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Served blind. Deep red colour, clear centre, pale orange on the rim. A lovely nose of oranges and tobacco. Sweet entry, with the oranges - blood oranges - dominating the initial flavours. Lots of acidity giving the fruit plenty of support. The texture thickens in the mouth - great development, thick and flavourful. Excellent wine. Enormous aftertaste. Cedar wood, cranberries and with a lovely sweetness lasting all the way through the long length. Improved in the glass for the short time it remained in there! A superb wine and with plenty of life still to come; my port of the night. 6/7. The distinct oranges on the nose led me to guess that this was the Croft 1970.

Drunk 10 April 2008 after 1½ hours of decanting.

Not a first rank house; 53 years old. Yet AHB’s second score higher than his first. Wow!

Presumably a small sample of this was poured into a suitably sized bottle and taken back to Berkshire for further examination?

I was astonished when I found out that this was a 1955 VP. There was still so much fruit and tannin in the wine that I do believe that it will be better in 10 years than it is today.

Sadly, none was decanted into a small bottle for further examination due to the fact that by the end of the evening, all contents of the original bottle had been decanted into the five attendees glasses!