For The Love Of Port

A good friends dad has 6 of these 1974's, the only vontage declariation I am aware of for the year of my friends birth. We drank our first of I hope 6 in a row yearly bottles last month....our general drunkenness may have affected our tastebuds, but we did a mini flight as one friend had never had port before starting out with a ruby (yech), then an aussie (wretched), then a ten year tawny (as expected) , a twenty tawny dow (very good - particularly after the first three) and then (after the bottle had been open for about two hrs), we tasted this 1974, all the while fearing it may be on the downhill slope (the worse conditioned bottle of the bunch). His Dad remembers paying around 30 to 40 dollars in around 1980....even with the scary condition of the cork and some leakage, it held up very well. Tasted like the heavens compared to the previous samples! Fairly complex, light berry sweetness, lots of anise...the color change over about 4 to 5 hrs open was interesting, started with a light orangy rim, and by the end of the night, seemed to brown up considerably (is that normal?? I have never had a vintage port quite this old...used to mid 80's early 90's...). Can not wait to open one of the bottles that is in mint condition!

This is not a Port often seen on this side of the Atlantic. The only other Port your friend should look for from his birth year is the 1974 Quinta do Noval Colheita Port.

The bottle condition and then subsequent note, prove that even in a not-so-great year, from a bottle whose condition was "compromised" ... even then, Port can still deliver at a much higher level than can most table wines. I appreciate you sharing your experience and now I am very much looking forward to reading about the next bottle that your friend opens of this Port.

his dad actually bought it in London, and brought them home. Can't agree more, if a Bordeaux, it would ahve been absolutely ruined for sure. Isn't that why Port was invented in the first place? one tough wine!

For many years, what we know of as Port today, started out as what we know as Douro wine ... way back when before fortification was a regular part of Port production. The British were drinking Port that was really table wine which was what they enjoyed as much if not more than the Claret which they used to drink from France. Very interesting when looking at things in that light.

russ, I am glad that you came back to visit us and I hope you will continue to take part in discussions here!

Roy

I will be around more for sure, the cellar is finally built. 800 bottles need to fill it.

Russ Kimmitt wrote:I will be around more for sure, the cellar is finally built. 800 bottles need to fill it.

Sounds great. I may have some questions about the cellar building here in Colorado.

Roy Hersh wrote:This is not a Port often seen on this side of the Atlantic.

I had to click on this thread; never seen or even thought about a 1974 vintage!

Moses Botbol wrote:I had to click on this thread; never seen or even thought about a 1974 vintage!

Perhaps notorious for being one of the years (72, 73, 74) for which it was discovered industrial alcohol was used for fortification instead of aguardente.