ThePortForum.com

Glenn

In my humble opinion, I think this particular bottle of Vargellas is probably absolutely at its peak. It has a wonderful mIx of fruit and maturity. It will still be very good in 15 years time, but I would be very tempted to open this bottle first in 2014.

Decanted from a bottle with a very hard, but seemingly sound cork. At D+1 this was a deep, rich red with a slight hint of bricking on the rim. A lively nose, full of Christmas Pine and violets. Surprisingly sweet entry, with a huge range of secondary flavours. Very big and flavoursome; still noticea...

I would suggest that twenty years on, the novelty is wearing off.. There are only so many uses for those boxes around the house, and I really havn't a clue what to do with all those pottery bin tags.. - how many consumers use bins with tags now..? - hardly any.. The little booklet is fun to read th...

In accordance with Rule 56b I am under no obligation to explain my decision and AHB has no right of appeal. See what I mean? Rule 56b was deleted months ago because of its frequent and blatant abuse by egotistical referees. What happens? The ref ignores the fact that it's been deleted since he want...

Jacob

Your fingers were faster than the keyboard when typing Quinta in the title...

Note to self - minimum of a six hour decant required.

Ex-cellars. This was the first Malvedos vintage made in the new robotic lagares. Deep red, red rim, opaque centre. Young and aggressive nose; youthful and aggressive on the palate with gripping tannins and jammy fruit. The fruit on the palaye is very impressive and keeps growing. The immediate after...

I would be a little disappointed with this result. In my mind, a crusted port should be better than an unfiltered LBV and certainly much better than a ruby. You are drinking a blend (and therefore the extra complexity brought by a blend) of years and lotes which just failed to make the vintage blend...

From ½ bottle. Pale colour, burnt sienna in tone and with a pale orange rim. Burnt raisins on the nose, stewed and a little unattractive. Sweet stewed and spoiled - probably heat damaged. Pleasant aftertaste, sweet and bitter at the same time. The other half bottle (which was the one tasted by Jacob...

Ex-cellars. Slightly lighter in colour than the 1982 shown alongside. Centre just transparent. A promising nose of dusty raspberries. Sweet and smooth entry; delicious sweet cherry and and raspberry fruit all over the palate. Soft and gentle tannins support a ripe acidity. Wonderful development in t...

Solid red colour, centre just opaque. Slightly woody on the nose, some harshness and holloness. Pleasant texture; smooth and with gentle tannins on the edge of the tongue and teeth. Plenty of fruit on the palate - which just keeps growing in volume. The aftertaste takes a long time to come through b...

Ex-cellars. Deep red, solid centre which is just opaque. A spicy nose, very young and immature. Initially hollow, with some tannins in the wine but these are soft and almost hidden. Rich, dark cherry juice and black chocolate. Full and rich aftertaste, dominated by the dark chocolate and black cherr...

From ½ bottle. Generous red colour, lighter than the 1990 shown alongside and with a clear centre. Some harshness on the nose, but also some floral overtones; not particularly attractive. Nice texture, slightly stewed fruit, subdued tannins and an attractive pepperiness. Dry aftertaste, cheek fillin...

From ½ bottle. Warm red colour, deep rose coloured and transparent centre. Cigar ash on the nose over a core of stewed fruit. Sweet and smooth entry before the tannins grap hold over the stewed red fruit. Long aftertaste, dominated by fruit with a faint hint of coffee. A decent wine, but of a standa...

Ex-cellars. Opaque, deep red and an impenetrable centre. Hot and spicy on the nose, youthfully exuberant and still showing blackcurrants. Soft texture in the mouth, fruit forward; sweet and ripe but with good tannic grip. Delicious on the palate. Good fruity aftertaste, with sweet blackcurrants domi...

I know that some people are attracted to presentation packagings, but is it really necessary for wines like Vesuvio to be entirely packed in those fancy (and doubtless very expensive) boxes? Yes, it is absolutely essential that Vesuvio should be packed in the fancy and expensive boxes. (a) they are...

Axel,

Apologies for any inconvenience caused, but I'm not going to be able to make this offline on May 14th. I'll give my place up to someone else who is able to attend.

jdaw1 wrote:Alas I was unable to take a tasting note of this port.

It was no hardship to miss out on this unfortunately TCA contaminated bottle

Very impressive and still years from it's peak. 94/199. Cool scoring system. A moderately irritating feature of the iPhone's otherwise excellent spell check on entry capabilities is that it insists on adding an apostrophe between it and s regardless of the context. I can only apologise for having m...

Thanks for the explanation. Now I realise that only those wines allocated an abbreviation are vintage ports. The penny has dropped.

JGH added to the list

Light red in colour, with a very slight hint of green on the rim. Mandarin peel all over the nose, redolent of a middle-aged Sauterne. Sweet and mouthcoating flavours on entry. Initally Sauterne-like but with so many layers of flavour developing on the tongue - very sweet oranges everywhere. A long ...

Golden colour, a rich brown with an orange rim. Barley sugar nose, straw and a hint of pear drops. Surprisingly dry in the mouth, very tertiary and evolved, with little fruit but lots of nut flavours and that lovely bitter-sweet barley sugar. Quite a delicious tawny and very drinkable. The aftertast...

Bottled 1973. Fusty nose, perhaps some bottle stink, underneath which was some atractive molasses and some unattractive black treacle. Smooth entry, sweet and pleasant but then some bitter tones come through that spoil the mouthfeel, but these resolve themselves to yield a balanced and pleasant mout...

Bottled 1972. Slightly cloudy chestnut colour. Musty nose of rubber bands kept in a drawer for too long. A sweet entry that is followed by the odd rubber-band tone that is quite unpleasant although others enjoyed this wine far more than I did. The aftertaste is reasonably pleasant but drops off very...