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1997 Sandeman Vau: blacker than the 1997 Martinez Quinta da Eira Velha and the 1997 Offley Boa Vista, with a very slight cloudiness. The nose very Ribena. Very Ribena indeed. Plenty of acid and tannin, very soft, still too young, slightly unbalanced.

The back label wrote:Rich in the fruit and fire that typifies a great Vintage Port our 1997 Vau Vintage has full, lush qualities balanced by a good structure of tannins which make it appealing to drink young. It will also age well over the next decade.

Whatever has been done to make this “drink young† has failed. It is a drink-at-twenty-years slightly unbalanced thing.

jdaw1 wrote: Whatever has been done to make this “drink young† has failed. It is a drink-at-twenty-years slightly unbalanced thing.

A similar conclusion was reached here.

I would be intersted to know what you paid for this? I recall buying a number of six packs for £56 each about 4 years ago, all of them are now gone as it was my first ever bulk purchase of port and was used in much the same way that Morgan 91 is today.

$100 for a magnum (when trying a different style of port one requires a generous sample size).

jdaw1 wrote:$100 for a magnum (when trying a different style of port one requires a generous sample size).

Whilst I cannot fault the logic, that is a staggering price compared with the £9.33 ($18ish) I paid for each of my ex-75cl bottles. Perhaps I just got lucky.

Bought somewhat on a whim. But your price is also staggering, but in a better way.

Forgot to say: AJRH described this as “Ribena and cold tea†.

DRT wrote:I recall buying a number of six packs for £56 each about 4 years ago

It seems that when I committed this to memory back in 2004 I had used the method of port valuation arithmetic that I apply when Jo asks "how much did all that lot cost you (us) then?"

Based on more accurate data gleaned from the invoice from Fine and Rare Wines, I can now tell you that the actual cost was £79.90 - 43% more than £56 - so not quite as staggering as I first suggested.

I bought half a case from Tom Chadwick's outfit when they had a clearance sale at the beginning of the year. Including delivery, they cost £13.06 each.

Noted that they are far from ready - mine will be allowed to rest peacefully for another decade..!


Tom

You paid about the same price as me Tom. I can only assume that these haven't sold as well as hoped and they only seem to surface in the UK in sales.

I will glady join you in reviewing how they have developed in 2018

[offtopic]
I’d didn’t realise that the Vau had such an attractive bottle design. (Though it’s a bit of a shame that they went for the cheap option of missing out the year from the screen print as that would allow them to loose the label on the front.) As the obviously have the technology, they could do quite interesting things on their other bottles using the Don logo.
[/offtopic]

Looking forward to taste my bottels of Sandeman Vau 97

In Denmark the price is about 20 Eur