1988 Taylor Vargellas

Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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Tasting notes for individual Ports, with an index sorted by vintage and alphabetically.
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SushiNorth
Martinez 1985
Posts: 1341
Joined: 07:45 Mon 18 Feb 2008
Location: NJ & NY

1988 Taylor Fladgate Quinta de Vargellas

Post by SushiNorth »

This is from the half bottles i picked up a while ago and was concerned about shipping temperature. This bottle was also used for the Metal Coffee Filter Decanting Experiment

+0 Heavy wood smoke, lots of heat, cherries and a hint of pepper. Beyond that, not very earth-shattering of a port. Plenty of sediment thrown.

+10 mins Wood Smoke has disappeared.

+40 mins A grapefruit flavor has emerged

+1:30 hrs The fruit has faded, replaced by a hint of chocolate
+1:50 hrs Blackberries and butterscotch added to the chocolate

I'd like to leave this one longer, so at this point the half of a half bottle left is being returned to its (cleaned) bottle, i'm closing it up (air and all), and headed to a mtg.

+8 hrs about the same as before, more of the blackberries with a caramel flavor. Some evergreen and mint arrived late.

Overall: 6/10 VP. I wasn't wow'd by this port. It was good, but I expect big things from a bottle of VP. If this were a special reserve it would have been great but it was just a little above mediocre for VP.
Last edited by SushiNorth on 06:01 Sat 12 Apr 2008, edited 4 times in total.
User avatar
SushiNorth
Martinez 1985
Posts: 1341
Joined: 07:45 Mon 18 Feb 2008
Location: NJ & NY

Post by SushiNorth »

Da bottle:
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Da label:
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Note the bubbling under the enclosure, this is from the cork being pushed out a little by cold temperatures during shipping. The wine was not cooked.
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Here's the cork from an angle, you can see it slightly out of the bottle and deformed at the top (pressure against the plastic enclosure)
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Guaranteed!
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Filled to that blue line i put on the white guarantia paper glue (low neck)
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Deep dark color on the cork
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Vintage Port (cork):
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QTA. Vargellas 1988 (cork):
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Color (metal filter):
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