For The Love Of Port

2003 Quinta de Ventozelo Porto Late Bottled Vintage 375 ml $13.99

89 points: On opening: a slightly green, grassy and red cherry nose, although the grass blew away in just a few minutes and the cherry turned dark. Still, a bit tight on opening. A little lighter in body than expected, good mix of black cherry with some yellow cherry and red raspberry undertones. Good balance, with the tannins mostly showing up at the end of the fairly long very red raspberry finish. Nice.

+ 120 minutes Still v tight but very cherry nose, and the raspberry undertones are a bit more pronounced upfront. The rest remains much the same

+ 300 minutes. Still stable but with a touch of chocolate in the finish. All together, a flavorful but not overly powerful port

Terrance,

Here I thought we'd never see you again. Thanks for coming back and posting this tasting note. I like this producer and wish I could find their Ports more often. I am hoping you saved a few ounces for tomorrow as I'd love to hear how this showed when it had more air time. If possible, please let us know.

Welcome back!

I just had the 1998 Ventozelo LBV yesterday and it was fantastic. It was similar in many aspects to what you describe here (I also got a somewhat grassy/vegetal note) and raspberry/cherry is bang on. My bottle, with the extra age seemed to be much more developed and mature than what you describe.

TN to come