For The Love Of Port

1986 Smith Woodhouse Colheita
bottled in 2006

Popped & poured, so it hasn't had a chance to air out at all.

Color: Quite dark for a 20-year old Colheita, with a significant amount of red. It almost looks like a 10 Year Old Tawny, but there's just a bit more "tawny" to it than that. It fades through orange and yellow until becoming almost completely clear at the rim. The yellow portion might have just the slightest hint of green to it.

Nose: Fairly potent alcohol, but of the "this is an alcoholic beverage" variety not the "medicinal" variety. There's a bit of cardboard box, too, but not in a bad way (read: not corked). It's sort of like a dry, dusty, very old box from the attic. There's a bit of rose hip hiding behind rather faint apricots, but it takes work to find.

Palate: A little on the rough side to start with an almost astringent nature. It's rather tart, too, but not enough to make you pucker. That tartness has a lemony-citrus tone to it.

Finish: Longer than expected, starting out rather hot with a harsh bitter note, but then slowly mellowing to a pleasant warmth and soft dried apricots and Granny Smith apples.

Right now the late part of the finish is the best part of the experience, so I'm going to withhold judgement until it has had a chance to open up a bit. 3 years in bottle is about where tawnies start to get funky for me, and they don't usually recover from that unil they've been in bottle for 8-10 years. A little air time will probably do this bottle some good.

85 points.

Edit: moved rating into the main TN so that the TNDB will pick it up correctly.

This port is a group favorite in our parts! I hope Part II is a better showing for you.

Moses Botbol wrote:This port is a group favorite in our parts!

I know, that's what prompted me to order it!

I had three glasses of different VPs last night and they all exhibited the same harsh tone, so I'm hoping that it was me and not the Colheita. Some days one's palate is just off and with a little luck that's what was going on with me yesterday.

Well it seems that the harsh tone was me and not the Coheita, as it has mellowed significantly on days 2, 3, and 4.

What surprises me about it now is how red it is. My previous comment about it looking like a 10-yr old is still very true, and in fact it tastes a lot like a 10-yr old to me also. I hope they still have some of this in barrel and that they wait for at least another 10 years (if not 20) before bottling it, because I think it needs another 10 years in wood to really come into its own. For me it is still too ruby to be a great tawny.

It is pleasant enough now, but just not my style. Either that or I've just been spoiled by all the 40-yr olds that I've filled my fridge with out of Roy's FTLOP offers.

85 points.