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This is bottle number 22,068 out of a total production of 24,200 bottles. The bottle was in a bad way when selected for death row. Port was seeping past the cork, which had been pushed perhaps half a centimetre out of the top of the bottle. Storage conditions looked - to say the least - a little dubious.

This tasting note was taken an hour after decanting.

Deep red centre, darker then the Morgan '91 sitting next to the Vesuvio. A musty nose, full of dust from old library books and freshly sliced mushrooms. Not unpleasant, but not a typical Vesuvio nose. The mustiness comes through initially the palate, but fades a little to be replaced by dry tannins and sweet bramble fruit. Somehow, the mustiness never quite leaves and does spoil the wine. The aftertaste is pleasant and less musty than might be expected and lasts a very long time.

I shall come back to this later before scoring. Perhaps the mustiness will blow off.

3 hours after decanting the mustiness has blown off, to leave a delicate violets scent. Still a little mustiness on the flavours in the mouth, but the aftertaste is lovely. Interestingly, the wine has also become much thicker and more full-bodied.

More tomorrow night.

By Sunday night, the musty smell and taste has completely disappeared and this has turned into a very enjoyable and tasty port. The nose has opened to a soft violets, the wine is sweet and tastes of black cherries but has a great overtone of herbal notes - sage perhaps? Quite delicious. The aftertaste is long, gentle and is typical Vesuvio cherry chocolate. Quite scrumptious. In the 2nd quartile and probably not much potential to improve from there. 6/6 or 90/100.