ThePortForum.com

Smashing night, gents. I thought all the wines showed very well, and while the W70 was the clear POTN to my taste, each one had a distinct and interesting character. I left my notes at home, and will add to the threads in a bit. Off the top of my head: W70 - This is EXACTLY what I want in vintage po...

Excellent work!

Just checked in on my decanter....smells delicious!

Thanks Julian, looks lovely.

A bit floral, soft in the mouth. When first served, I thought this was showing well, but as time went on, the finish continued to fall apart. By the end of the night it was light, alcoholic and harsh. 85 pts

This was fine. A bit lacking in pleasure, but wasn't bad per se, just a bit dissapointing. A bit simple, a bit light, a bit firey, but without the concentration and richness to balance out.

86 pts

Started off ok - if a bit dull. Got much worse as the night went on as this, sadly, was corked. Shame. Now 0/3 for 77 Dow

Flawed (not rated)

Coming in second place -- I thought this showed very well. A bit of heat throughout, and just a tiddy tad off balance / unresolved, but still very good and well made. Classy stuff. 90+ pts

My WOTN. I've learned in my tastings that a complete, round, resolved, and balanced port is fairly rare to my pallate. This had it all, and also showed signs it could continue to develop for 5+ years. Perhaps just a tad lacking in fruit and complexity, but in general I thought this was a very classy...

VA all over the nose. Got a bit better with time, I guess, but this was vegetal and flawed. Never really giving pleasure.

Not Rated (Flawed)

Sounds good. Would it be possible to kick the start time back to 7pm? My boss suffers from separation anxiety.

5th or 6th would work for me.

ac-fast wrote:Finally i got some of the old ones..... Croft 1963 and croft 1970

Croft 70 is a savvy buy. Was really impressed with a bottle we had about a week ago. Such a powerful, balanced vintage.

A '78 horizontal sounds good to me, but I'll likely need to source a bottle.

Seckford's has recently added 6 bottles of the 1992 Niepoort at 30gbp per (DP). I would gladly take one (I've had it before and thought it was great, but my flat...er...my cellar...is bursting). Anyone have an interest in the remaining bottles? They have also added 6 bottles of the 1991 at the same ...

Agreed. I wrote only "Nice, but no beasty. Quevedo and Vesuvio crush this little fella. Money for elsewhere"

Well, I think people use them because it is helpful to have some objective benchmark by which the relative quality of wines can be judged, to communicate preferences more clearly and to help inform buying/drinking decisions. They are not perfect, but they are helpful.

Thanks. I suppose I guess I am just a bit surprised (depressed?) that in your estimation the best Warre is roughly equivalent to the 1995 Vesuvio (both 92s). Again, I really don't mean to get hung up on points, as I believe they are more of a signpost than a destination, but as a general metric, I j...

Wow -- that's an interesting post, Alex. I don't mean to be too fixated on points, but I'm a bit surprised to see how low your highest marks were for the tasting, and particularly the manner in which they contrast the Vesuvio scores. Is this mostly a attributable to a strong stylistic preference, or...

Sadly, yes. When first poured, the redeeming features of the wine (despite the TCA) put up a decent fight (I believe it was even Tom's WOTN), but in time the TCA became increasingly noticeable. A pity, as I am yet to have a good bottle of 77 Dow in three attempts. One day....one day.... The good new...

Well, while I agree with Cookie that it was a great evening, and that the 70 Croft was the best of the night (92pts), I'm afraid I must say I disagree that there were no 'duds.' I think that the 76 Malvedos, the 77 Dow and the 60 Ferreira all had rather meaningful faults. Not that they were not givi...

1983 Offley Emergency offline 17/3 The de facto wine of the night, this was actually a pretty solid effort, to its credit. A bit of chocolate on the nose, with good structure in place and a fairly well-balanced profile. Not something to write home about IMHO, but a great bottle for casual consumpti...

17/3 Emergency offline

Not very good at all, I'm afraid. Some spices and plums on the nose, but this was flat and uninteresting. I have no experience with QH, but given my experience with the 2000 vintage so far, I'm hoping this bottle was flawed. (Flawed)

Consumed on the 17th of March at an emergency offline at TCP. Crazy nose -- starting out almost like small/medium size cactus plants in Arizona, but quickly migrating to cinnamon, clove, and just a drop of butterscotch. Pretty light and astringent on the mid-palate, and the finish was harsh, disjoin...

Consumed on the 17th of March at TCP in an emergency offline.

Cloudy, with a very light, almost watery rim and TONS of loose, fine sediment. Drinkable, and not at all without life, but very clearly defective. (Flawed)

Sorry to hear it, Mark and Ben. We'll hope to catch you guys on the next one.

Thanks, Jacob!

Looking forward to tonight.