For The Love Of Port

The third bottle out of 6 that I purchased in late August/early September from Benchmark Wine Group. At $30/bottle I figured what could possibly go wrong?

1970 Royal Oporto Vintage Port

Color: Approximately the color of a 40 Year Old Tawny Port, but without the intensity. I would judge the intensity to be about half that of a 40-yr old. There seems to be some small amount of red left, but even the highlights are more orange than red. This is very clearly an old, fully mature Port. Significant heavy sediment was decanted off, but a fair amount of fine sediment passed through the fine wire mesh into the decanter. Even with careful pouring, some of that makes it into each glass and settles to the bottom. It isn't gritty in texture, though, so instead of being annoying it just seems to give each glass a little bit of extra character.

Nose: Primarily oak and alcohol, with the alcohol tending toward a vague spiciness not too unlike Christmas spices. There is a light sweetness to the nose also that reminds me of vanilla caramel - specifically one of those Kraft vanilla caramel swirl candies. The only fruit I can pull from the nose is, oddly, bananas. As in Bananas Foster. Lastly there is also a bit of a dusty note, probably derived from the alcohol like the Christmas spices.

Palate: Initially only a rich sweetness with very little fruit flavor. With work I get the impression of red apricots... which I'm not even sure exist. It tastes vaguely like a mellow ripe apricot, but with a distinctly more "red" note to the flavor that I typically associate with raspberries. There's some cinnamon lurking in the late palate too. Overall it is very smooth with a medium body and just adequate acidity. I hesitate to use the word, but "thin" does seem to be an appropriate description. There are plenty of flavors, but none of them are strong and the main impression is light and elegant. Perhaps overly elegant.

Finish: Much like the palate, but followed by a nice warmth. Near the end I get a green leafy/stalky note at the point that I would normally expect grape stem/skin or green apples, so I suspect that those more normal notes have been replaced with bottle age. The finish drops off rather quickly and is out-lasted by the warmth. I wouldn't call it clipped, but it is certainly short compared to just about any other Port that I've had.

Score: 85 points. To me this Port is clearly fully mature and may even be in decline, but this bottle is easily better than the last one. A very pleasant quaff, but probably not strong enough to stand up to any kind of food pairing. Still, a nice QPR at $30/bottle and perfectly good as a nightcap.

Edit: oops, this was my 3rd bottle out of 6. I forgot about one that I shared with a friend without posting a TN.

Thanks for the note. I have three of these and otherwise might have mis-paired the first with a strong dessert.

There might be something out there that it would pair with, but off the top of my head I can't think of what it would be. I think that even a Creme Brulee would be too much, though in that case I'm as worried about it being sweeter than the Port as much as it overpowering the Port.

It would probably pair fine with various nuts - pecans or unflavored almonds, for example - but I just get the feeling that most food would be too strong.

It's great for just drinking, though, so not being able to pair it with food isn't really a problem for me!

This will be the first bottle gone in a group tasting. Very easy drinking. Awesome looking bottle.

p.s. What is a recommended decant time?

Eric Menchen wrote:p.s. What is a recommended decant time?

An hour or so.

Moses Botbol wrote:

Eric Menchen wrote:p.s. What is a recommended decant time?

An hour or so.

Yeah, it really doesn't need much. It's pretty close to pop-n-pour, but an hour will help a bit of alcohol on the nose blow off.

Surprisingly, it's very sturdy for such a mature Port. It doesn't change much (to me) for 2-3 days.

Of course, now that I've said that it doesn't seem to change much for at least 2-3 days, this bottle is changing already (at +2 days).

The palate is building up some backbone and a few faint tannins are now showing. It also now has just a little bit of an edge and the alcohol is giving it a little bit of a bite. Not a lot in either case, but enough that the difference is noticible. The cinnamon in the palate has melded with the Christmas spice on the nose, giving the palate a bit of a new dimension that helps make up for the edge/bite that it has picked up. And lastly the green leafy/stalky note in the finish has turned into a more normal grape stem/green apple type of flavor.

Same score as before... still a very pleasant glass for a nightcap!

Final note as I drink the remainder... at +5 days it is still going strong, which seems really unusual to me for a 1970 let alone one that is this mature.

The palate has solidified on a nice, rich, golden raisin flavor backed up by a slight bite and a bit of tannins. Without the bite it would probably taste syrupy because the raisin note is so sweet, but with the bite it's very nice.

The finish is still quite short, but pleasant while it lasts.

I'm happy to have 3 more bottles, but they should probably be consumed within a year or two.