It was my last chance to enjoy some fine Ports before my "project" moves into the active mode.

With my buddy Stewart out of town, my FTLOP friend and neighbor Glenn Elliott came by for a four hour focused drink fest of three bottles of Port.  Glenn had generously saved a bottle of Ferreira's Duque de Braganca 20 year old Tawny Port to share with me, as he knows I covet this particular Tawny.

Additionally, I had pulled two bottles and decanted them eight hours prior to his arrival to serve "blind." We spent a lot of time talking about Port, looking over some old photos from my very first visit to Portugal and evaluating the wines in front of us. As I had intentionally pulled the Ferreira 10 year old Tawny to see if Glenn could discern a similar house style with the 20 year old, given the distinct difference in how these showed, I don't think I would have been successful in detecting that they were from the same producer.

The 10 year old lacks the depth, and particularly the sweetness of the fruit of the 20 year old and although the color may have been a give away and the caramel on the nose, I did not see the 10 and 20 as being too similar.

The other bottle I opened was a 1983 Dow VP which was showing beautifully and I made sure that we each had a few pours so that we could assess how this evolved over the course of the 4+ hours we were drinking. I must admit, it had been way too long since I tried 3 Ports at one time, and am very pleased that I was able to do so last night, with enough left for a 2nd round later today or tonight. Thanks Glenn!

I will be taking some Port with me down to my temporary home-away-from-home, where I'll be living for the next three weeks. A few fun 2006 VPs (Vesuvio and Senhora da Ribeira) and a handful of others with more age, which I need to enjoy and evaluate will be joining me. My presence on the FTLOP Forum will diminish for the next six weeks as right after my project finishes off, I head to Portugal, the UK and then NYC. I must get my palate in shape for the onslaught that awaits.