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One of my pleasures on this forum is to disagree, however this is one occasion I will be denied this.

Alex, who was kind enough to send me this bottle has been attempting to persuade me of the wisdom of keeping LBV port for a few, or indeed many years. I have nodded and smiled with no real enthusiasm but this bottle is a powerful argument in support of his view.

The colour is dark, no surprises there it is young, packed to the rim with plenty of sludge to be decanted. The nose is muted with a little of the warm rubber bands (alcohol?), some fruit and a bit of mint. The initial fruit is of blackberries with a bit of a hole in the middle of the palate which thankfully fills out on the second evening. A good layer of fat in this too, I would use the word oleaginous, but it is fat rather than oil. There is some tabacco on the nose later. A good length, proper fruit, some development, this is very moreish.

A very acceptable port, one that will come to no harm for another decade, even in the half bottle format. I will give it a slightly niggardly 88 points, although I could easily be swayed into giving it one or two more. With thanks to the wisdom of the sage.

Thanks for the review.
I'm new to the forum and to Port in general. I certainly can't afford to start a collection of pure VP but would certainly look at picking up a few older, unfiltered LBV which can be had for a very reasonable price so it's good to see some honest reviews on this style of Port. Mix that in with a couple of younger VP for future and hopefully I could have the beginnings of something reasonable.

You are very welcome. I think that sometimes it can seem as though you need a country house with a stone cellar and thousands of bottles and a bank balance to match. But this is not so. When I started buying wine as a student nurse I certainly was not buying cases of Taylor '48, but with a little patience and buying when the deals came around I have built a cellar of wine (not just port) which suits me. This port (the Croft) I remember seeing about a cubic metre of in Tesco and I think they were £2 a bottle. Being foolish I did not buy fifty quids worth, but thankfully Alex (AHB) did and was kind enough to send me one to try. Welcome aboard. All questions considered and usually responded to.

I am so pleased that you took the plunge and tried the mature LBV - and even more pleased that you liked it.

My view is that these were sold by Tesco at a ridiculous price in 2009-2011 with Tesco at times discounting these to £2.50 per half bottle - less 25% if you bought 6! It was a steal at the time and when we tasted the port in 2009 we were quickly convinced that it would have the legs to last a decade or two and give consistently good drinking over that period. What's not to like? A number of us on TPF at the time drove around the UK and hoovered up all we could find. I have enough to drink a couple a year for the rest of my life and still pass the odd one or two bottles on to others.

Your post and exchange with Sweeney did make me think we should capture our thoughts on LBV built for the long haul for future reference and so I have started this thread.