1970 Royal Oporto Vintage Port -- (Real Companhia Velha)

[Glenn E.]

Decanted at 11:00 am for a late lunch at 1:00 pm. The cork was in pristine condition - so much so that the Selo band over the top of the cork wasn't stained in anyway, nor was it even stuck to the cork. A stamped metal capsule was covered by a stamped hard wax capsule, and both appeared to be in excellent condition.

My cork removal skills failed, unfortunately, as I neglected to insert the (rather short) corkscrew far enough to grab the entire cork. The bottom 1/3 broke off, so I pushed it into the bottle and decanted through a stainless steel mesh filter.

1970 Royal Oporto (Real Companhia Velha) Vintage Port

Color: More tawny than red, and fairly light. It gives the distinct impression of a very old, very mature vintage Port.
Nose: A strong impression of honey is followed by sweet grapes and soft red fruits. Very slightly spirity, but not so much that it interferes. This all changed after 5 hours as the honey and fruits nearly vanished and the nose became spirity.
Palate: Very soft and elegant with a very faint smokey note. There's more "sweet" to it than anything else, but it's not a pure sugary sweetness but rather the remains of a sweet fruit compote. Some caramel in the mid palate. Rather light body weight, and mildly spirity. Some faint tannins are still present, but just barely hanging on. Only light acidity as well, so this probably doesn't have many more years left.
Finish: Warm but short, with only faint fruits and light tannins. Very late impression of green apples.

Score: 82 points. Drink now, as it is fully mature and quite probably fading. A pleasant bottle all around, and I'd much rather have a bottle of this than any Ruby Reserve (and probably even most LBVs). Don't be scared off by the 82 - it's still a good bottle of Port and quite a steal for the $30 I paid. In fact, I went back and purchased the last 2 bottles that Benchmark Wine Group had in stock.

[Moses Botbol]

I had a bottle about a year ago and thought it was decent. Simple, slightly tawny and very easy drinking. Against much fancier 70's like Taylor and Fonseca, the Royal Oporto was the first finished; for whatever that is worth.

The bottle looks really cool, and if the price is right, this is a buy all day long. Not sure what I scored it, but I think it was around 86 points.

[Andy Velebil]

Glenn,

To bad about the bottle. I had a different experience that was more in line with Moses. HERE is my TN on it.

[Glenn E.]

LOL... that's funny, because I thought Moses' bottle sounded like it was pretty much in-line with mine.

Yours sounds very nice! Mine definitely couldn't pass for a blend of a G66 and a W77... it's too tawny for that. But it's really quite nice and I'm very much enjoying drinking it. It wouldn't surprise me if - as with Moses' bottle - it were finished before a T70 and/or F70 simply because it could be more approachable. Like I said, my bottle is fully mature right now so it's nice and smooth.

My score might throw people. I'm really trying to widen the range of numbers used and put them back where they belong according to the descriptions of the number ranges. 80-84 is supposed to be a good wine. 85-89 is very good to excellent. This is definitely a good wine, but I don't know that I'd call it very good and I really don't think it's excellent. It is well made and very solid, but relatively simple. Ergo, good but not great. But for $30, I'm very happy with the purchases!

[Moses Botbol]

But for $30, I'm very happy with the purchases!

We bought from the same source then. Easy to drink is worth a point or two just for that reason.

[Glenn E.]

But for $30, I'm very happy with the purchases!

We bought from the same source then. Easy to drink is worth a point or two just for that reason.

Aha! I was wondering where the other bottles went. I bought 4 the first time around which left them with 7, but by the time I went back this weekend they were down to 2 (which I bought).

[Moses Botbol]

But for $30, I'm very happy with the purchases!

We bought from the same source then. Easy to drink is worth a point or two just for that reason.

Aha! I was wondering where the other bottles went. I bought 4 the first time around which left them with 7, but by the time I went back this weekend they were down to 2 (which I bought).

I bought one or two.