For The Love Of Port

A cask sample that was sent to the importer last year who decided to open it with me.... with sushis :)

Now that the meal is completed and I'm back home, I'm focusing on the tasting notes. It was opened 3 hours ago, not decanted.

Opaque dark cherry color in the class with intense violet hue on the rim. The nose is absolutely amazing, displaying intense fragrance of floral notes, ripe cherries, field berries and grapefruit that I did find in a few 2007 already. The palate is medium body, though it has loads of packed chewy tannins surrounded with cherry flavours, plum jam and licorice. Medium lenght finish on filed berry fruits flavours, minty licorice and bitter tannins that do bring the much appreciated dark chocolate flavour. 17/20

I'll revisit tomorrow as it is already greatly improved from the time it was opened.

One of my favorites from the 2007 vintage! I gave it 94-97 back in July.

My notes are similar to yours, especially the floral notes on the nose (which I noted as lilacs), the big grippy tannins, and the tannic note on the finish.

I had this again at Christmas over a couple day stretch. It was every bit as good as when I opened one here at home for Glenn, David and Andy (blind of course) in a flight with 8 other 2007 VPs. This held its own then and at Christmas proved it was no fluke. I am closer to Glenn's score then to Frederick's 17/20, but then again, Sushi will do that to the palate ... even without the wasabi or pickled ginger. I have a feeling that you will see more of the love on day 2, Fred.

I too was impressed by this relative new comer to the game. I was in the 91-93 point range for this overall.

my 17 is more in the range of Andy's rating.

On 2nd day though, tannins got tamed, fruit had more flesh but the length on the palate disapeared, so did the complexity of the aroma on the nose. Was it due to the poor quality of the cork of this cask sample bottle?

I can't answer for that specific bottle you had Frederick, but can only say that the finish of this VP is one of its very prominent and significant strengths.

More approachable than the big names for a 2007 vintage. I did not get mouthpuckering tannins like I did on Noval and Fonseca 2007. Not say I did not enjoy it; quite the opposite as I am not a fan of very young port.