ThePortForum.com

Drunk as part of the Vargellathon - a tasting of Taylor's Quinta de Vargellas port from 1964 to 1996. Held at The Crusting Pipe on Tuesday 24th March 2009.

Bottle kindly supplied by AxelP to toast his birthday - in his absence. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag AxelP.

Many thanks to Axel for providing this, despite his non-attendance. I enjoyed trying it against the 1991; a much more complex wine with a bigger future ahead of it. Universally acclaimed as the "glugging wine of the night"; this is a lovely young Port for immediate drinking, though at current retail prices, glugging through a lot of this might prove to be an expensive undertaking...

Nice soft black fruits on the nose. Tannic, with a thick mouthfeel and a nice long finish with what I now think is a Vargellas trademark bitterness on the end. Way too easy to drink for such a young wine. Extremely approachable now.

Happy Birthday and thanks to Axel

Opaque centre, deep red in colour. Closed on the nose, perhaps a touch of blueberry. Sweet and softly textured in the mouth but the tannisn dominate over the fruit. The tannins continue to dominate all through the palate, even with lots of air, for very long time. Eventually, they do relent to allow the sweet blackcurrants to come forward. Sticky on the lips, the aftertaste is very light. Overall, this is a wine which is hard work but which may reward further cellaring - but one which I am not sure where it will end up. 85/100. Drunk 24 March 2009.

A fairly big wine, and still far from mature. Soft and fruity - should provide good casual quaffing in another decade.

Tom