For The Love Of Port

A great old Port:

Porto 1880 .Was it from 1880 ? Just a small strip of the label was left, impossible to recognize anything. No IVD seal. Hand written the year (1880) and the provenance as gift from a monk - to the friend that brought the bottle. Medium cork, came out into pieces. Bright light amber color with very light green tinges. Some sediment still stuck to the side of the bottle. Undoubtely a very old Port. And what a wine ! A great bouquet emerged from te glass. Healthy, vivid, fresh, intense. Truffles, dried fruits, abricots, caramel, brown sugar, cristalized figs, almonds, fumé, roses. An enourmous complexity in perfect balance. Layers and layers of rich and fresh dried fruits, hitns of citric zest, silky, voluptuos and elegant on the palate. A very, very long and pleasant aftertaste. What a wine ! Reminded me something of the ethereal DRC MOntrachet 83, and the power of a Madeira Blandy's Terrantes 1902, but with the Port warmth, elegance and gentleness. Blew away a pristine bottle of Taylor's 70 that was poured before this jewel. 100 points

Guilherme

I love to read about experiences like these. We can all live vicariously through your TN here. When Andy gets around to letting others check this out for a day, he'll have to move this to the Tasting Note Forum. I know a handful of folks who will regularly invest in bottles at auction, with "unknown shipper" designated, hoping to win a bottle such as this. The success rate in doing so is probably no better than 50/50 but what the heck, nothing ventured ...

Maybe because that was a monk's gift it was so good .

The funel that I used to decant it on tuesday night
still is smelling wonderfully, like curry and honey.

Guilherme

Roy Hersh wrote: I know a handful of folks who will regularly invest in bottles at auction, with "unknown shipper" designated, hoping to win a bottle such as this. The success rate in doing so is probably no better than 50/50 but what the heck, nothing ventured ...

Add me to the 'speculators' on unknown shippers. Especially if the vintage is known. Our group has a standing joke that, in blind tastings, the unknown shipper always finishes 2nd (including two separate horizontals of 1927 and one of 1945).

Roy Hersh wrote:I I know a handful of folks who will regularly invest in bottles at auction, with "unknown shipper" designated, hoping to win a bottle such as this. The success rate in doing so is probably no better than 50/50 but what the heck, nothing ventured ...

Well, but if You pay less for the unknown, at the end of the day success may
come close to 100% ! ...

Guilherme

In the scheme of life ... if you can have a 100 point experience like you did Guilherme, who cares who made the darn Port. Made even better if you can save some shekels or Euros.

Ultimately it is the enjoyment of the drink, not the name on the label that matters, but I am preaching FROM the choir, not to it.