NV Quinta do Vale Dona Maria Reserva

[RonnieRoots]

Tasted February 2004:

Now this is weird: this port smells of fennel. You can call me conservative, but that's not something I like my port to smell of. This fennel smell is so overpowering that I can't smell anything else than that. The flavour is perhaps even more weird: it tastes like winegums and green lemonade. You guessed right, that's not something I like my port to taste of! The finish is short and bitter. The next day the smell of fennel is gone, there is now a penetrant smell of putty. Yuck. I really hope (and actually think) that this is an off bottle. I tasted some of the Vintage Ports and dry reds of this house, and according to that standard this should have been a much better port.