For The Love Of Port

Tasted blind at Roy's house, June 22-25, 2009. Preliminary report here.

Bottle #1: 2007 Smith Woodhouse Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #2: 2007 Sandeman Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #3: 2007 Niepoort Pisca Vintage Port (Cask Sample)
Bottle #4: 2007 Gould Campbell Vintage Port (Cask Sample)

2007 Niepoort Pisca Vintage Port (Cask Sample)

Day 1
Color: inky (are you detecting a pattern?) purple. 3/16" fade at the rim.
Nose: Rose's lime juice, some fragrant alcohol, mulberry/black raspberry, and a very faint sour note. Very nice.
Palate: medium+ body, good grip, fresh purple berries, and a bit of heat.
Finish: purple fruit, some tannins, and then a mixed fruit compote-like note. There's heat throughout and some grape stem at the end.

Initial rating: 89-92.

Day 2
Color: no change
Nose: an odd bird tonight - alcohol, faint green pepper, smoke, something floral (or possibly fragrant alcohol again), and mellow red raspberries. I double-checked the nose later and pulled the same green pepper and smoke, so it wasn't just a passing fancy.
Palate: mellow sweetness, black pepper, the high end of pleasant heat, good grip, and a slight bite.
Finish: tangy fruit, some heat, and some grape skin. Overall pretty mellow and pleasant.

New rating: 89-92. I struggled long and hard with this rating because the Port showed so differently on Day 2. But I eventually decided that it was neither better nor worse, and so deserved the same score.

Note: after doing the ratings and while finishing off the glasses, I noted a distinct note of Chimay beer if I tasted #2 and then immediately tasted #3. There was something about the switch from 2 to 3 that created it, because no other pairing produced the effect.

Day 3
I didn't taste on Day 3, but thought I should include it here for continuity.

Day 4 - my initial report referred to this as Day 3
Color: no change
Nose: fragrant alcohol, some faint dust, mellow purple fruits and bright red fruits.
Palate: grapey, purple and/or black fruits, some tartness, and a slight bite. The tannins grip lightly and are slightly grainy in texture.
Finish: a sour/tart note that was pushing the limit toward seeming bad, good tannic grip, a little bit of grape stem, and then that slight bite returns.

Final comments: the most consistent of the four for me, my score never changed. The Port, on the other hand, changed a lot. I just always felt like it was at about the same overall level score-wise. Final score: 89-92.

Reveal: 2007 Niepoort Pisca. This is a new Port from Niepoort and is either a single-quinta or single-vineyard type of offering (Roy couldn't remember which off the top of his head). I don't remember exactly, but I think Roy's score was higher than mine and pushing the edge of "normal" deviation. Probably another case of the tannins giving me fits, because even though this one wasn't nearly as bad as the Sandeman it was the 2nd most tannic of the group.

Agreed, the performance was the most linear over the four days and 7-8 evaluation tastings. I did like it a bit more than Glenn, but am not off-put by ripe big tannins. He shoulda been here for the 2003s if he thinks this is painful. After the first round of 3, he'd have said, "no thanks" to any further invites.

It is a learning experience and I enjoy watching his palate gain more accuity as we progress.

Roy Hersh wrote:It is a learning experience and I enjoy watching his palate gain more accuity as we progress.

Beware the day the apprentice becomes the master. Buah ha ha ha! :twisted:

Eric,

I know you were joshing, but I do have two other protoges that have come a long way, one since 2002 = Nicos Neocleous who is now a full fledged Jedi Master, and also Andy Velebil who began here with nary a TN ever written. He was added to the FTLOP staff in 2007 after his 2nd tour to Portugal where his enthusiasm and lust for Port knowledge and ability to wade through 234 Ports and Douro wines in a week on the 2006 tour, provided a significant growth for his palate. Now he's over there this week for the 5th time.

I encourage others and do my best to educate. The exponential growth of others like Alex B., Derek, Chris G., Todd, Stewart and a bunch more can be attributed to their early daze spent here on That said, there are not many others that I know that log over 500 Port tasting notes per year (not to mention Madeira/Douro that will be in the new db and all other wine regions that appear elsewhere on the web).

As you mentioned to Steve if I am not mistaken; some start with a visit to Porto and then wind up here and the rest is quickly down a slippery slope of indulging one's Port thirst and lust for more bottles.

That said, when Glenn got here, he had next to no experience with Vintage Ports and not much more with older ones. Now look at him. He's tried more 2007 cask samples than 99% of people in the trade. And the 2009 Gala gave him and others with scant experience with older VPs, a handful of horizontals (and verticals) all in one weekend. It is a beautiful Port world out there and I am glad to be (as someone here on the Forum called me) "the pusher"

Someday, Andy or someone else here will take me and put me out to pasture and and take over the keys. It is human nature! :hello:

Eric Menchen wrote:

Roy Hersh wrote:It is a learning experience and I enjoy watching his palate gain more accuity as we progress.

Beware the day the apprentice becomes the master. Buah ha ha ha! :twisted:

Oh that's a LONG ways away!

Roy is an excellent Jedi Master, though. It's enough to make me think he was an educator in the past, and not the restauranteur he claims to have been.

I'm closing in on the 5 year anniversary of my first bottle of Port. For the first 2 years I drank Port only occasionally and it was pretty much always a 20-yr old (which is what that first bottle was that I was given for my birthday in 2004). Then I started exploring a little bit after attending a tasting at a local wine store, but it really wasn't until very early in 2008 that I started buying and cellaring Port. That's when I joined FTLOP. Then there was the 2009 Port Gala, which was when I realized that Vintage Port can actually be as good as Colheita... and look at me now! 200+ bottles later I'm just now starting to feel like I have a basic idea of what's available, and I've only just now started trying to give 100-point scale ratings to the Ports I try.

These 2007 cask samples that Roy has been sharing with me have been real eye-openers. I had a vague idea of what they might be like because I do enjoy young vintage Port, but they change a lot more than I expected over 3-4 days. I really wrestle with my scores because I'm so new at this, but also because I take the ratings very seriously. I don't want someone to see one of my ratings and get the wrong impression... so I do my best to be as accurate as I can. I'm probably too conservative, especially on the Ports that I just don't quite undrstand like this flight's 2007 Sandeman. It's tough work, but someone's gotta do it!