1958 Warre

[Alex Bridgeman]

Having never seen a Warre 1958 vintage port even mentioned before Tom posted his note earlier this month, I find it quite ironic that I opened an unknown port, believed Warre 1963 to find from the cork that it was actually a Warre 1958, bottled in 1960 (at least as far as I can tell since the cork was mildly weevil damaged).

After 2½ hours in the decanter, this was a pale red colour with a very light centre. On the nose this was a sweet, minted strawberry. Pleasant but showing a little too much spirit. On entry, this is quite dry but with plenty of fruit. The redcurrants develop overtones of licorice root when held in the mouth and opens up very nicely with air to give a balanced and attractive wine, in a delicate and elegant style. Gently complex and very well balanced. The aftertaste is of cranberries (slightly bitter and acidic) but with the licorice root showing very clearly and lasting a decent time. Not a bad wine for a rarely seen vintage, pleasant enough but I'm glad I was born in '63 and not '58. 88/100. Drunk 22/12/08.