ThePortForum.com

TN: Warre 1966

The Deeper Underground 1966 Horizontal, held at the Crusting Pipe, Covent Garden, London WC2E 8RD, on Monday 28 January 2008.

Links:

• Planning and arrangements: pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15;
• Review of the evening as a whole;
• TN: Adam 1966;
• TN: Avery 1966;
• TN: Croft 1966;
• TN: Delaforce 1966;
• TN: Dow 1966;
• TN: Fonseca 1966;
• TN: Graham 1966;
• TN: Morgan 1966;
• TN: Noval 1966;
• TN: Noval Nacional 1966;
• TN: Offley Boa Vista 1966;
• TN: Robertson’s Rebello Valente 1966;
• TN: Taylor 1966;
• TN: Warre 1966;
• TN: Berry Brothers & Rudd 1966;
• Placemats and ‘holding bay’ which was later implemented as PrePour.

Warre 1966: purchased by JDAW from Fine & Rare in Aug 2003 for £48.

Pale centre, light brown rim. A touch of bottle stink on the nose but with a warm peach cobbler underneath. A neutral entry with the stink flavours dominating the mid-palate until enough aeration has driven these out of the port to leave a lovely cooked peaches with vanilla custard. The aftertaste is short but enjoyable. Difficult to rate with the stink so dominant, but the rest of the glass went into a miniature bottle for further assessment at home tomorrow. 4/4 or 89/100. Decanted for 4½ hours and drunk on 28/1/08.

It will be interesting to hear AHB's report on the saved sample. This definately tasted better than it smelled, which wasn't difficult

I rated this 14th out of 14. AHB had it at 9th.

My TN says "Bad smell - bad bottle?"

A big thanks to Jdaw for this contribution to the line-up.

Last bad bottle?I've had this a few times over recent years and it should be up with the Grahams and Dows.

After I had taken a sip of the Warre '66 from my glass at the Deeper Underground offline, I poured the rest into a miniature bottle and took it home with me to revisit once the bottle stink had blown off.

For a variety of reasons, I did not get the chance to taste this again until Thursday night - 3 days after it was originally poured. Luckily, it had been kept in a fridge during the wait.

The port had certainly improved. All the bottle stink had blown off and was now revealing a lovely warm smell like venison stew and juniper berries - really rich, warm and meaty. The wine was soft to the taste, with nice balance between fruit, sweetness, acidity and just a hint of tannins and the aftertaste filled the mouth with sweet raspberry jam although this did drop off a bit too quickly. On this showing, I would have confirmed the rating I gave it on Monday at 89/100. Very pleasant, very enjoyable but not in the class of the leaders of the '66 pack.