money there - they make so much of it (all the vintage character styles) - but they do seem to trade on their name (for example, I asked Oddbins what they had in LBV, and they went straight to Taylor totalling ignoring the far superior Noval Unfiltered...).

It looks like the Fonseca 2000 LBV could be better, but as it's Majestic I'm not making up a case just to try it - as they've decided not to go the Traditional/Unfiltered route which is fairly certain to impact the style and quality of the port...

I've just seen that Morrison's supermarket is offering the Taylors 2000 LBV at £6.50 per bottle.

But even at this price, I don't think I will buy any.

Alex

I've come to realise why it took me so long to get into Port - alternating Graham's and Taylor LBV for most of my life.

Was in Morrison's trying to find thyme for the stew I'm making and decided that it would be good with port in it. Rather than use up the duff end of a bottle of Otima picked up one of these at £6.95. Hold on and I'll taste it before it goes in the soup.

Dark, dark, dark. Decent legs. Blackcurrant nose with little else. In the mouth it's blackcurrat again and ... little else. Mind you I've only just opened it so I should give it a little more time. Nothing special but wouldn't throw it down the sink if nothing else was available.

Well, Tesco are discounting the Warre's '99 to £7, Cockburns 2000 to £7, Grahams '99 to £8, and Croft Indulgence at £6, so I picked up some to compare. I left the £10.50 Taylor '99 on the shelf! (I've no doubt this is the one they have no problem shifting )

I'm thinking of opening all 4 this weekend, along with a Grahams '97 and Noval '98 LBV - and doing the lot blind to some guests coming around after a Xmas event.

Will be interesting I hope...

Warre '99? I assume this is the filtered version? I'd be very interested in your TN.
I was close to shocked when I saw the Warre '98 LBV on the shelves of my supermarket last year...why Warre decided to make both a filtered and unfiltered LBV is beyond me. It will only confuse customers, IMO.

Yes it is. But at less than half the price, I shall be factoring that in.

Indeed, I hope it's good for being a house cheapy, having finished 15 bottles of of Unfiltered '94 in the last 18 months... . Although the Noval '98 will take a lot of beating...

Thanks for the hint Nick, picked up a couple of the Warre's today, will taste and proabbly reduce at some point in the near future. Also picked up a couple of halves of Sainsbury's Sauternes 2002, which is Guiraud but about half the price.