For The Love Of Port

Fair warning - this is not only my first post of a tasting note, but it is also my first Vintage Port. So I'm a little inexperienced with this.

The bottle was double sealed with foil, but no wax. The top of the cork was very dirty and crusty with what might have one time been mold, but which was now just a hard & brittle mass. The cork was soaked through and disintegrated as I attempted to extract it. From what I have read here, I was starting to worry.

The color was in between a California Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot - dark, but not an absolutely inky purple. There is still a tint of red to it, though not much. In the decanter it looks purple, but if you hold it up and get some light you can see the red tint.

The aroma of blackberries poured into the room even as I struggled with the disintegrating cork, and was by far the dominant tone once the Port was in the decanter. There is also a faint hint of pipe tobacco hiding in there as well as something warm and spicy that I can't identify. Possibly cinnamon, but without the sweetness that I normally associate with cinnamon.

I overpoured slightly and ended up with some sediment in the decanter. I poured the last couple of ounces out of the bottle into a lowball and let it stand for an hour while I prepared some Soupas for later.

Soupas prepared, I came back to the lowball for a taste. WOW! I hereby swear off standard ruby port. I'll never be able to drink it again.

The blackberries carry over to the tongue, though the tobacco is missing. The warm spicy scent is also there... still unidentifiable but very pleasant. The Warre's is very sweet, but not too sweet. It is close to being grapey, but it's not quite there. I detect no alcohol on the nose or in my mouth, but you can sure feel it on the way down. It's not firely, though, just warm and comforting like a good fireplace on a cold winter day.

I plan to serve the Soupas at halftime of the Super Bowl, and then serve the Port. That will give it about 6 hours in the decanter. I'll follow up with additional notes if I notice any change.

Followup:

We had an afternoon of football, fun, and food. I think the party went very well.

Oddly, I didn't think that the Port went very well with the Soupas. It wasn't bad, but it also didn't complement much at all. Since the stew is a rich, beefy extravaganza of flavor I thought that a bold wine like a Vintage Port would work well.

I was also surprised that this Port didn't go well with a 60% Ghiradelli dark chocolate. The chocolate was too sweet for the wine, and normally I find that dark chocolates go really well with Port. Of course, I'm normally pairing with 20-yr old Tawnies or Colheitas. It did go nicely with a chocolate kahlua bundt cake, though.

I noticed a couple of changes in the Port over the afternoon and right up until now (I have another glass of it by my side!). The most prominent is that the tannins are somehow stronger now than they were in that first glass. I can also now detect a hint of alcohol in both the nose and the taste, but it isn't strong and I probably wouldn't notice it if I wasn't trying so hard to find things to notice. The grapey flavor has backed off a bit, as has the blackberry nose, both becoming more mellow and integrated. The last change is that there is now more of a bite to the wine than there was before.

Most of this seems backwards to me - I would have thought that time in a decanter would soften and hide tannins, help cover up any alcohol smell and taste, and smooth out the bite.

I suspect that it is probably because I had not had anything to eat at all today when I first tasted this port this morning, but over the course of the day I have eaten a variety of food that has all affected my taste. The Soupas in particular is loaded with spices that might clash with wine - it contains a tablespoon of pickling spices which is made up of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, mace, and other aromatic spices.

One last note - the finish on the Port is lingering, warm, and pleasant. It slowly fades away over a very long time. I can still taste it changing after 30 seconds.

Soupas prepared, I came back to the lowball for a taste. WOW! I hereby swear off standard ruby port. I'll never be able to drink it again.

Haha, i know exactly what you mean and how it feels. Revelation.
Thanks for the great TN.

Glenn,

Well you wrote one heck of a good TN for your first, congratulations. I've had the '83 a couple of times now and you pretty much hit the nail on the head. Its a very nice VP that is just starting to drink really well and still has some years ahead of it.

I agree that the food probably wasn't the best match. I'm generally not a soup person though, but to me soup and VP don't pair well. I also don't like chocolate with a VP, but very ocassionally with a slightly younger colheita or 20 year tawny. VP I like to enjoy by itself or, oddly enough, paired with a steak.

I was glad that for your first VP, you got to see how they change and come alive after being decanted for a number of hours and on day 2. Most people pop-and-pour then drink it all in short order. Then they are left wondering why the experience wasn't better.

thanks again for a great TN and hopefully there will be many more.

Another followup:

I had another glass last night and it is still delicious and holding strong. I sealed the bottle on Sunday night with one of those rubber pump stoppers, and opened it again last night to pour a glass for after dinner. (Which turned into 2 glasses. It's not going to last long at this rate!) So the wine spent 10 hours in a decanter, then 24 hours pumped and stoppered.

The bottle itself is very dark - I didn't notice this on Sunday because I didn't need to check the wine level, but it's actually so dark that it is very difficult to figure out how much Port is left!

I cannot detect any changes in the Port since Sunday night, which is a good thing because it's still yummy! I think I still have 2 glasses left, which I will more than likely consume tonight.

Hey, Glenn, thanks for the notes on this port. I happen to have one of these in my cellar, that is likely to be the next candidate for "death row". Sounds like a little decanter time will help this one some, so perhaps I'll decant it tomorrow morning in preparation for drinking tomorrow night in front of the fire.

Welcome aboard, and great first note!

Rich G.

Rich,

My experience with Warres from the 80's is that they need a good long decant to really start showing well. At least 12 hours.

Thanks for the note, Andy. As it turned out, my wife wanted some port last night, so I popped/poured a 1995 Smith Woodhouse LBV. I didn't focus on it enough for notes, but did enjoy it very much. There is more in the decanter for this evening, so the Warre's will have to wait.

R