By any standard, your correspondent has a great deal to learn, most especially where port wine is concerned. Notwithstanding his having advanced deep into middle age, he has not yet reached the point in life at which he feels himself ready to counsel younger men that there is nothing that he does not know about such-and-such which cannot be scribbled onto the back of a postage stamp. This is presumably a good thing; there are fates worse than to be regarded as a tiresome bore, though none spring immediately to mind. Alas, it is without doubt that what this reviewer knows about the 1999 port vintage could be got onto the back of a postage stamp. With space to spare.
Ambling to the cellar on 14 March 2020, the thinking was to collect something for the dinner table that was a touch on the younger side and which might complement the lamb - without fear of awakening during the night to follow with the sensation that one's mouth had been sandblasted with roughly-ground abalone shell. Stumbling within the wine cave upon a brace of 1999 Roriz, acquired from God-knows-where, he thought of the Sandeman Vau and Portal of the same year, the tannins of which have integrated sufficiently to his taste. “How much different could the Roriz be?” His second mistake was to afford the 1999 Roriz a mere five-hour decant.
The first clue of impending disaster ought to have been the appearance of the wine in the decanter and, later, in the glass: it was entirely opaque and had all the pigmential complexity of a ruby reserve bottled the week before from a vintner’s bathtub. The nose proved to be a touch weak, your correspondent concluding in retrospect that the wine was exiting a period of closure. At any rate, the notes typical of a younger vintage struck the olfactory nerve, not least, stewed red fruits and a certain earthiness. On the fore- and mid-palates, the said stewed fruits, along with blackberry, grape stems and minerality were all in evidence, ultimately giving way to a degree of heat at the back. The finish was on the long side, although it was so excruciatingly dry – or rather, tannin-infused – that your correspondent instinctively rubbed his tongue against the roof of the mouth in an effort to stimulate the saliva glands.
As the foregoing suggests, this reviewer is deeply averse to prominent tannins and correspondingly capable of advancing only suspect opinions regarding wines characterised by same. That noted, his strong suspicion is that the 1999 Quinta de Roriz shall emerge in time as a most-agreeable vintage port; that is, once the tannins have had the chance to integrate more fully. In the meantime, ‘tis best to let this wine repose for another decade - and recognise, as your correspondent has now done, that the 1999 vintage proffers a wider range of aging potential than would appear to have been acknowledged by certain of those with superior tasting skills.
-88.5 points